HEALTHY LIVING--JACKIE WATERS ON DEALING WITH CHRONIC PAIN

Photo Credit: Brett_Hondow, Pixabay

Jackie Waters returns today with suggestions on how to deal with chronic pain.

Enjoy Life Again and Ease Chronic Pain with Simple Lifestyle Changes

By Jackie Waters

If you suffer from chronic pain, you know how debilitating it can be. Chronic pain causes physical, mental, and emotional difficulties. You often feel frustrated and angry, and at times you may feel hopeless and as though you’ve lost control of your body and life. However, simple lifestyle changes can help ease chronic pain and make leading an enjoyable life a real possibility.

Keeping a Tidy Home

Deep cleaning your home can be physically exhausting and difficult for chronic pain suffers. Hiring someone to tackle the deep cleaning tasks can be helpful. They can drop by once a week, bimonthly, or once a month to help. In between deep cleans, you can follow a few simple tips to keep your home tidy and help you go longer between deep cleans.

Never leave a room without making it better than how you found it. Even just taking an item that doesn’t belong in that room and putting it where it belongs can make a difference. Try to incorporate five-minute cleaning breaks into your day. Wash a few dishes or run a load of laundry in those five minutes. Keeping on top of the dishes is helpful. Put dirty dishes in the dishwasher immediately, and run it as soon as it’s full. Also, unload when it’s done.

Likewise, rather than letting laundry pile up for “laundry day,” wash a load of laundry as soon as you have a full load. Laundry isn’t really a difficult task, but letting it pile up and having to do six loads in a day makes it overwhelming. Wipe the toilet and bathroom sink down at least once a day for another five-minute task that will make a big difference. Keep a bottle of cleaner or a container of cleaning wipes in your bathroom so you can easily do a quick wipedown during a bathroom break.

Be tenacious about getting rid of stuff or not allowing it in the house to begin with to help control the clutter in your home. Having too much “stuff” contributes to a messy house. Once a month, go through your house and fill a bag to donate to charity. Also, don’t let papers pile up; when you check your mail or empty your kids’ backpacks, immediately recycle the unimportant stuff and file the important papers and bills. Try to have several areas that you keep consistently clean and free of clutter. Most people develop clutter on their dining room tables, the kitchen counters, and the bathrooms. Find your clutter areas, and work to keep them clean.

Treating Your Body Well

Exercise can be difficult if you suffer from chronic pain, but you don’t have to perform strenuous exercise to get the benefits of working out. For example, walking and swimming are low impact and have significant health benefits. Yoga is also great exercise, especially for people with chronic pain.

Yoga gently stretches and strengthens muscle and joints, helping to alleviate chronic pain. It builds endurance and balance, and also helps lower stress levels. Stress makes chronic pain worse, regardless of the original cause of the pain, because it makes the body tense and nervous. Some yoga moves can be intense, so stick with positions that fall into your personal range of comfort and ability. “The breathing component of yoga might be just as helpful to ease chronic pain as the movement and stretching,” suggests Health.com.

Diet is equally as important as exercise. Experts say chronic pain sufferers can benefit immensely from a diet change that focuses on consuming mostly vegetables. “Patients who follow strict vegan or Mediterranean diets have seen a complete turnaround in their pain symptoms,” says the Cleveland Clinic. Whether you follow these diets strictly or use them as inspiration to eat healthier, it can make a dramatic difference.

Integrating regular exercise, controlling stress, and eating healthy foods all work together to reduce inflammation and ease chronic pain, while minimizing the need to take medications, which can become addictive. Maintaining a clean home can help control stress and even provides a little exercise. Likewise, yoga and other low-impact exercises can provide a workout while lowering stress. These simple modifications can make life easier and help alleviate chronic pain so you can get back to enjoying life with less pain.

