7 Ways to Treat and Manage Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) & Chronic Pain

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It’s the holiday season.

That means Christmas lights are shining and the sun is hiding — at least for those who live where winter is a season. 

Reduced sun exposure can lead to a drop in your body’s Vitamin D levels and contribute to a form of clinical depression known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). 

Here are some effective treatment and management Options for SAD:

1. Get Your Chronic Pain Treated

Medical experts think that depression and chronic pain share the same neural pathways and are fundamentally linked.

So, if you suffer from chronic pain, your risk for depression is higher. 

Chronic pain can affect you psychologically by making you lose sleep, reducing your mobility and functioning, and cutting down on your time with loved ones.

Seeing a management specialist (an expert in treating chronic pain) who can prescribe medications and treatments may be the best way to address your chronic pain problem.

2. Try Phototherapy or Light Therapy

Sunlight can potentially affect your mood for the better, and light that mimics sunlight can, too.

With phototherapy or light therapy, all you have to do is wake up and sit next to a device that emits at least 10,000 lux of white light for a half-an-hour to forty-five minutes a day. 

It typically takes a couple of weeks to start working and can be a compliment or alternative to other therapies and antidepressant medication.

3. Try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of “talk therapy” based on the theory that psychological problems are due to wrong ways of thinking and learned behavior patterns. 

Cognitive Behavioral therapists train patients to better handle psychological problems by teaching them how to change their thought patterns. 

4. Take Melatonin Supplements

At the chemical level, SAD happens due to interruption to the body’s production of hormones, including the hormone melatonin.

Melatonin helps regulate your body’s internal clock (or circadian rhythm).

Taking a melatonin supplement may help regulate your sleep pattern during the short winter days. 

5. Take Vitamin D Supplements 

Research suggests there’s a link between Vitamin D deficiency and depression.

The body has one way of producing Vitamin D on its own: The skin must have sun exposure.

The alternative for getting enough Vitamin D is through diet and supplements, and it’s hard for many people to get enough Vitamin D through diet alone.

Taking Vitamin D supplements can help increase Vitamin D in your body and decrease SAD symptoms.

Medical experts have suggested the upper limit for dietary Vitamin D intake is 4,000 IU or 100 mcg for adults.

6. Get Some Winter Exercise

It’s easy to be less active when it’s cold outside – unless you live somewhere with tons of outdoor winter activities like Aspen, Colorado.

Signing up for a local gym or heading outside for good old-fashioned walking, running, or hiking can keep SAD away by helping you feel better and sleep better. You can also do yoga for general anxiety or stress online to improve mental health.

Also, resistance or weight training can increase your testosterone levels, reducing depression and anxiety. 

7. Take Antidepressants 

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), fluoxetine, and bupropion are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants. These medications work to reduce depression by increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

But if you decide to take antidepressants, it’s critical to know the risks:

  • Antidepressants can cause withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking them suddenly or miss several doses.
  • Teenagers and adults under 25 may have increased suicidal thoughts when on antidepressants.

Seasonal Affective Disorder Treatment in Texas

If you have SAD or think you may be experiencing symptoms, please don’t hesitate to call Texas Pain Physicians. We can help you.

Give us a call today at (972) 636-5727 or book an appointment online.

Nerve Pain and Diet: 7 Things That Can Cause It and Make It Worse

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Nerve pain is a symptom of many diseases and illnesses and has multiple causes.

Inflammation makes nerve pain worse. 

In addition to keeping a healthy body weight and remaining active, eating healthy can reduce chronic inflammation and nerve pain (and pain in general). 

Let’s look at seven foods to cut down on or avoid altogether.

1. Fruits and Veggies Grown with Pesticides

For decades government agencies and experts recommended eating lots of fruits and vegetables.

Then the internet happened, and people started learning that organic or natural, non-pesticide-grown foods are healthier and safer.

Eating food grown with pesticides that leach into the soil and skin of fruits and vegetables during the growing process adds toxins to your body, increasing inflammation (among other potentially harmful things). 

How much food with toxic substances should we eat? None, if possible.

