Is Pain Good?

Deborah Joy Calleja, Osteopath, The Medical Sanctuary

One of the functions of pain is to protect you and alert you to danger in the hope of preventing further damage. It is the actual unpleasantness of the pain experience that makes it so essential in our daily existence.

No one really wants to experience pain. If you have it, you often go to great lengths to get rid of it. It is the actual unpleasantness of the pain experience that makes it so essential in our daily existence. One of the functions of pain is to protect you and alert you to danger in the hope of preventing further damage, eg: touching a hot plate creates a reflex muscle contraction to remove your hand from the hot plate. When you have back pain, your body will move differently often to protect the painful part, this can aide in the healing process.

Sensors

There are varying sources of pain, but the most common one occurs when the bodys’ alarm system alerts your brain to the actual or potential tissue damage. Sensors are the proteins inside your neurons. These report messages as they are constantly surveying their particular region. They send messages to your spinal cord which then may be sent to the brain.

The Brain

The brain sorts out and interprets all the messages your body receives. Many parts of the brain are used in this process and in the response to the experience of pain. Some of the parts of the brain involved are those that are responsible for sensation, movement, emotions and memory. So you can see why pain can be such an overwhelming experience to deal with.

The brain can then respond to the pain experience by sending “happy” chemicals/hormones such as opiates, back down the spinal path to dampen the pain stimuli. Other messages that the brain will commonly send back are ones that release chemicals to help the damaged tissue heal, eg: encourage blood supply to the area.

Blood supply is important in healing and different tissues have varying degrees of blood supply, for instance, discs and ligaments take longer to heal than the blood rich muscle and skin tissues. Muscle spasm can be important in your tissue healing process, this is why you may limp or lean to one side when you have back pain. It is your brains interpretation of the messages coming in which regulates the quality and quantity of muscle activity. Generally, if the system is working well, the increase in muscle activity subsides when the underlying pain impulse is settling.

Managing pain

Be educated. Knowledge of why you have your pain can provide you with a foundation to support the healing process. Your practitioner will help you to understand what movement /activities that you can do which will help your recovery. Understanding your pain will reduce the threat of increasing the pain due to fear of the unknown (which can stimulate more protective systems and block healing).

We all know that the symptoms of pain can be restrictive and uncomfortable, but by seeing these responses to pain,(spasm, inflammation and immobility) as the body’s’ powerful, intrinsic wisdom to heal itself, pain can in fact, be your ally. So by listening and working with it and through it, you will be well on the road to beginning smart, therapeutic activities which will gradually return you to your regular life and wellbeing!

References: Explain Pain, D Butler, L Moseley, Noigroup Publications, Adelaide 2003

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