#HEALTHY LIVING--DEALING WITH CHRONIC PAIN

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com 

5 Tips for Minimizing the Effects of Chronic Pain

by Jackie Waters

It seems like there are as many ways to treat chronic pain as there are types of chronic pain. In reality, a combination of pharmacological, dietary, physical, and mindfulness modifications is likely the best solution for most people. Of course, it helps to have some basic tips on where to start.

Get up and get moving

If your body hurts, getting up and making your body work might seem counterproductive. If you’re scared of exercise because you think your chronic pain will be too limiting, it’s important to know that any little bit helps.

“If you’re in pain, you might think that exercise would only make the discomfort worse. However, there’s substantial research showing movement — done safely and carefully, of course — can actually improve the situation. That’s because exercise is a known endorphin trigger, so getting moving sends those feel-good chemicals throughout the body and lowers pain. Exercise also seems to reduce certain substances in the body called cytokines that promote inflammation, according to a 2012 study that examined the effects of physical activity on nerve pain,” says The Huffington Post.

Start slowly. Try swimming or bike riding - both are low-impact exercises that shouldn’t exacerbate chronic joint pain. Take a walk around the block with your dog. Even 20 minutes of exercise can have a positive impact on your overall health.

Try drinking water (and only water)

The benefits of staying hydrated are well documented, so we won’t go into them here, but the benefits of drinking water extend to what you’re not drinking when you drink water. If you replace your sodas, coffee, and wine with water, you’re reducing your intake of sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. All three of those substances can make chronic pain worse.

Know your limits and don’t be afraid to say no

Much of dealing with chronic pain is knowing how to remove yourself from situations where it can be exacerbated. It’s important to listen to your body. If a certain activity or exercise is causing you too much pain, stop and rework it. Don’t push through pain just because you think you can. Know your limits.

Learn how to recognize drug abuse

Many people turn to prescription medication to help them cope with their chronic pain. When advised by a doctor, this can be a safe and effective method for minimizing pain, but with drugs comes the risk of drug abuse and dependency. It’s important that you know the warning signs and are able to recognize any of them in your own behavior. Of course, spotting drug abuse in yourself can be tricky but if you are prepared, you’ll be better equipped to know when to seek help if the time comes.

Some signs include: confusion and lack of coordination, lowered blood pressure, dry mouth, weakness, dizziness, and sleepiness. You may also experience sleep deprivation or “nodding”, slow, slurred speech, or constant flu-like symptoms. DrugRehab.org notes that extreme and sudden changes in mood and personality should also send up red flags.

If you recognize these signs in yourself or if others note them in you, it could be time to seek professional help to wean you off the medications in question.

Accept your pain

This one is a bit more philosophical, but it’s just as important. Denying that you’re in pain and trying to cover it up or convince yourself it isn’t real can be disastrous for those suffering from prolonged pain. If you accept your pain, you can then begin to find what works for you in terms of minimizing it. Without this crucial first step, you’ll never be able to fully focus on what triggers your pain and what works best to reduce it.

#WRITE HEALTHY, STAY HEALTHY

Kay C. Burns is a Registered Nurse who writes suspense mystery. River Stalk is the first book in her Nurse Quinn Cole San Antonio mystery series. Her crime novel, Mommy’s Missing, is based on a true crime that occurred in 1946. Learn more about Kay and her books at her website. 

Write Healthy—Stay Healthy

It’s true. Writing is a sedentary and indoor profession with its own unique health risks.

As writers, how can we stay healthy and continue to rack up our word counts?

According to the National Safety Council, injuries are a leading cause of disability for people of all ages (including writers) and the leading cause of death for Americans ages 1 to 44.

June is National Safety Month sponsored by the National Safety Council. With that in mind, recall the old Benjamin Franklin saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Hope Clark of Funds for Writers talked about this in her feature: “Your brain is your writing,” she says, “and it’s only as keen as you keep it. That means healthy rituals.”

Colleen M. Story of Writing and Wellness.com answered the question; Are you suffering from Spock’s Brain Syndrome? She explains how SBS strikes when we ignore our physical selves to the point of discomfort, pain, injury or illness.