2. Refined Sugar

It can be hard to avoid eating and putting in recipes, but eating a lot of sugar can spike your blood sugar levels. 

Elevated blood sugar levels can damage your blood vessels in the long run, which, in turn, can damage your nerves. 

Try to snack on fruit and use natural sweeteners, such as stevia and sugar alcohols.

3. Trans and Saturated Fats

These are the “unhealthy fats” you can find in many meats and dairy. Eating them can increase your risk for type 2 diabetes and worsen nerve pain by increasing inflammation. 

Some healthy fats include avocados, raw sunflower seeds, chia seeds, salmon (organic or natural), and grass-fed meat.

Also, oils like extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil have no saturated fat and provide health benefits.

4. Salty Snacks and Food

Fast food and processed snacks like chips, crackers, salted nuts, jerky, in general, can damage your body in the long run.

So can processed cold cuts and most canned food.

Consuming a lot of salt can block blood flow and cause tingling and numbness in your hands and feet.

Sticking to unprocessed, unsalted, or lower-sodium snacks and natural or organic cold cuts and canned food can keep you out of the danger zone. 

5. Refined and Enriched Grains 

Refined grains include white flour, white rice, and white bread.

‘Refined’ means the nutritional value is removed, leaving your body to digest nothing but empty carbs and refined sugar. 

However, many refined grains are also enriched, a process that adds vitamins removed during refining.

But these grains still lack other essential nutrients like fiber and antioxidants — and they spike your blood sugar. 

Whole grain rice, flour, and bread have fiber and antioxidants and take longer to digest, so you won’t want to eat as much.

6. Alcohol

A drink or two is fine for most people, but too much for too long can damage your nerves. 

A neurotoxin, alcohol can cause nerve damage leading to numbness in the hands and feet when it’s abused.

7. High-Mercury Fish 

Cans and pouches of tuna are convenient, and they’re also toxic if you eat them too often.

Also, some fish on menus and in grocery stores have high mercury levels. 

Try to eat tuna only once in a while, and it may be good to avoid ever eating swordfish and mackerel, which are even higher in mercury.

Low-mercury and nutritious alternatives include salmon and sardines. 

 

Get Free from the Mental Grasp of Chronic Pain Through the Mind-Body Approach

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Is chronic pain controlling your life? Do you feel exhausted, frustrated, or even hopeless?

Suffering through chronic pain due to injury or extended illness or some unknown cause can put you in a negative state of mind. It can negatively affect your sleep, appetite, and in turn, relationships; it can even make you withdraw from people altogether.

In other words, chronic pain can be physically and psychologically devastating.

You may be experiencing something like that. Is it hard for you to focus? Do you sometimes feel like you are outside of yourself? If so, it could be that you’ve had an intuition that your physical pain and mental distress or instability are connected.

And your intuition would be right. Bodies have power over minds and minds over bodies; they are locked in a symbiotic relationship. This is known as the mind-body connection.

When you’re in pain, your mind may take you to some dark places where pleasures you once enjoyed don’t interest you anymore. Things like hobbies, get-togethers, and romantic nights with your spouse or love interest.

“I feel all alone.”

Perhaps you’ve been avoiding these things and have felt increasingly isolated. Fixating on regrets and fears and carrying hopelessness around can crowd positive thoughts out, leading to thoughts about ending your life.

It may seem no one around you understands what you’re going through. If that thought has occurred to you, then another may have, as well: Someone out there might know.

Chronic pain can make your life harder and harder. Sometimes you may feel like you can’t stand it anymore – the pain and the loss of functioning you could always count on before.

The people closest to you are carrying on with their lives as usual. They don’t have your pain. They don’t have any idea what it’s like. And that may be creating tension. Maybe you’ve tried to stay quiet and just “get over it.”

But that hasn’t worked.

You might have had times when you’re tired, and everything is too much, and your pain wraps around you like chains you can’t escape. It’s an overpowering sensation like you’re losing control.

Or perhaps you’ve healed from an injury or overcome a disease and have gotten back to your routine. But the pain keeps coming back.

The added stress may be to blame, but you can’t give up your responsibilities now because your loved ones depend on you. Maybe your spouse or partner has been doing a lot of extra stuff to help out.

