Opioids are a big concern and are killing tens of thousands of people every year. If you are taking opioids, what are your other options? A recent study shows that walking 30 minutes a day for at least 3 days a week had less low back pain than those who didn’t walk. Also, as you increase the time and/or frequency of the walking, the low back pain continued to improve. This is really simple but makes the point of DO SOMETHING. If you get moving things usually start to get better. This is something you can do right away. Find something that is active that you can do and enjoy and get started. It doesn’t have to be big. And just to be clear, this is not saying that everyone should just stop taking their medication and go for a walk. You have to be careful and monitor how you react as you get off the medication. Go to your primary care physician, or whoever is prescribing you this medication, and ask for help to decrease and potentially eliminate the opioids from your routine. A great start though is to get a plan on what you will do to help with the pain as you decrease medication. Therapies like massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, physical therapy, etc are all great options for you to feel better. Like the study explains, get started and get active in some way. Sitting around usually does not make most of these injuries go away. Some injuries do need time, but we keep finding out more and more that getting some activity even right after a lot of surgeries makes for better outcomes and results.
As for chronic issues, it is even more important to try and get off of opioids. There are a lot of potential side effects and less and less benefit from the medication. Studies have also shown that opioids are no more effective than regular ibuprofen or NSAIDs in the long term at reducing pain. So, go out there and find an alternative to help make you feel better. Here at Summit to Shore Chiropractic we are here to help relieve some of that pain as well as give you the tools you need to help yourself continue to get better and keep yourself living the Tahoe lifestyle.
Let us help you and be part of your plan to not being dependent on opioids. We offer same day appointments. Just give us a call.
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Tahoe’s Premiere Sports Chiropractor
