Postural Therapy for Chronic Pain

Working 8-to-5 jobs often means most of us log a great deal of desk work in our week. If you have a job where you sit for long periods of time without much movement, your posture probably isn’t optimal. One of the most beneficial treatment plans to chronic pain involves finding the source of the pain — not just masking your symptoms. Chronic pain could be linked to your poor posture. 

What is Chronic Pain?

It’s normal for us to feel pain every now and again. This is how our body is telling us we have an injury or underlying issue that needs to be taken care of. However, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain is a nagging pain that keeps firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, or even years, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH). This kind of pain can be the result of an injury, infection, or other health condition like arthritis or cancer. The NIH lists the common chronic pain complaints include:

• Headache
• Low back pain
• Cancer pain
• Arthritis pain 
• Neurogenic pain (which is pain caused by damage to the nerves or central nervous system)
• Psychogenic pain (pain not due to previous issue or visible sign or damage)

Further, they explain, a person could have two or more coexisting chronic pain conditions. These can include chronic fatigue, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, interstitial cystitis, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and more. 

Chronic pain can also be brought about through poor posture. Having poor posture can cause your muscles, tissues, discs, and joints in your back to not function properly, thus resulting in your pain.

What is Posture?

Our posture is the way that we carry our bodies when we walk, sit, stand, exercise, and move. Over time, we can develop poor posture habits that can cause back pain. Spine-Health explains common unsupported postural habits can include:

• Slouching or sitting slumped on your office chair or couch
• Lying on your stomach while working on a laptop or reading
• Hunching forward when weeding your garden or washing dishes for a long period of time 
• Using your vacuum cleaner with one hand and long arm movements
• Standing with the weight of your body concentrated on one leg
• Walking in a hunched manner without supporting the head or trunk
• Lifting heavy objects by bending your back

These activities are just some that could cause you to experience back pain. Further, not living an active lifestyle and exercising regularly can cause more stress and pain to develop in your back. 

Postural Therapy for Chronic Pain

If you have chronic neck or back pain due to poor posture, you could benefit from postural therapy here at Texas Spine and Sports Therapy Center. Your body can easily be thrown off balance by your daily activities, from working at your desk, to picking up your child, or even putting away groceries. Postural therapy is a treatment that combines technology with physical therapy to realign your spine. With this, we can help correct your posture. Your treatment will include gentle exercises and stretches that will help put your spine back into its correct position. 

If you have chronic back pain, you could experience the following symptoms:

• Inflammation centered in the lower back, neck, and mid-back. 
• Stiffness along the spine and the muscles surrounding it
• Pops, cracks, and other noises sensations when you move after resting
• Pain that is worse or better after resting
• Pain that is worsened or improved by exercise
• Spasms throughout the back that make it hard to stand, sit, or even sleep at night
• Numbness 

These symptoms could be greatly reduced or even eliminated for some patients with postural therapy.

Your First Visit

When you arrive for your first visit, our team will spend time earning more about you. We will then use this information to determine how severe your back pain problem is and how we can best help you. You will learn what we can do to help you, plus what you can do at home to prevent the problem from getting worse. We have a lot of experience with back pain, but you have to also be on board and ready to work to get the best results. 

Make an Appointment with Texas Spine and Sports Therapy Center

If you’re tired of living with chronic back or neck pain, make an appointment to see Dr. Shaner and our team here at Texas Spine and Sports Therapy Center. Located conveniently in Austin, Texas, we are here to help you understand where your symptoms are coming from and what we can do to help you find relief. Call today at (512)-806-0015 to make an appointment.