MN Chiropractors focusErase My Back Pain on resolving the reasons that we have pain which doesn’t go away. One reason for persisting pain is persistent injury to an area. The body attempts to heal the area, but cannot keep up with the recurring injury. The fact that an area is being injured over and over again is not always obvious.
A good example is repetitive strain injuries associated with office work. Sitting at a computer key board all day long is traumatic to the muscles of the arm. It’s not the way we usually think to trauma, like straining a muscle when lifting something heavy.
Holding the muscles of the shoulder, arm and forearm in a contracted state for hours on end restricts blood flow in and out of the muscles. When there is less blood flow into the muscle, the cells receive less nutrition and oxygen. There is also less blood flow out of the muscle, resulting in the accumulation of waste products in the tissue.
The Weekend Warrior Syndrome We’ve all heard of the weekend warrior, who goes out on the weekend and does a lot of physically strenuous things. Even though no injury occurred, the next day he or she is so sore all over that they can barely move.
This temporary muscle pain of the weekend warrior is due to buildup of lactic acid and other waste products in the muscle tissue. Lactic acid (being an acid) acidifies the tissue and this stimulates pain nerve endings in the muscle. Once the blood circulation is able to remove the lactic acid, the pain disappears.