Disclaimer:
Any medical/health information in this course is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional advice. Accordingly, before taking any actions based on such information, I encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. The use or reliance of any information contained in this course is solely at your own risk.
Big topic today - how does pain work?
There’s actually a lot of study surrounding this question. In fact, there are researchers who have dedicated their entire careers to studying how pain works.
We’re learning more and more every year, but there’s still so much we don’t know.
This can leave people who experience pain in a difficult position. Because we don’t have a full understanding of how pain works, patients often get conflicting or mixed messages from providers about how we should view, think about, treat, or manage pain.
Some providers may say a problem will get better with time; others say it requires surgery, or psychotherapy, or supplements, or pharmaceuticals. Sometimes, it's a mix of solutions that help. It can be a frustrating and messy process to sort through decisions!
We’ve found that the more patients understand how pain works, the more informed they can be when making treatment decisions that are right for their specific problem.
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I’d like to direct you to a nicely made video covering the basics on how pain works:
Some of my highlights and additional commentary from this video:
Pain is an experience generated by the brain
Pain is designed to take care of us. It’s designed to bring our attention to something that is or could be harmful
Pain due to tissue injury will generally go away on its own after an expected period of time (how long we expect the pain to last is dictated by which tissues are injured… but in general, most injuries resolve by the 3-6 month mark)
Pain can exist or persist without tissue injury
Pain is influenced by lots of things - our environments, physical health, mental health, relationships, etc.
Ultimately, treating a pain problem starts by identifying why the pain message is there in the first place. Once we know why, we can be much more accurate about treating it.
This might involve physical tests and exams, exploring the timeline of symptoms, becoming curious about other factors influencing our pain, etc.
If you’d like help better understanding why you are experiencing pain, reach out to us via the “Contact Us” page to schedule a phone call.
Cheers,
Dr. Rebecca Salstrand, PT
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