Exercise & Chronic Joint Pain

Joint & muscle pain. Wear and tear on joints, including those in our back & neck, can result in debilitating pain. The pain may come on gradually or may be precipitated by a fall or accident. However it may present, it is but a choice to let this stumble be the end of our journey or just a change in direction.

Mary is 86 years of age. Six months ago she sustained a fall and was left with low back pain and poor balance. As time went on, she then developed pain in both arms and loss of power of her hands. Her previously independent, active life had come to a standstill. She couldn’t safely cook her own meals. To attend medical & hospital appointments she had become reliant on family.

Medical tests confirmed advanced degeneration of her low back and cervical spine. You see, Mary had worked a very hard physical life. Her joints had worn out. There was no protective cartilage left. Bone on bone. Frustration was replaced with constant irritability and at times anger at her demise. Her patience had become thin and she didn’t even like living with herself!

After about three months of this completely disruptive life, various pain relief supplements & drugs, Mary remembered basic exercises given to her by a chiropractor some time ago. After a week of doing these twice a day, her low back pain settle and is now disappeared!  With other support exercises and therapy from the Physiotherapist and Occupational Therapist, her balance is now back to normal.

The stumble in Mary’s road was followed by a time period of readjustment, reflection and eventually acceptance that she no longer had to work hard. Her revised journey continues…with daily exercise the motivator to keep her independence on a new level.