Your family rather unexpectedly invented a new game tonight.
The two dogs in your house indicate that they want to go outside and they then run through a hole in the fence they made in the backyard.
Then you walk out the front door, say their names, and they run back inside! They have played this multiple times and appear to be ever so proud of themselves.
The dogs, however, will likely be pretty disappointed when they realize that your husband has his own new game planned for tomorrow: he is going to fix the fence.
New Activities Can Create New Aches and Pains
In addition to the pains that are a part of the lives we used to live, there are now many people who find themselves dealing with different kinds of pain now that the world has changed. Families in self isolation at home, for example, are now using muscles that they have not used before as they tackle home improvement projects that in the past may have been contracted out to someone else. And for those people who have always suffered from chronic pain conditions, limited access to chiropractors and physical therapists may be making things worse.
Missing access to standard chiropractic adjustment tools, range of motion testing solutions, and other other options that help those with chronic pain conditions, there are many people who are unable to live the kinds of life that were just a few short months ago. And while there are certainly many telemedicine platforms that allow some patients to get the care that they need, the absence of physical therapy equipment and the one on one in person guidance of a chiropractor means that many people with chronic pain conditions are suffering.
Doctors across the country are seeing patients, in person or through telemedicine platforms, who have recently injured themselves after a home improvement project gone wrong or following an over exuberant new exercise workout. When you combine these injuries to the people who already suffer from chronic pain conditions, it just makes sense that more and more people will be looking for appointments as soon as states begin to open back up.
Consider some of these facts and figures about the kinds of chronic pains that many Americans deal with in the most normal of times, as well as the kinds of therapies and services that they are longing for during these most unusual days of the pandemic:
- It is estimated that chiropractors treat more than 27 million Americans a year, with a chiropractic adjustment being performed nearly 1 million times every business day in the U.S.
- The latest research indicates that 56% of patients who saw a doctor, saw a 30% reduction in low back pain. This may seem like an impressive number until you realize that as many as 94% of patients who underwent treatment with a chiropractor saw a 30% reduction in low back pain after just four weeks.
- The job outlook for physical therapists is projected to grow by 28% between the years 2016 and 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is a rate that is much faster than the average growth of all occupations.
- In fact, U.S. News and Money ranks physical therapist and physical therapist assistant in their top 10 for best healthcare jobs.
- Unfortunately, chronic inflammation affects millions of Americans. For example, arthritis and joint diseases, one common type of chronic inflammation, affects 350 million people around the world and 43 million people in the U.S. alone.
- Worldwide, more than 1.5 billion people suffer from chronic pain, and chronic back pain is defined as pain that persists for 12 weeks or longer
- Low back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide
- To look at but one example of the need for care when an injury occurs, it is interesting to note that each foot on the human body alone is made up of 28 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Whether you are suffering from a temporary backspin caused by some unexpected fence repair or you are someone who has always felt with a chronic pain condition, it is likely that you can get the help you need from a physical therapist or a chiropractor.