Page 12 - elevatefall2015

ELEVATE YOUR
Long-lasting neck and
back pain can keep you
from doing the things
you love. Thankfully,
there are many ways to
ease the pain.
12 navicenthealth.org | FALL 2015
NECKA REAL PAIN IN THE
DOYOU SIT long hours at work, commonly lift heavy
objects or regularly experience a lot of stress? Do you
perform the same tasks over and over? Have you been in
a car accident within the past few years? Factors like
these are chief contributors to ongoing neck or back pain.
Chronic neck or back trouble can make it hard to do the
things you need to do. That can be a real problem.
“There are a lot of people in our communities dealing
with chronic neck and back pain,” says Shantel King-
Whitby, MD, Medical Director of Rehabilitation Hospital,
Navicent Health. “For young people, the pain is usually
work-related. For older adults, it may be because of
arthritis or long-term wear and tear. Whatever the cause,
this kind of pain can really change how you live. But it’s
also something we can fix.”
WHAT’S MY PROBLEM?
When you talk to your doctor about pain, you
describe what you’re feeling in many ways: shooting,
throbbing, pulsing, pounding, piercing and more.
Each type of pain represents a different cause, and
these causes change the possibilities for relief. For
example, many people visit Dr. King-Whitby with
compression fractures from falling. While bed rest
can help with the pain, it also makes the bones
weaker, making more problems in the future likely.
As a result, pain medications are usually part of the
treatment.