by Dr. Todd Riddle & Dr. Chris Marvin
Pain is a tricky thing.
Sometimes it’s easy to identify why you hurt; you had a fall, played too much basketball, picked up something the wrong way. Aside from that, pain can be a villain that hides in the dark and is hard to find. Here are 10 reasons why you may be hurting that aren’t so obvious.
1. You’re dehydrated– Dehydration affects your “soft” tissues; it can reduce muscle performance, reduce mental cognition, cause stiffness in joints, wreck your sleep and even lower your immunity and cause pain. However, hydration is more than just plain water and involves proper ratios of electrolytes.
2. You eat like $hit– Nutrition is crucial to how our bodies perform. Proper (or poor) nutrition can have a cascading effect on EVERY system in your body and cause pain. This unfortunately is highly individualized, but prioritizing whole foods found on the perimeter of a grocery store seems to work well for most folks.
3. You’re not sleeping well– It’s a well known fact that poor sleep quality can create cognitive impairment similar to being drunk, reduce immunity, impede performance, make you cranky and cause pain by making you even more sensitive.
4. You’re exercising too much– Overdoing it doesn’t allow your body to heal and regenerate. The opposite of regeneration is degeneration and this can cause pain.
5. You’re not exercising enough– If you don’t use it, you lose it. And this can cause pain.
6. You’re not listening– You sought the advice of an expert and they gave you good recommendations about exercise, nutrition, mental health. But you disregarded it and you’re still in pain.
7. You need to talk to someone– In all seriousness now, mental health is an overwhelming and under appreciated cause of pain. We highly recommend seeing a mental health professional for depression, anxiety, fear, self-loathing, past and current mental trauma. We can’t say this loud enough.
8. You’re not consistent– You start to feel better because you DID listen, briefly. Then you stopped. And you still have pain.
9. You have the wrong people on your bus– Your circle, your familia, your people, your crew can be helpful in getting you better, but they can also make your pain much worse from stress, drama and lack of support.
10.You just aren’t ready to get better– Believe it or not, those that want to get better do improve. Those that don’t, don’t. At Coastal Performance Chiropractic, we want you to get better. But you have to want it more than we do. Let us help you want to get better and then actually get better.
