Editor's Blog
Younger people with pain look similar in terms of their disability to people who are two to three decades older without pain, according to a study published in this month’s issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. The results of the study uncovered that people with pain develop the functional limitations classically associated with aging at much earlier ages.
Functional limitations that impair the ability to live independently increase markedly with age, and to examine the effect researchers looked at the data from the 18,531 participants, aged 50 and older, who took part in the 2004 Health and Retirement Study. The four physical abilities considered were: mobility, for example walking or jogging; stair climbing; upper extremity tasks, and; activity of daily living (bathing, dressing, eating etc) with or without help.
24% of participants had significant pain (often troubled by pain that was moderate or severe most of the time) and across all four physical abilities looked at, participants with pain had much higher rates of functional limitations than subjects without pain. In the mobility function as an example, of subjects aged 50 to 59 without pain 37% were able to jog 1 mile and 91% were able to walk several blocks without difficulty, compared to only 9% and 50% respectively in those with pain.
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3 Comments
Particularly interesting article to me. I am for the first time in my 57 years experiencing the kind of pain that endures; sciatica. While I’ve had some lower back pain this latest bout is orders of magnitude more intense and long lasting. I went to a doctor and was prescribed 800mg Ibupofen, or as runners call it iCandy, or vitamin i, and as revealed in last week’s NYT article on its use by distance runners and other athletes in the kind of quantitites I was taking, it was disheartening to find that it really isn’t working the way one would think and in fact interferes with the body’s natural response to pain, which is to heal.
Why our modern medicine denies us the natural benefit of opiates, which do work, for fear addiciton is puzzling and it seems the fear is worse than the problem. Why some become addicted and others not is still unknown, and the theories that I’ve read are very unsatisfactory, though some suggest that pain and trauma, or the individual brain’s memory of it, is involved to a large degree, which one would expect to be different for every person.
Anyhow, after two minths, I’m starting to improve I think…or at least learning what not to do while my body heals. The memory will linger, I’m sure and hopefully motivate me to integrate regular exercise into my all too sedentary life.
I agree with Doug, having dealt with back pain for about 12 years both upper and lower, at age 54 I’ve just about reached the end of my patience with conventional treatment. I have been through it all traditional medicine, chiropractic, massage, and there is some short term relief, but the painful sessions last longer than the painfree.
I am currently on a synthetic opiate, it it is no more effective than the over the counter. The chemical cocktail I ingest every evening just to get a few hours sleep disrupts my digestion, my sleep is spotty, and my concentration is shot.
I am seriously considering applying for a marijuana usage license, as I don’t know what else to do.
The results of the study uncovered that people with pain develop the functional limitations classically associated with aging at much earlier ages.back pain