What is pain, and how do we treat it?

By understanding how we process pain, we can find pain relief without causing injury

Pain can be debilitating and can adversely affect our quality of life. It also affects everyone differently; what might be a minor irritation for one person, could be an unbearable ache for another. The key to tackling pain management is to understand what pain is and how our bodies and minds process it.

Physiotherapist Curtis Tait explains how medical science’s interpretation of pain has evolved over the years, and why it’s important these days to stay active while dealing with your pain - without overdoing it.

How the perception of pain has evolved:

The Old View of Pain

In former times, pain meant damage to a body part. It was thought that the body sent a pain signal to the brain informing it of damage. This led to a mentality of “always listening to the pain” and resting up. We now know that the body actually does not have any pain receptors or send pain signals to the brain. Instead we have receptors which warn us about potential harm (nociceptors). Crucially, these cannot tell the difference between potential and actual harm.

A Sport & Performance Attitude to Pain

This is the “No pain, no gain” attitude that is commonly found among athletes or die-hard exercisers, and is often accompanied by the belief that “pain should be ignored.” However, training to improve performance is always a matter of balancing enough stress to create physical improvement, but not so much that we cause injury.

Modern Pain Science

We now know that pain is an output of the brain. It is a behaviour modifier, meaning that your body and brain are trying to get your attention and warn you that something might be wrong. Pain is also influenced by all of our senses, our past experiences, as well as our emotional state. As an example, professional violin players will report pain in their pinky finger at a lower temperature and pressure than the rest of us, demonstrating greater sensitivity since this finger is vitally important to both playing the violin and to them as an individual (Zamorano et al., 2015).

“Pain is your brain and body’s assessment of your own health, and it can be influenced by many things.”

Pain is A Sign That Something May Be Wrong

The bottom line is that pain can be helpful in that it serves a purpose. It acts as the messenger that alerts you when something in your body may be hurt. But it is just the messenger and not the problem.

Pain is your brain and body’s assessment of your own health, and it can be influenced by many things. The big takeaway is that pain does not always mean damage, so it’s important to have your pain correctly assessed so that you can work with it and treat it to find relief.

Physiotherapy for Pain Treatment

A good physiotherapy treatment program can help with hands-on treatment, exercise recommendations, and education to help get you moving and be pain-free again. At Tall Tree Health, our Registered Physiotherapists are leaders, educators, and innovators in their field, and you can expect the highest standard of care.

Look for Part Two of this post where we dive into How to be active with pain. 

Curtis Tait, Physiotherapist

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