If you suffer from chronic pain, you may think physical activities like gardening are a part of your past. If so, you might be surprised to learn that gardening offers many health benefits and is increasingly incorporated by pain-management specialists into their strategies for managing chronic pain.
Before beginning gardening, or any potentially strenuous exercise, it’s important to consult with your doctor.
HOW GARDENING CAN HELP CHRONIC PAIN
IT KEEPS YOU MOVING
A sedentary lifestyle can exacerbate chronic pain. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, people trying to manage chronic pain are encouraged to move as much as possible, within parameters defined by their doctors.
Increasingly, pain-management specialists are suggesting gardening, or horticulture therapy, as a part of their pain-management programs. The low-impact, moderate-exercise of gardening provides an engaging way to keep moving without placing undue stress on the body.
GARDENING PROVIDES STRESS RELIEF
Gardening has been known to reduce the hormone cortisol, which results in lower stress and increased immune function. High stress levels can cause increased inflammation and pain, so reduced levels of cortisol can aid in the management of chronic pain.
GARDENING RELEASES ENDORPHINS
Being outside in the fresh air and sunlight is therapeutic, as is the moderate exercise required by gardening. As you work in your garden, your body releases endorphins, improving your mood and increasing your natural tolerance for pain.
GARDENING PROVIDES A SENSE OF WELL-BEING AND ACCOMPLISHMENT
As you watch your plants and flowers bloom and your garden come to fruition, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and well-being. This can provide a significant shift in perspective, especially if you’ve been dealing with chronic pain. A sense of accomplishment and well-being can help the body cope more readily with pain symptoms, and also with the depression and anxiety pain can cause.
GARDENING CAN HELP ENCOURAGE A HEALTHIER DIET
The activity involved in gardening can help reduce inflammation and help the body tolerate pain, but so can the plants in a garden. A healthy diet is suggested by many specialists as a part of their pain-management plans. Growing your own delicious, fresh vegetables is a great way to stay excited about eating healthier foods.
ALTERNATIVES TO TRADITIONAL GARDENING
As we’ve seen, gardening can be a great way to help mitigate the effects of chronic pain. Traditional backyard gardening, however, involves a lot of bending and extending periods of squatting down on your haunches. Bending and squatting to sow seeds and weed your garden may not be beneficial if you’re elderly, or suffering from chronic pain, as it can put undue stress on your back and joints.
Fortunately, there are alternatives to traditional, in-the-ground gardening. Raised bed gardening, gardening in pots, and gabion gardening all offer the same health benefits as traditional gardening, but without the undue stress of bending and squatting.
RAISED BED GARDENING
A raised garden bed makes gardening more accessible and is ideal for elderly gardeners or for those suffering from chronic pain. Ideally, a raised garden bed should be about twice as wide as the length of your arm and hip level in height. This way, the side of the bed will provide some stability and support as you lean against it while planting, pruning, and weeding.
The ideal depth of your raised bed may vary depending on the plants you wish to grow, but most flowers and vegetables will do just fine in about twenty inches of soil.
GARDENING IN POTS
Another alternative to traditional gardening is to do your gardening in pots. Most plants and vegetables can grow just as well in appropriately sized pots as in your backyard or flowerbed.
GARDENING USING GABIONS
An increasingly popular alternative to traditional gardening is the use of gabions as planters. More eye-catching than pots and more stable than most raised bed gardens, gabions can be a great way to harness the health benefits of gardening.
If you suffer from chronic pain, talk to your doctor today about whether horticulture therapy is right for you.
Author: Brittany Cotton
Published by: International Pain Foundation, iPain blog, Team iPain
