T.J. Samson | Destination Health | April 2019

April 2019 7 Good for your body and soul For exer c i se, there may be noth i ng l i ke the great outdoor s Is the gym your usual go-to place for exercise? Then you may need a change of scenery, and one with lots of it: the great outdoors. If you need a nudge to move your exercise outside, there’s plenty of incentive. Research suggests that outdoor exercise deliv- ers health benefits that can't be duplicated in- doors. And a key one is a bigger boost in positive emotions. One study, for example, found that outdoor workouts can lift your mood more and help you feel more energetic and revitalized than indoor ones. Another found that as few as five minutes of outdoor exercise can improve self-esteem, es- pecially if you’re near greenery or water. Moving your workouts outdoors also lets you: Connect with nature. That’s one of the best perks of outdoor exercise.Think of it this way: Where are you likely to enjoy exercise more, on a treadmill in a crowded gym or on a hiking trail in a nearby park? Save money. You don’t need a gym member- ship.The outdoors belongs to all of us. Potentially burn more calories. When you’re jogging or biking outdoors, a strong head- wind can help you burn more calories. You have to work harder to overcome the wind’s resistance. GET OUT AND ENJOY! So rather than staying cooped up inside, take a brisk walk either alone to clear your mind or with a buddy to socialize. Work out your muscles on a local hill, bike on a neighborhood street, or walk one lap and jog the next at a nearby school track. Or treat yourself to a walk in the woods, in a meadow or along a stream at a park. See if a park close by offers an exercise boot camp or a yoga class or has exercise equipment. Many parks do now. You can turn exercise into family time too. Play on a playground with your child (or grandchild), or take a nature hike together. After all, every- body deserves to have fun outdoors. Source: American Council on Exercise A long as people have been able to write, they have written about their hopes and dreams, but also about their problems and pains. One of the most common and per- sistent pains for humanity has been an ar- thritic back. At least once in their lifetime, every person on Earth will experience back pain. Whether it is caused by fighting in the Crusades or another ancient war or working in the tobacco fields or a factory, a sore back can be painful and in some cases life-altering. It is one of the biggest rea- sons people miss work and also the most common reason people become disabled. However, there are many ways now to combat this age-old problem, including many without the use of addicting and organ-damaging drugs. One method is to block the pain associated with the arthritic joints that have failed conservative therapy (such as rest, massage, chiropractic care, physical therapy) by doing a procedure called radiofrequency ablation (RFA). RFA was first used in 1975 by Dr. C.N. Shealy to offer pain relief to patients suf- fering from low back pain without a known tumor, broken bone, etc. In this procedure, an electric current runs through an insu- lated needle that gets warm. This creates a lesion within the nerve that disrupts the pain signal and puts the nerve to sleep. A patient first undergoes two tests or diagnos- tic blocks to make sure that their pain is re- lated to the facet joints in the spine. If their pain is relieved by treating the facet joints, then the doctor proceeds with the RFA. However, like all technology, it is in a continual state of improvement, and the newest version is the Venom MultiGen 2 by Stryker.The benefits associated with this new technology are that the lesion is larger so that the pain relief is greater and the procedure is shorter. So instead of hav- ing to do multiple lesions with the older machines on the market, with this new machine, only one lesion is required. Therefore, the patient is able to be freed from a significant portion of their arthritis Julia Caldwell, MD Pain Management A brand-new fix to a very old problem pain of the joints, in 90 seconds without stitches, sutures, staples, hospital stays or long recovery periods. Often the patient will be sore for only a few weeks.The procedure can be completed without general anesthesia and the relief lasts for 9-18 months. TWO NEW SPECIALISTS The new pain specialists at T.J. Samson, Julia Caldwell, MD, and Sachin Bahadur, MD, are offering this technology. Both are fellowship-trained and board-certified pain management physicians and accepting new patients.They bring a complementary and broad mixture of experience. Dr. Caldwell has been practicing for nine years in pain management and is board-certified in medical quality, anesthe- siology and pain medicine. She completed her fellowship at the world-renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center and residency in anesthesiology at the University of Michi- gan. She has special interests in RFA; intrathecal pumps; kyphoplasty; spinal cord stimulation; and pelvic, cancer and pediat- ric pain. Dr. Bahadur has practiced in multiple countries, is board-certified in America, India and England, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, and has special interests in spinal cord stimulation, RFA and axial back pain. He has been practicing medicine for 18 years and recently gradu- ated from a pain medicine fellowship last July from the Medical College of Georgia. PRIMARY CARE CLINIC Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 902 Westlake Drive Columbia 270.384.0451 Patricia Doolin MSN, ARPN, FNP-C Eric Townsend MSN, APRN, FNP-C Sachin Bahadur, MD Pain Management