It can be challenging to handle chronic or recurrent pain, but with a “pain plan” you can decrease its impact on your life. Before you talk to a professional, here are some strategies:
Back Pain
Know when back pain could be serious. These “red flags” mean you should see your physician quickly.
- History of cancer
- Recent infection
- Unexplained weight loss
- Recent trauma
- History of steroid medication use or osteoporosis
- Fever
- New feeling of being sick
- Pain worse with rest
- Sudden leg muscle weakness
- New urine incontinence or retention
- Persistent pain
- Serious illness
No red flags? Then treating your symptoms and getting you moving better are the way to go. Although back surgeries almost doubled in the past 10 years, it is rarely needed.
First, MOVE! — the most important thing you can do is to keep moving. Keep active and don’t let your back pain rule your life! Some ideas:
- Stretching exercises (including yoga)
- Osteopathic or chiropractic manipulation
- Physical therapy
- Warm baths or showers or moist heat packs.
About pain medication:
- Start with over-the-counter medications (OTCs) like acetaminophen
- Or try non-steroidal medications such as ibuprofen or naproxen
- Even though these medications are sold over the counter, they still can cause problems.
- Talk to your pharmacist or physician about these medicines and what’s the maximum dose.
If you’re doing exercises or physical therapy and the OTCs are not working, then it’s time to see your physician.
Chronic Joint Pain
Osteoarthritis is the most common cause of disability in the U.S., with back pain a close second. Other conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis and other types of inflammation can also affect your joints.
How to Manage it:
Medications can include ibuprofen or acetaminophen and OTC creams. Capsaicin cream is made from chili peppers and can block pain transmission. Methyl salicylate (arthritis cream such as Icy Hot or Ben Gay) might also be helpful. Try hot or cold packs and physical therapy as well.
Overall:
Your approach should be to “move it or lose it” because you could lose function and range of motion if you don’t keep moving. Just like with back pain, avoid opioid medications as long term use has complications including addiction.
Migraine Headaches
Chronic back pain or joint pain is bad enough, but recurrent severe headaches can really impact your quality of life. Treatment can be quite effective and prevention strategies can reduce the number of migraines. Before you treat your headaches, first make sure your migraine is really a migraine. All severe headaches are not migraines — see a physician who knows headaches!
How to Manage it:
OTCs will work for some people. Check with your pharmacist or physician to make sure these or other OTC medications are safe for you:
- Ibuprofen
- Naproxen
- Exedrin Migraine
- Advil Migraine
If OTCs don’t work for you, see a physician for prescription medications.
Stop Migraines Before They Start:
Migraine prevention starts with identifying possible triggers of the headache.
Many migraine sufferers can decrease their headaches with a regular schedule, getting a good eight hours of sleep, eating regular meals, exercising routinely and managing stress. The best headache is one that never happens!
By Karen Babos, D.O., M.B.A.
Karen Babos is a primary contributor to the Stay Well blog and the Vice President of Clinical Programs and Quality for Walgreens. She is triple-board certified in internal medicine, geriatric medicine and hospice and palliative care.