Here are some of the types of injuries or problems writers are susceptible to:

Backache

Problem:  backache

Complications:  back injuries and back strain

Prevention:  Arrange your desk and equipment to fit your body. Good posture is essential. Use good ergonomics. Straighten your back.  Sit up straight. Adjust the chair to your height.  Put all your writing essentials and reference books, etc. where you can easily reach them.

Sitting Too Long

Problem:  sitting at a computer too long

Complications: backache, increased waistline, generalized weakness

Prevention:  Straighten your back. Purchase a good ergonomic chair. Stand up. Take short breaks; a walk inside, outside if possible. Break up your day. Stretch your muscles. Get your blood flowing. Some writers have invested in a standing desk. Even a 5-minute break can help you increase your concentration and reduce stress.

Eye Strain

Problem:  eye strain: Eye muscles become strained focusing on a computer screen for too long.

Complications:  headaches, fatigue

Prevention:  Look up and on something else in the room. Look left to right. Set your alarm. Take a break. Leave the room for a moment or two. Mayo Clinic recommends you follow the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, take your eyes off your computer and look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. Also, consider enlarging the text on your computer to avoid squinting. Reduce the brightness on your computer monitor.

Habitual Snacking

Problem:  habitual snacking or smoking

Complications: increased waistline, respiratory problems

Prevention:  Plan meals. Pack your own healthy “desk” lunch. Yes. I will say it. “Don’t smoke.”

Wrist Strain

Problem:  repetitive strain injury caused by typing for hours and hours

Complications: chronic pain, carpal tunnel syndrome—a common source of hand numbness, tingling and pain. This is more common in women and is caused by pressure or compression on the median nerve in your wrist.

Prevention:  Use a padded keyboard or mouse pad.  Do wrist rolls clockwise and counterclockwise. Keep your wrists straight or only slightly bent. Take breaks and rest your hands. Wear a wrist splint while sleeping to keep your wrists in a neutral position. A word of caution: Talk to your doctor about any pain or swelling in your wrists as this condition can worsen over time.

Working Alone (most of the time)

Problem: Writing is a solitary profession.

Complications:  depression—Writers as a group are among the top 10 professions where people are likely to suffer from depression.

Prevention:  Find a balance between your work and real life. Know your limits. Don’t set unrealistic word count goals. Set working hours and give yourself some down time.

As Joseph Jaynes Rositano said in The Writing Life: Writing and Mental Health, “Finally, those who undergo traumatic experiences that often lead to mental health and substance abuse problems may—consciously or not—turn to writing for its therapeutic value. Research shows that by writing about their emotional experiences, people can improve their mental health and even reduce the symptoms of asthma and arthritis. Novelist and Vietnam veteran John Mulligan credits his writing with his recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As he put it, “writing made me feel like I had a soul.’”

Awareness of these unique “on the job” injuries can help writers prevent them. As a Registered Nurse I have to add how important it is for writers to follow these simple stay healthy guidelines:

*Get enough sleep

*Drink lots of water

*Eat a healthy diet and stay active

*Watch your weight

*Take steps to manage stress

Spread the word about these ways to reduce your risk of injuries.

What is your favorite way to de-stress, keep healthy and injury free while “on the job” writing? 

River Stalk

“Papa promised me the eyes.”

After a freak accident maims a prominent San Antonio doll collector during a popular river parade, the victim whispers, “Papa promised me” over and over to nurse Quinn Cole, who’s assisting with the woman’s rescue.

The words come to baffle and haunt Cole who’s gearing up for the annual Fiesta competition with her brash roller derby sister--this year for the affections of a hot Private Investigator.

As usual, Cole is bent on winning, but in the days that follow, threatening notes, murder, missing dolls and the victim’s eccentric family force Cole to stop making promises she shouldn’t keep and in turn to overcome her deep-seated fear of dolls.

Buy Links

paperback 

ebook