Dr. Caren Fortin, BHK, DC - Doctor of Chiropractic
Everyone agrees that pain is a universal experience. However, people describe pain in different ways. It may be stabbing, achy, numbing or it makes them angry. It can prevent them from doing activities that they love, stop them from working and can affect their relationships. No matter how it is expressed or felt though, we do know that pain is 100% of the time, produced from the brain.
Pain can be divided into acute and chronic:
Acute pain is pain that is less than 3-6 months duration. It can be protective as there is usually tissue injury that is causing the pain. Initial therapy (medical or physical), staying active and gradually getting back into regular activities are recommended.
Chronic pain is pain that lasts longer than 3-6 months and tissue damage is not the primary reason for the pain. The brain can sometimes get confused into thinking something is dangerous even when it’s not. It sends out pain signals even though there is no damage to the body or after an injury has healed. This is called chronic pain.
When chronic pain is present, there are changes that have occurred to the nervous system, making it more sensitive to signals that it receives. If the brain receives more messages than usual from the body, it then interprets those messages as damage occurring in the body. Other factors such as psychological (thoughts, memories, emotions), environmental, social and cultural, to name a few will also influence the brain’s interpretation of the signals, which will result in chronic pain.
The good news with chronic pain is that there is something you can do about it! Treatment of chronic pain is focused on retraining your brain to reduce the sensitivity of the nervous system. It is recommended to rule out medical or structural reasons for the pain. If medical testing comes back clear, a targeted approach involving diet changes, physical activity and strategies to help reduce stress and improve emotional well-being (mindfulness, meditation) are suggested.
Two videos that summarize pain, and more specifically chronic pain, are shown here. If you have questions about your own pain or are wondering what you can do about it, contact the practitioners at Wellness for the Body at 905.465.4595.
Comentarios