You may have given up thinking there might be a way out of this mental and physical distress.

You are not alone.

Please know that there are people out there who know what you’re going through.

People who listen well and want to understand you, help you know yourself, and help you live with more freedom, less pain, and a deep connection to your body.

Here’s something you should know: There is scientific evidence that our bodies use the same neural system to feel psychological distress and physical pain.

Health experts suspect that one affects the other, and chronic pain conditions are linked to psychological disorders such as PTSD.

Indeed, it’s likely mental distress is to blame for the pain people experience after their diseases are cured and their injuries, surgeries, or other traumas have healed.

Now, it may seem impossible, but you can overcome this — with the right guidance. A combination of psychological and physiological therapy can help you.

Mind-body medicine focused on integrating physical therapy, body-centered psychotherapy techniques, and trauma resolution modalities can completely change your perception of pain – and help you take back control of your life.

The aims of mind-body medicine are:

  • reducing stress
  • giving you back a sense of control
  • improving mood and quality of life

A chronic pain therapist can help you transform your chronic pain experience by helping you take charge of your symptoms.

They can help you reunite your body and mind through a unique integration of proven physical therapy skills, body-centered psychotherapy techniques, and trauma resolution modalities.

The techniques are simple, and you can do them nearly anytime and anywhere.

Mind-body chronic pain management: Transform your experience. 

Mind-body therapy has a decades-long track record of helping people change how they think about chronic pain, so they experience less pain.

Therapists in this field have expertise in physical therapy, somatic psychotherapy (also known as body-centered therapy), and trauma.

The mind-body approach draws on all three specialties to transform trauma, chronic pain, and loss of function into personal, relational, and career growth.

Based on science, it integrates research from several fields, including neuroscience, trauma resolution therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychotherapy.

Though it may sound complicated, it’s not.

Your physical and emotional well-being are connected on a deep level, and decreasing the pain on one side will do the same on the other side.

During chronic pain management sessions, a body-mind therapist goes over how chronic pain changes the nervous system – how it knocks it off balance and how you can start to rebalance it.

They help you create a unique therapy plan that’s right for you based on natural ways to decrease your pain and improve your health with activities that build greater freedom of movement, strength, and functionality.

There is hope.

You can transform the cloud of anxiety and depression chronic pain has placed around you by learning to trust your body.

Though not always a clear communicator, if you know how to listen, your body has wisdom you can tap to start on the path to healing.

When you hear about chronic pain management, you may want to believe it can help, but you have doubts.

“I’ve already tried professional therapy. They promised I’d get better, and I haven’t. I don’t want to spend more money, time, and energy on something that may not work.”

You want to feel better, and you may have tried – hard.

Here’s what you need to know: Mind-body therapists can help you and sincerely appreciate you and your desire to be whole.

You may have been in talk-based therapy or had therapy based in another therapeutic discipline in the past. The problem is, any single therapy is limited in its approach to chronic pain management.

The human pain experience has its roots in the body. And pain responds to a combination of body-centered treatments that involve the mind.

Discovering new ways to think about pain and your body can give you control over your suffering.

“They told me my pain is only in my head, and now I don’t want to talk about it with anyone.”

So many people judge what they don’t understand. They dismiss, and they minimize. Or, they won’t even talk about it.

Unfortunately, some therapists do this, too.

Dealing with people’s lack of sympathy and empathy is frustrating because your problem is real. Too many people like you have suffered through it. Besides, the science doesn’t lie.

Mind-body therapy sessions are different. These therapists are full of compassion and empathy — and free of judgment or any negative energy. They listen to you and connect with you.

“If I could be fixed, I would have been by now. More therapy will be pointless.”

Evidence for the success of mind-body therapy for chronic pain is well-documented in the medical community.

You have a path to guidance, support, and healing. Like so many others, you too can outlive the pain and enter a new life with new possibilities. 

Chronic Pain Management at Texas Pain Physicians

Come to Texas Pain Physicians and meet our friendly, expert therapists. They are here to help you.

Please give us a call at (972) 636-5727 or book your appointment online.

