The Importance of Self-Care in Preventing Chronic Health Problems
Stress is part of life, but before it gets to be too much, it’s time to take care of yourself. Self-care is not selfish.
We all experience stress, it’s hardwired into our DNA; the fight or flight response is within each of us. But when we’ve been cooped up for too long, or events outside of your control way too heavily on your mind, it can all be too much. Mental stress can have serious negative effects on your physical health. That’s why it’s important to take care of yourself, especially if you take care of others or if you’re the type of empath that others lean on, you need to take a break.
To help others you must first help yourself.
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Study Finds Anti-Inflammatory Meds Are Causing Chronic Pain
A groundbreaking new study suggests that commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids may cause pain to become chronic. Could this lead to a dramatic paradigm shift in how pain is managed and prevented?
For the vast majority of people in acute pain, taking an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory, such as ibuprofen is the usual course of action. Inflammation has, for decades, been seen as a cause of pain and its control, the goal of patients and doctors. A new study suggests, however, that inflammation may actually be necessary to prevent pain from becoming chronic.
Given today’s overwhelming prevalence of chronic pain — pain that persists for more than three months — scientists have lately been turning their focus to studying the process by which acute pain transitions into more lasting and debilitating pain.
Researchers at McGill University recently completed a study in which they observed this process, using several methods. First, they looked at patients with lower back and facial pain.
Upon analysis of their immune cell samples, the scientists were surprised to find that those whose pain resolved showed an intense spike in the activity of inflammatory genes during the acute pain stages, which then rapidly diminished within three months.
