Chronic Pain: Move It to Lose It

Everyone experiences pain now and then—whether from smacking your shin on the coffee table, lifting a heavy object, returning a tennis shot with too much enthusiasm or having surgery. The pain hurts, but it's over in a short while, sometimes with the help of medication.

Not so if you're among the estimated 50 million people in the U.S. who live with chronic, or on-going, pain. Chronic pain arises from a wide range of sources, including accidents, how you stand or sit, conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia, or disease.

Unlike short-lived acute pain, chronic pain persists beyond the normal three months' healing time for most bodily tissue. For some people, that means buying those gargantuan-sized bottles of pain relievers at the warehouse club and risking the side effects of prolonged use in order to get through daily activities.

There's a better way to cope with chronic pain. As odd as it may seem, when it hurts too much to walk, lift objects, turn your head or bend your body, it helps to get off the sofa (or out of bed) and increase your physical activity.

Producing your own medication

How can moving more contribute to less on-going pain?

Physical activity triggers biological defenses against what hurts. "With exercise, your body releases its own kind of endogenous (from within) opioids, or pain-fighting chemicals," says Steven P. Stanos, Jr., DO, medical director of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Chronic Pain Care Center. "There are a number of different pain pathways in your body. The endogenous opioid system helps to suppress the pain response."