6 Powerful Alternatives to Opioid Medication for Chronic Pain

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According to the CDC, an estimated 20% of U.S. adults had chronic pain in 2016.

It’s a big problem with many potential treatment and management options. 

Too often, patients end up with prescriptions for potentially addicting opioid medications. 

Here is a shortlist of safe but powerful alternative treatments that can provide short and long-term pain relief from chronic pain.

1. Radiofrequency Ablation 

This quick outpatient treatment can relieve back, neck, and arthritis pain and pain from conditions like neuropathy for up to a year. 

It involves using an electric current to heat the nerve tissue causing the pain, short-circuiting the pain signals to the brain.  

Pain relief from a radiofrequency ablation procedure can last anywhere from a few days to a few months.

2. Steroid Injections 

Steroid injections are a standard treatment for chronic and acute pain all over the body, but most often for sciatic pain in the lower back and legs.

Steroid injection procedures are performed in an outpatient setting and are fast and typically painless or not very painful.

Steroid injections relieve pain by reducing inflammation. 

A single injection can provide pain relief anywhere from a week to a year. 

3. Therapeutic Nerve Blocks

Therapeutic nerve blocks involve injecting a local anesthetic into a group of nerves to block or reduce the pain signals they are sending.

The procedures can relieve pain in the head, neck, back, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands, elbows, and pelvis. 

Relief can be immediate and last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

4. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS can provide short-term relief for muscle pain by interrupting pain signals from nerves to the brain and raising the body’s endorphin level.

This outpatient procedure involves placing padded electrodes on the skin that send non-painful electrical impulses through the nerves or trigger points causing the pain.

5. Spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation procedure involves attaching a spinal cord stimulator to the lower back or abdomen.

Small metal prongs or electrodes implanted under the skin send electrical impulses through the spine, replacing pain sensations with light, massage-like or tingling sensations.

And spinal cord stimulators give patients direct control over their pain with a remote controller so they can stop the pain as soon as it hits.

Spinal cord stimulators can treat many types of pain, including:

  • nerve pain
  • post-surgical pain
  • pain from spinal cord injuries
  • amputation pain
  • and more

6. Intrathecal Pump implant

Medicinal pump implants also give patients the power to stop the pain on call by pushing a button that sends a local anesthetic to the problem area. 

The pump implant procedure is performed in-patient under general anesthesia, and pain pumps typically need replacing within 3-5 years. 

Safe Pain Treatment and Management

The pain specialists at Texas Pain Physicians appreciate that people take opioids because they provide pain relief. 

But if you are in pain and would like to discuss non-opioid treatments, please give us a call at (972) 636-5727.

Alternatively, you can book an appointment with us online.

 

6 Treatment and Management Options for Lumbar Stenosis

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It’s been said that getting old isn’t for the faint of heart. At Texas Pain Physicians, we think getting old can be for the young at heart – when you aren’t in pain.

It’s true, degenerative conditions cause chronic pain and keep you from living life on your terms.

Lumbar Stenosis

Lumbar or lower back spinal stenosis, a common degenerative condition causing chronic pain, happens when the spinal canal in your lower back narrows, causing bone spurs and herniated discs that put pressure on the nerves.

Lumbar spinal stenosis can cause burning, pins and needles, pain, numbness, cramping, weakness, and other symptoms.

Treatment and Management 

But you have multiple treatment and management options.

Let’s look at six ways to treat and manage lumbar spinal stenosis.

1. Over-the-Counter Medication

Anti-inflammatory over-the-counter medicines such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB), acetaminophen (Tylenol), and naproxen (Aleve) can stop pain from spinal stenosis for a few hours.

Please be sure to consult with your doctor and use as directed.

2. Prescription Medication

Doctors often use tricyclic Antidepressants such as amitriptyline and Nortriptyline and anti-seizure drugs like Neurontin and Lyrica to treat chronic pain caused by nerve damage.

3. Steroid Injections

Epidural steroid injections into the affected area can help decrease the pain and inflammation caused by nerve damage.

But this treatment should be used as little as possible because repeated steroid injections are known to weaken nearby bones and connective tissue.

