One of the most commonly asked questions we get here at Health HQ is “What should I do to help myself when I'm in pain?” In this video Alex Bartkowiak DC, Doctor of Chiropractic, takes us through what we can do to help ourselves while at home during this time.
It's a very important question, which also demonstrates that the person asking is taking responsibility and being actively involved in their recovery, which pays dividends when it comes to long term success!
Identifying the stage
(01:12) What you need to do when you have symptoms largely depends on ONE main factor, and that is; What STAGE the issue is at. For brevity, I'm going to oversimplify this. There are three main phases: the deteriorating phase the painful phase (of which there are two types) the final recovery phase.
Phase one: the Deteriorating phase
(01:36) The Deteriorating phase is where you feel the pain come and go. Symptoms aren't there all the time. It comes and goes and it niggles, but you can live with it. What is happening during this phase is that you are eating through your body's adaptive capacity, its ability to react, adapt and compensate to the demands you put on it through your normal day-to-day routine.
Your body will ALWAYS adapt. It never really runs out of adaptive capacity, but it can get to a point where it has had to adapt so much or for so long that the stress of doing so becomes enough that you begin to get symptoms. These symptoms are your body’s way of talking to you, telling you that what you are doing is demanding and stressful. THIS is where we need to listen and react MORE, because if you ignore someone when they talk to you, then they will start shouting at you instead, and your body will do the same.
Phase two: the painful phase
(02:38) And that "shouting” is what our next section is. The painful phase. Your body has got to the point where it can no longer cope with the stresses and demands and is now shouting at you. It's tired of you forcing it to adapt to that, so now it will force YOU to. This painful phase is your body's way of protecting itself and is where you get the most pain. What kind of pain you experience, and again this is an oversimplification, what kind of pain you experience will depend on, and be a good indicator of whether you are in an acute inflammatory state or a chronic inflammatory state.
Acute vs. Chronic pain
(03:10) Acute tends to be much more stabbing, shooting, sharp pain. It can be okay if you find just the right position, but as soon as you move a certain way, BAM! Chronic tends to be more of a constant, dull, nagging ache. Sometimes just in the background, sometimes very severe. You can also have a fun mix of the two with a constant dull ache with occasional sharp twinges on certain movements. This tends to happen during flare-ups of a longer standing problem.
How to reduce inflammation
(03:56) Whichever it is, you need to do TWO main things! Bring the inflammation that is there DOWN and STOP doing the things that are generating the inflammation in the first place! To bring the inflammation down, the best thing you can do is ice.
Now, I know heat feels great and most people hate ice, but trust me. I've seen this so many times that I can guarantee you that it's the right thing to do. If you want to understand the reasons WHY you should use ice and not heat, and the rules on how to use the ice correctly, I will go into FULL detail on those in my Heat or Ice post, but for now, trust me.
Painkillers can also be very effective in relieving symptoms for several hours, however a lot of people who come to Chiropractors do so because they don't want to rely on painkillers. They want to treat the cause, not just mask symptoms. And rightly so. There is a lot of quality research out there demonstrating the risks of long term use of painkillers, but we do need to keep a sensible and balanced perspective.
The other thing you need to do is STOP DOING THE THINGS THAT ARE MAKING IT BAD IN THE FIRST PLACE!! Now this is easier said than done. Most of the time people don't know what it is they are doing that's causing it. Most of the time it's actually something that is part of your normal day to day (posture being a common culprit) that you've been doing for ages. This is something that is best discussed with your Chiropractor in person, but also check out my post on sitting comfortably.
Phase three: the recovery phase
Once the inflammation levels have been kept suitably low for long enough, then your body will shift from this inflamed, painful, "protection" phase to the the proliferative "healing" phase. This is where your body starts to heal and repair again, pain levels decrease and tend to feel more like a low level, background ache.
(05:33) Unfortunately, healing isn't a given. Healing is like trying to grow a plant from a seed. Just because you stick a seed in a pot of dirt, doesn't mean you're going to get a plant out of it. There are other environmental factors that need to be there for it to grow and it's the same with healing. If you don't have all the pieces, it's not going to work.
The main factors are;
• Keeping inflammation levels down and
• Keeping it mobile enough that it doesn't seize up (but without overworking or irritating it and making it worse again).
More specifics can be found in the Move it or Lose it post. In this phase just remember, you don't need to mollycoddle it, but you do need to be sensitive to it. We all know and understand that symptoms can be physically and mentally exhausting and we we obviously want some way of managing those symptoms in the short term, whilst we tackle the cause. To do this a lot of people use painkillers but also turn to stretching and heat.
These are all typically effective at tackling pain and stiffness as it arises, but unfortunately can exacerbate the processes that drive these symptoms. Which is why, in my opinion and to most peoples chagrin, the better thing to do is to rest and ice.
As for WHY rest and ice, my post on heat and ice will give you a little of the science and also the reasoning behind my recommendations, so that you have all the information you need in order to make the best, most informed decision for you.
Just remember that this advice is very general and in no way replaces the specific guidance that you should get from your Chiropractor.