Rachel Meyer's blog

30-Second Blog “Snapshot:”

• Southwest Spine and Pain Center provides a number of cutting-edge spine and pain care services including diagnostic and advanced imaging, interventional medicine, surgical care and post-surgery rehabilitation.
• The leaders of Utah pain management bring years of experience from world-class training facilities like Harvard and Mayo Clinic.
• At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, the team is dedicated to putting the needs of the patient first and providing the best care possible.
  

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About Southwest Spine and Pain Center

At Southwest Spine and Pain Center in Utah, our pain management doctors understand that chronic pain can make other conditions worse, or can be made worse by other conditions. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD can be related to chronic pain conditions, just as depression can.

There are no true identified causes of SAD, but many experts believe that it is related to hormonal changes in the brain that occur at certain times of the year. It is thought that the lack of daylight in the winter time may also contribute, as the brain makes less serotonin, which is a chemical linked to regulation of mood.

For those who are experiencing chronic back pain, movement may seem like it will cause more pain, and rest should make it better. At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, our pain management specialists will often recommend movement to help relieve chronic back pain, and will advise against immobilizing and rest.

One of the best pieces of advice to try to stick to if you work at a computer is to get up at least twice an hour to move around, stretch, and walk a bit. The average American sits six or more hours per day, and in addition to other chronic health conditions, this can lead to chronic back pain.

As we move into the colder winter months, many chronic pain sufferers with a variety of conditions may find their pain worsening. At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, our pain management specialists encourage chronic pain patients to be aware of the affects weather can have on their condition and to schedule an appointment at any Southwest Spine and Pain Center location for help with management of your chronic pain.

One of the greatest advantages of visiting a pain management specialist at Southwest Spine and Pain Center is their ability to perform onsite minimally invasive procedures that allow you to return home the same day while effectively managing your pain. A vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that is performed for spinal compression fractures and has shown great success in decreasing pain.

 A spinal compression fracture can occur from a trauma, or can be due to osteoporosis, which is a weakening of the bones. Depending on the severity of osteoporosis, every day activities like lifting something can cause a spinal compression fracture – and in the most severe cases, a sneeze could cause a fracture.

Many chronic pain conditions are due to nerve damage, and a nerve block can effectively manage pain associated with nerve issues. At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, nerve blocks are a procedure that is performed in our outpatient surgery center, and patients are able to return home the same day.

Autoimmune disorders can have several accompanying symptoms, chronic pain being one of them. At Southwest Spine and Pain Center, our pain management specialists can help manage pain symptoms that accompany autoimmune disorders and help patients gain mobility and quality of life.

When patients come to see a Southwest Spine and Pain specialist for the first time, we usually schedule an evaluation appointment to go over medical history and a physical evaluation. Prescribing pain medications is a common procedure at our four Utah practices, and ensuring patients are prescribed the proper meds with the proper instructions are always our main goals.

Fans of the Washington Redskins football team are anxiously awaiting news on the breakout superstar quarterback, Robert Griffin III, known to diehards as RG3. Griffin suffered two ACL tears requiring knee surgery and rehabilitation. In the training camps, his coach and others were optimistic that he would return to the field ready to go, but now that the regulation season is getting closer, there is certainly some hesitation.

In the preseason matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers, RG3 sat on the bench again, and the team’s PR gurus were quick to deny any reports that RG3 may sit out the first few regulation games of the season. In fact, rumor mills are churning that we may not see RG3 in a game until October 13, which is week six of the regulation season.

 Jorge Fuentes, a physical therapy PhD graduate from the University of Alberta, recently conducted an experiment that measured pain reduction in patients with chronic low back pain. Fuentes says that how a physiotherapist interacts with a patient greatly affects the results of treatment. Every part of the physician, patient interaction is important: eye contact, body language, and listening skills. At Southwest Spine and Pain Center patients can expect a personal, interactive treatment experience to better serve and improve pain symptoms.