4. Physical therapy

Sometimes it seems impossible to start getting active. To begin stretching and exercising when you are in pain.

But it’s critical to try because being inactive can lead to muscle weakness and increased pain.

A physical therapist can help you perform exercises that strengthen your lower back and increase your spine’s flexibility and stability.

5. Daily Activity Modification

An occupational therapist can help you modify your posture and safely perform actions like sitting and bending over to avoid worsening your pain or hurting yourself.

Here are a few things you can do on your own if you can’t see a therapist or have to wait to see one:

  • Use walking support: Walking while bent over and leaning on a walker or shopping cart instead of walking upright
  • Get on a stationary bike: Stationary biking is a low-impact exercise, and you can lean forward on the handlebars for support.
  • Sit in the right chair: Sit in a chair with a backrest that reclines that you can stretch and rest your spine.

6. Wear A Neck or Back Brace

Wearing a neck brace or back brace restricts the spine’s movement, which helps avoid pain.

But if you wear a brace, try to limit it to short periods so that the muscles get enough stimulation and stay strong.

Spinal Stenosis Treatment and Management You Can Count On

Do you have spinal stenosis or suffer from lower back pain? The pain specialists at Texas Pain Physicians can help you get back on your feet and grab life by the horns again.

Please give us a call at (972) 636-5727 or book your appointment online today. We have 16 convenient locations in and around Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Irving.

What You Should Know about Shoulder Joint Injections for Shoulder Pain

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While physical therapy and exercise are ideal for treating and managing shoulder pain, sometimes that’s not possible.

For instance, diseased tendons and arthritic joints may cause severe pain and limit the range of motion. 

Shoulder joint injections can reduce inflammation and numb the pain — quickly.

Pain management specialists often recommend steroid injections for shoulder pain, provided the patient hasn’t had too many in the past. 

Steroid injections for shoulder pain help in two critical ways:

  1. Relieve pain so that the patient can rest and function. 
  2. Relieve pain so patients can do physical therapy to improve their shoulder condition. 

Reducing or eliminating inflammation and pain increases mobility and range of motion.

How they help relieve pain.

Reduce Inflammation: They take some time to start reducing Inflammation, but the pain relief comes within hours or days.

Numb the pain: They anesthetize the target area, immediately reducing or eliminating pain.

What Shoulder Conditions Shoulder Joint Injections Treat

Before recommending shoulder joint injections for any of the following conditions, pain specialists may order an X-ray or an MRI to clarify the issue. 

Also, shoulder joint injections aren’t the answer for all shoulder pain conditions. 

Rotator Cuff Injuries 

Rotator cuffs tears heal up on their own, except for the most severe tears. 

Like rotator cuff tears, rotator cuff impingements, or rubbing or pressure put on a rotator cuff tendon by nearby structures will almost always heal naturally. 

A pain-relieving injection can give you the mobility you need to kick start the healing process. 

Bursitis 

Bursitis is inflammation of a fluid-filled sac called the bursa sac, which has a pillow or cushioning effect that reduces friction between tissues and structures. 

Shoulder joint injections are a routine procedure to reduce bursa sac inflammation and pain. 

Tendinopathy

Shoulder joint injections are also a routine procedure and a fast treatment for Inflammation from swollen shoulder tendons. 

Arthritis

Arthritis can cause inflammation and swelling in the structures of the shoulder. Steroid injections in the shoulder joint provide pain relief and help patients perform exercises and physical therapy to strengthen the joint and reduce arthritis pain.

The Shoulder Joint Injection Procedure

Shoulder joint injections are outpatient procedures pain specialists administer in non-hospital medical facilities. 

The injections only take minutes, and patients can almost always leave and carry on with their schedules shortly after the procedure. 

Side effects are generally limited to minor pain and swelling at the injection site.

Shoulder Pain Treatment and Management in Texas

At Texas Pain Physicians, we are experts in finding the source of shoulder pain and treating it.

Whether injection or other treatment procedure or therapy, you are in caring hands because we only recommend what’s suitable for your unique pain condition. 

Please call us today at (972) 636-5727 or book an appointment online for more information.