PAIN SCIENCE

Pain is a very complicated concept that we have discussed before on our blog. When talking about chronic pain there are so many different things that can cause that chronic pain, that it gets difficult to decipher what is relevant to you. In this scenario, we are strictly discussing chronic pain that there is no medical explanation for. For example, if someone is having shoulder pain and there have been countless tests that come up with nothing. In this case, the person is having medically unexplainable pain on a daily or every other day basis. Pain science gives two possible explanations for this chronic pain.

The first one is that the connections between the area that is in pain and the brain. These connections are what cause pain, and if there was past issue that was causing pain, it makes those connections stronger. This is because the more that the stimuli goes to the brain from these connections, the more they are used, which makes the connection stronger. As the connection gets stronger, it takes less stimuli to cause a reaction through the connection. For example, if

you are hiking through an unmarked part of the forest, it will be difficult at first. As you and friends continue to go through that same path, the once difficult path will start to become less and less difficult to travel through. The same thing goes for these pain pathways. As the pathway is used more and more, it is easier for the stimuli to reach the brain. Now as your actual physical trauma goes away, you may still feel pain even if there is no physical reason for it because these pathways are paved out and your body is used to sending stimuli through it to your brain. 

The second possibility that is explained by pain science is more psychosocial. This can be a hard statement because no one wants to hear that their pain is not physically real, but in some cases, the pain is a psychologically driven pain that is not physical connected. It is important to understand that it is not saying that you pain is not real, it is that your pain is not caused by physical factors, but physiological factors. 

Pain science is a continuing research program that is trying to understand more about pain, it's causes, and how the pain can be stopped. Just because one may not have a medical reason for their

pain, does not make it "made up" or not "real." Pain can be misunderstood sometimes, and it is pain science's mission to try and understand the chronic pain in everyone's life.

All of the information above was referenced from the article in Massage and Bodywork called "Pain Science Research Meets the Massage Therapy Profession" and was written by Whitney Lowe.

 

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