Understanding Pain

Pain is the most common reason someone visits a chiropractor. Understanding what causes pain and the different types of pain can help someone talk with their chiropractor more effectively. Take a moment to review the following:

What is pain?
How does our brain "make pain"?
Why does pain intensity change throughout the day and night?
Where does pain originate?
Most common types of pain

What is pain?

Pain is an unpleasant feeling that is created by your nervous system. The brain controls the creation of pain, where you feel it, and the intensity you feel. Pain can be felt at the site of the problem or it can be referred pain, which means it comes from a location that is distant from the actual site of the problem. The most common types of pain are joint pain, muscle pain and disc pain.

How does our brain "make pain"?

There are two factors to pain:
• Physical - based upon actual tissue damage or unusual stress to the tissue. Physical pain receptors that generate nerve impulses include temperature, chemical and mechanical.
• Emotional -The emotional is responsible for the part of pain that is based upon the memory of past experiences.

Each person will experience pain differently. The amount of pain that you feel is not directly equal to the amount of tissue damage.

Why does pain intensity change throughout the day and night?

When we sleep, we stop the movement of our joints and muscles. This reduces the amount of nerve impulses into the spinal cord system, allowing us to fall asleep so we can get the rest necessary for healing.

When we are awake and active, we are generating millions of nerve impulses from the joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons to coordinate our movements. These impulses are used in our spinal cord to reduce our pain impulses. When we lose the normal movement of our joints, we lose the natural ability to stop pain.

Where does pain originate?

Pain doesn’t have to be caused by a recent injury. Lifestyle choices and injuries from years ago can resurface later in life, causing pain to occur. The pain actually comes from the physical pain receptors: temperature, chemical and mechanical.

Many people believe arm and leg pain is caused from a pinched nerve when, in reality, most arm and leg pain is referred pain from muscles, joints, and ligaments. Inflamed muscles and joints as well as leaking herniated discs can irritate nerves. Disc bulging is a common finding, which is most often painless. Most conditions respond very well to specific spinal joint adjustments, neuromuscular therapy, and Cox® manipulation.

Remember that our brain is like a computer that operates on megabytes of data. The nerve impulses generated by our joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons and discs are the megabytes for our brain. Locked joints cause a loss of data to our control center causing dysfunction. Dysfunction causes abnormal stress on the ligaments leading to inflammation. Chronic dysfunction leads to pain, injury, and degenerative changes to the discs, joints, ligaments and tendons.

Education and knowledge of our bodies are essential to total wellness. Don’t wait until pain occurs to seek help. Be proactive to build a wellness plan for your lifestyle.

The Most Common Types of Pain

Joint Pain: There are thousands of pain receptors in your joints. They react to the stress and inflammation caused by joint dysfunction. Normal joint motion will generate normal joint nerve impulses that block your pain; this is why spinal adjustments can produce immediate pain relief.

Muscle Pain: Muscles contain sensitive nerve endings that generate pain nerve impulses. When muscle spasms occur, the acids build up and cause inflammation and pain. It is not uncommon to have referred pain from muscle pain. Neuromuscular therapy allows the muscles to flush out the waste acids so the muscles can relax again without pain.

Disc Pain: Discs are specialized ligaments that connect to the vertebra and allow flexibility of the spinal column. The disc is built like a “hydraulic pad” with a “nucleus” in the center. There are about 25 layers to the disc and when the disc is stressed, the nucleus can leak out or herniate, causing pain. Discs, like muscles, contain chemically sensitive pain nerve endings. Often, by the time you feel disc pain, the disc has been degenerating for years. The pain can radiate to the buttocks and the sciatic nerve down the back of the leg. A herniated nucleus can also trigger a severe immune system response that doesn’t respond to medications. A chiropractor can treat the disc through manipulation.

Referred Pain: Pain may be felt in a location far away from the area that is hurt. The brain’s pain system does not recognize every muscle and ligament as separate and distinct. For example, your brain does not see your shoulder blade as an individual body part, but as part of your arm. Consequently, arm pain is created by the brain when the shoulder blade muscles are injured or overused. Pain symptoms must be properly diagnosed by a chiropractor who can determine the actual source of the pain. Only then can the pain be treated with the appropriate therapy.

Contact The Dunn Wellness Center at 904-249-1551, to learn more about Dr. Dunn’s pain management and treatment techniques.