Does Your Emotional Health Affect Your Physical Health?

Can your mental state affect the amount of pain you’re in? Emotionally, we all know this to be true regarding chronic pain, but statistically and scientifically, is it?

Scientifically, it has been proven that emotional stress creates subtle changes in the physiology and biochemistry of the body. These changes can, in fact, affect how your body reacts to pain management treatment. In order to actively and affectively treat a patient’s pain, many pain treatment centers must evaluate the patient’s lifestyle and behaviors.

While the euphoria of a good day might ease a patient’s chronic pain, the stress of a bad day can have the opposite effect, creating even more physical pain that is even harder to manage. In some interesting studies, scientists have found that chronic pain such as back pain and migraine headaches have more to do with a patient’s emotional state than their physical.

Back pain is ranked as one of the top three most debilitating ailments, as well as most common ailment, that adults will face within their lifetime. In a recent study that was reported in Lancet, researchers found that cognitive behavioral therapy can greatly reduce back pain and help to manage the pain for up to at least a year.

The study, undertaken at the University of Warwick in the UK, found that, "A bespoke cognitive behavioral intervention package for low-back pain has an important and sustained effect at 1 year on disability from low-back pain at a low cost to the health-care provider."

According to study co-author Zara Hansen, “The model explains that the way that we think about our health problems will determine how we behave or, put another way, how we manage them," Hansen said. "If we have unhelpful ways of thinking about back pain, we'll behave or manage it in unhelpful ways. A cognitive behavioral intervention targets the thoughts or behaviors directly."

Stress, though it might seem like a bothersome side affect of our ancestors, truly does serve a valuable purpose in our lives. Stress speeds up your heart, increases blood flow to your muscles and brain, increases muscle tension, stops your digestion, and increases oxygen levels in your blood. These are great symptoms when faced with surviving tragedy, making quick, life-saving decisions, and protecting ourselves and our families.

Emotional stress, however, has many negative symptoms as well. While stress can speed up your heart and increase blood flow, it can also put you at greater risk for high blood pressure and risks for stroke. While muscle tension is great for super-human strength, it can also lead to chronic headaches and back pain, as mentioned in the study above.

Emotional health and your overall state of mind have a tremendous affect on how your body will react to treatment and pain management, as well. When you’re body is pre-occupied with all the symptoms of emotional stress, pain management and treatment just won’t have the effect that it should.

Pain treatment centers, like The Pain Centers of Arizona, must not only treat the chronic pain, but must also understand their patient’s mental health as well.

Sources: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636429.html http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180453.php