Saturday, February 15, 2014

Aerobic Work For Post Concussion Treatment and Pain

I read this article, that I will link at the bottom, last night while watching some of the skeleton races.  It was about the benefits of aerobic exercise in helping speed up concussion symptoms. One of the things I've stressed to some of my concussion athletes is exactly what this paper is about.  Pure rest is never a good thing.  Small walks.  Slow.  Raise the heart beat slightly.  Increase the oxygen.  They waited 3 weeks.  I usually wait around a week.  The group that did do the aerobic work had a decrease in all post concussion symptoms.  Pretty cool.  Rest is no longer great advice.

Exercise is the Best Medicine.

On a side note a Facebook friend linked to this cool article about how aerobic work increased pain tolerance.  3x a week for 30 minutes at 75% effort on a spine bike increased pain tolerance to ischemic compression.

Increase Pain Tolerance.

There have been other studies that show aerobic work has some pain benefits as well.  It's always a goal of mine to get some chronic pain type patients to elevate that heart rate a few times a week.  Movement and blood flow generally speaking, can be a great healer.

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