You all must have heard, “Age is just a number” but you are hardly known to the fact that this age number comes with a lot of baggage when it is about dealing with your body and health issues. Certainly, as this number goes up and you start getting older and older, the odds of getting into some happenings that eventually leaves you with a lot of pain for the life ahead escalates as well. You start to develop a complex, unpleasant sensory and emotional experience, which has pain as a symptom, and if it gets carried on for a longer period of time, then it brings you under the roof of chronic pain.
Pain and aging: Two unhealthy companion
Unlike some of the inevitable events like loss of sight or hearing, graying hair, and wrinkled skin, chronic pain should not be part of your normal aging process. It is our own responsibility to take care of our bodies in healthy, fit, and proper working conditions. Our body works like a machine, and with that, there are two conditions that follow. Firstly, if you have worked physically hard all your life vigorously and you are approaching your no more work part of life, then your muscles must be under exhaustion. And secondly, the most common one is when you haven’t paid attention to your health and fitness all your life, then it comes back to haunt you when you start losing strength. Your body, just like a machine, starts getting weak and you go through pain in order as an outcome of losing firmness in your bones. Advanced age brings pain and pain comes with its own damages like the risk of certain health disorders that can cause chronic pain. And a very large number of senior citizens suffer from chronic pain, and you don’t just have to grin and bear it. Conditions that can lead to chronic pain in older adults include MSK (musculoskeletal) disorders, such as arthritis and osteoporosis, peripheral vascular disorders, and neuropathic pain. Chronic pain has been linked to sleep disturbances, depression, reduced social activity, and poor physical functioning as it makes it harder to stay active and get a good night’s sleep and increases the risk of a few cognitive issues.
Conclusion
So the key here is to stay motivated and keep your body mobile in order to avoid any kind of chronic pain which has many possible causes, each type of pain has its own unique quality. Your goal should be to achieve the level of pain management needed to reach the desired functional ability by establishing and implementing a realistic comfort-function plan.
PT. Hannah Foster