Kaitlyn Wekerle's blog

Being Overweight Affects Chronic Pain Treatment

There are several studies that outline the affects of body mass index (BMI) and risk of chronic pain. Obesity and chronic pain are two of the most widespread problems in the United States, and together the two could be devastating. If you or someone you love is overweight, you may want to consider losing weight for the sake of your overall health and chronic pain potential.

3 Signs That Your Pain Could be Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness, contracted by the bacterium of a tick bite. Deer ticks are the most notorious carrier of the illness, which feed off the blood of animals and spread it when feeding. People in wooded, grassy areas are at a higher risk of contracting the disease, and should consider these thee signs of Lyme disease.

At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, we do not treat Lyme disease, we provide treatment for the symptoms of Lyme disease. We offer comprehensive and multidisciplinary treatment programs, designed to meet all the needs of our patient’s health. With four locations across Utah, Southwest Spine and Pain Center is the best chronic pain treatment center in the southwest United States.

The Benefit of the Pain Scale

You’ve probably seen it before: the Pain Scale, a decorated scale with smiley faces in stages from discomfort to happiness, denoting the phase at which a person can describe his or her pain. This seemingly lacking tool is actually very important to patients taking charge of their chronic pain.

Chronic Pain Relief With CrossFit

Approximately 60-80% of the adult U.S. population suffers from low back pain and every year about 13 million visit a doctor for chronic back pain. These numbers support that statistic that approximately $86 billion are spent on back and neck pain each year.

Odds are not in your favor that you will go a lifetime without enduring some sort of back pain. Although this might seem daunting, through education and some effort, back pain can be prevented and managed fairly effectively. At the Southwest Spine & Pain Center, we encourage the education necessary in alleviating and limiting chronic pain.

Lower Back Stretches To Relieve Pain

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, 4 out of 5 people will endure back pain in their lives. Back pain becomes chronic when symptoms persist for longer than three months and can usually be relieved through stretching and exercise. If you experience back pain daily, please review the following information as we uncover what to do and not do when doing lower back pain exercises.

The Advantages of Assistive Devices

Here at Southwest Spine and Pain Center, we are familiar with that fact that living with chronic pain is a constant battle and in some circumstances even the best treatment can’t make certain activities easier. Specifically designed assistive devices can aid in your every day life and help avoid pain or discomfort.

When thinking about possibly getting some assistive devices, you must first point out the areas of your lifestyle that are difficult with your condition. When there is close to 100 million Americans that suffer from chronic pain, not only are you not alone, but it is very likely that an assistive device has been created to effectively help you as well.

New Study Predicts Who Will Develop Chronic Pain

Maybe poor posture, uncomfortable seating at your job, or repetitive back movement has exacerbated back pain throughout your life. Maybe you sustained an injury from a car accident or fall. Whatever the situation is, back pain affects 80 percent of the American population and is one of the most common reasons for missed work. New research from Northwestern University reported that brain abnormalities could “predispose people to develop chronic pain.”

TENS Unit For Pain Relief

A TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) unit is widely used in pain management for relieving back and muscle pain. The machine generates electrical impulses that occupy slower pain impulses that travel along the nerves to the spinal cord and brain. The millions of electrical impulses don’t simply stop pain, rather slow down pain signals and trick the brain into focusing on the relieving, high-speed TENS stimulation.

At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, our board certified pain specialists are committed to finding a treatment plan that gives patients their lives back. As the best solution to your chronic pain questions, Southwest Spine and Pain Center provides treatment for acute and chronic conditions in four convenient Utah locations.

Joint Stiffness and Physical Therapy

It is common for patients with arthritis or joint stiffness to avoid activity relating to their pain, but this view actually makes the stiffness become worse. Proper movements and activities help strengthen joints, reduce stiffness, and improve painful symptoms.

Southwest Spine and Pain Center has seen all too often how arthritis can make simple things in life a much more difficult task. The mission behind physical therapy is to get patients to a point where they can take part in these daily activities and live a normal lifestyle. Physical therapy also educates patients in certain exercises that will improve their condition, the right form to carry out normal activities, and even the specifics of what is going on within their joint.