Spoon Theory
You may or may not have heard of Spoon Theory. The premise is that we’re all given a certain number of spoons (or allotments of energy) to expend on the things we need to do every day: taking a shower, driving to and from work, working, walking the dog, making dinner, or anything else you might do throughout the course of a day. For illustrative purposes, let’s say we’re all given ten spoons at the beginning of each day. Showering, driving to and from work, walking the dog, and making dinner might cause you one spoon’s worth of energy each, while working might use two or even three spoons. Still, at the end of the day, a person who doesn’t experience chronic pain will have two or three spoons left to do whatever else they want or need to.
For someone living with chronic pain, simply taking a shower might take two spoons while working might take five, leaving them with only three spoons’ worth of energy for everything else they need to do that day. When they run out of spoons (energy), they can’t do anything else. Clearly, living with chronic pain is, at best, limiting. In its most profound states, chronic pain can be completely disabling.
Prevalence of Chronic Pain
A surprisingly high number of people in the US live with chronic pain. The CDC estimates that, in 2021, 20.9% of Americans lived with chronic pain and 6.9% of them were substantially limited by pain in performing regular daily activities. One in every five people around you is trying to live well while coping with challenging pain every single day. Managing that pain is complex. Some pain medications are addictive, leading to a host of other issues, while others don’t eradicate the pain or even make it bearable to live with.
A very wide variety of conditions cause chronic pain. Some of them are:
- Arthritis
- Inflammatory diseases
- Cancer
- An injury that didn’t heal well
- Migraines
- Fibromyalgia
- Endometriosis
- IBS
- Spinal disc degeneration
These are just a few of the conditions that cause the pain with which people live every day.
Managing
There are the traditional methods of managing chronic pain:
- Anti-inflammatory medications
- Muscle relaxers
- Anticonvulsants (used for nerve pain)
- Steroids
- Topical agents
as well as adjunctive therapies like acupuncture and yoga, but the most cutting-edge pain management may come from an unlikely source – GLP-1 medications.
How GLP-1 Medications Help Manage Chronic Pain
GLP-1 medications, or GLP-1 agonists, work to maximize the hormone they’re named after, GLP-1. The newest research shows that these medications may have a neuroprotective effect, which means that GLP-1 medications may shield nerves cells from damage and inflammation. This is very cutting-edge thinking, but clinical studies for this usage of GLP-1 medications are promising.
Inflammation, one of the biggest causes of chronic disease and chronic pain, can be alleviated by GLP-1 medications. They also help modulate the immune system, which can help manage autoimmune diseases. Lastly, GLP-1 medications help with weight loss. Obesity hurts and weight loss can help that pain.
Nicety Wellness & Weight Loss
If you’re in the states of Louisiana, Florida, Arizona, Oregon, and Nebraska, Nicety Wellness & Weight Loss can help you improve your quality of life through GLP-1 medications. Contact us for more information.
Servicing New Orleans, Covington, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Alexandria, Monroe, Tampa, Gainesville, Naples, Fort Myers, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Phoenix, Tuson, Yuma, Scottsdale, Tempe, Portland, Medford, Salem, Bend, Eugene, Beaverton, Corvallis, Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, Beatrice.
Disclaimer: The information contained here was not written by a medical doctor and is intended for informational purposes only. This is not a substitute for medical advice.
