Understanding Pain
Have you ever thought to yourself; “I am in so much pain, it moves around, I can’t pinpoint where it is coming from; WHAT is going on inside my body?”. I may have some answers for you ☞
This week in the clinic I have had some great conversations with patients regarding their pain and helping them develop more understanding about their problem, what is actually going on in their body and how to DO something about it. So I thought I would share with you some truths about pain and do a little bit of myth-busting at the same time with the hope of helping you get better results and more understanding from your Chiropractic treatments.
PAIN: What is it that is actually going on inside your body?
Here are the facts:
1. Pain is your body making an ALARM! ?
Pain’s essential purpose is sending out an alarm to the body to say “HEY! something MIGHT be wrong”. This alarm system is very good at getting our attention but not necessarily so good at telling us where something is wrong or how much damage has actually occurred.
2. Pain is not all about damage done
Pain is our body’s response to perceived threat or damage. It is there to protect us. It does a great job. It helps us to stop ourselves from further harm. However, in ongoing chronic problems our pain response is most likely an OVER protective response and is rarely about actual damage done. This can make us feel like our injury is worse than what it actually is.
3. Pain is connected to the BRAIN ?
Pain is perceived by our brain and receives messages from special receptors called nociceptors. These little guys pick up sensations around us and use the spinal cord to relay the message up to the brain. Then our brain decides if this message is threatening or not. Then a pain response may occur.
4.Pain is MULTIFACTORIAL
So, if pain is more of a response from the brain and not so much about a response from a particular body part it is open to influence from other factors not just from damage to the tissue itself. These factors include:
- Poor sleep
- Stress
- Diet
- Exercise
- Our personal beliefs and attitudes about pain and our body
So, what can you do to help your pain?
Step 1. Learning about pain. YAY! You have just achieved step 1.
Step 2. Improve your beliefs around pain and have more ? positive thoughts on your ability to heal
Step 3. Create more opportunities in your life to sleep well and have yummy, ? food.
Step 4. ?♀️Keep moving! ? Yes, you may have to modify what you do but movement and exercise are so important for improving a musculoskeletal issue.
Step 5. Listen to your healthcare provider ? ?⚕️*cough* this means us! We are here to help you. We have your best interests at heart. We are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to pain, injury and how to get better.
If you have any further questions regarding your pain or would like to come in and see us for a treatment to get on top of your issue we are here to help!
Send us an email or book in a session.
Have a wonderful day!
Hi, I’m Amanda. Chiropractor, mum, human body nerd, keen walker (with stroller of course) and social butterfly. I work with mothers and babies to help with underlying musculoskeletal issues of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding; so that mothers can gain confidence in their body for their birthing and breastfeeding journey.
