NEWS
“ Chronic pain is an incredibly debilitating condition that comes with so many other negative health consequences ,” Dr Niederstrasser says . “ It ’ s not being able to go to work , see friends , do the things that you enjoy , and this has an impact on your physical , mental and social wellbeing .”
Among the 3,704 participants who did not have any chronic pain at the start of the study , nearly 1,060 went on to develop chronic pain ten years later . However , those who had high levels of physical activity during that time were half as likely to develop chronic pain compared to people who did not undertake any physical activity on a regular basis .
It is not clear whether being physically active reduces the risk of pain or if chronic pain prevents people from being active , or both . However , chronic pain is known to be a major barrier to people being physically active .
“ It ’ s something that a lot of people struggle with – they don ’ t know what type of exercise to do or how much of it to do , and they ’ re afraid it ’ s going to make the pain worse ,” Dr Niederstrasser says . Helping people overcome those biological , social and psychological barriers to exercise can have enormous benefits . “ It is something that doesn ’ t just have a positive effect on pain , it has a positive effect on your mood and has a positive effect on your body as a whole .”
Professor Claire Nee
Keen to find better ways of preventing burglaries and rehabilitating offenders , our Professor of Criminological Psychology encouraged crime – in virtual reality .
Hear the full story of this and other groundbreaking research on the Life Solved podcast . Each episode , a researcher explains an idea or discovery that ’ s set to change our lives .