Step 3: Bringing in the understanding of pain science to your care...

We have already introduced some of these ideas, but understanding pain science is crucial to the process of moving out of pain.

Pain science is the knowledge & understanding that pain isn't just physical.

There are many studies showing that people can have herniated discs in their spine & not be in pain, or they can have small herniations and be in incredible amounts of pain. 

Unfortunately this has led to a quick summary of the science saying “Pain is in the Brain”.

This is a horrible oversimplification that often leads the individual in pain, sitting in a medical office feeling:

• Mad

• Like they’re making everything up

• Questioning the truth of their reality

• Wondering whether they can trust themselves

If this has been said to you, I am truly sorry.

How you’re feeling is real. 

How physical injury lands & what it does to an individual,

is very individual. 

Today we know that every part of your system from:

• Your cellular level,

• Tissues,

• Organs,

• Systems

  • Immune,

  • Endocrine,

  • Cardiovascular,

  • Respiratory,

  • Nervous

To every part of your being responds and integrates pain.

The three golden rules to pain are: intensity, frequency and duration. 

When an injury lands:

1. In that first tissue damage the immune system responds with inflammation.

2. That inflammation affects nerve endings at the site to become sensitised.

3. The longer it goes on for & the more intense it is:

4. The less force/pressure/injury is required to create more pain & alarm.

5. The longer the pain stimulus occurs in the body:

6. The more the signal sensitises at every neural junction box from the fingers to every level of the spinal cord, brainstem & brain. 

Neurons exist in these places to either downplay or upregulate the sensation of pain. This is "sensitisation & windup" of your nervous system.

This is where the: “Pain is in the brain” phrase comes from. 

Once the signal reaches the brainstem, memories and expectations of prior experiences of pain get pulled into the sensation. 

If you’ve had a horrific/negative past experience last time you felt something like this

Your subconscious is going to add more “on” pain sensation into the mix. 

The areas of the brain that offer this, pain turn up or turn down service, are linked to:

• Early experiences of pain 

• Highly emotional experiences (I think of managing my inner 5.y.o at the playground), 

• Survival (your chimp brain), 

• Fears & Anxiety, 

• Expectations & non-verbal Beliefs

• Social narratives around pain being bad and a cause for alarm, 

• Many complex subconscious responses. 

As so many of these are subconscious behaviours

You can see how telling someone "it’s all in the brain"

Without explaining that you can’t just think:

“Right I’m going to turn the pain off now”,

Is pretty cruel. 

Want to hear the how a blended manual therapy approach can help desensitise these sensations?

Read on to the next step: An embodied blended manual therapy treatment

As ever, thank you for reading.