What is Pain?
Pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”
Pain is not a reaction from your skin or extremities- it is actually your brain responding to stimulus from actual tissue damage, perceived tissue damage, and emotional or psychological experiences. Let me explain in a little more detail with the following:
Actual tissue damage- You are bleeding or bruised and your brain goes- “that is a problem, signal danger so they get away from whatever is causing the damage” and you then feel pain.
Perceived damage- your brain might have misinterpreted a signal (coming up from your body) as a damage alarm. Your brain is like a MASSIVE board of wires. Sometimes, information jumps from one wire to the next and winds up on the wrong track. Your brain then gets the wrong signal and says that there is danger.
If you have chronic pain, the brain tends to want to protect the area that has previously been hurt. It tends to be on HIGH alert at all times in case something was to happen again, even if there isn’t anything to cause that “alarm” to go off. So, when even the smallest input comes it, that small signal tells the brain that there is danger and you (the person) get to feel that pain all over again.
Emotions can cause the same chemicals to be released in the brain that are released when there is damage within the body. Therefore, your emotions can cause physical pain. Think about a time when you have experienced a bad breakup. Your probably felt the physical manifestations of emotional pain in the form of stomach aches, decreased energy, headaches and other physical symptoms that were really due to the emotional turmoil that you were feeling.
Phase of Pain
Pain is separated into the “acute pain” and “chronic pain” based on how long you have had the pain and healing that is occurring, or has already occurred, within your body.
If you have been experiencing pain for less than 3 months, we generally call that acute pain. This type of pain generally resolves on its own and in a linear fashion (i.e. the more time that goes on, the less it hurts).
For example, you are running, step in a pot hole and sprain your ankle. It should heal in less than 3 months for most people. While its healing, your pain should be steadily decreasing over time and eventually it doesn’t hurt any more.
However, not all pain goes away when the injury is healed. That is when we start getting into chronic pain. This type of pain lasts for more than 3 months and it is generally associated with tissue damage that has since healed, but the brain has not stopped sending pain signals (this does not apply to all damage that has gone on for 3 months- some things just take a while to heal; i.e. Knee/ACL surgery). When we continue to have these signals go out, the body stays on “high alert” and any/all other non-damaging stimuli can be perceived as damaging.
For example, your back has been hurting on and off again for over a year. But even when it doesn’t hurt and you wear High-Waisted Jeans, you always seem to get a little bit more pain or discomfort. —> This is because your non-damaging jeans are triggering your body, that is already on high alert, to believe there is something bad happening. And you get to be in more pain… again.
Pain Changes You
If you have ever experienced chronic pain, it is not impossible to get out of the pain cycle but it does take work. Being in pain for long periods of time has shown to have significant effects on your quality of life as well as your physical structure. For those with chronic pain, it has been shown that your brain is actually 11% smaller. Not because you were born that way, but because your brain has been dealing with pain for so long. The brain has had a physiological reaction and lost some of its physical size. This has significant impacts on how you tolerate pain, and could even affect your ability to think and problem solve. It has also been found that those with chronic pain have a significantly decreased sex drive compared to healthy counterparts. Chronic Pain affects more than just your body- it affects your family and relationships too.
Men vs. Women
Furthermore, research has found that pain is not the same between men and women. This is due to the fact that men have less nerve endings than women; they have a lesser number of signals going from the body to the brain. Therefore, it isn’t really shocking that women report pain at lower intensities, are more apt to go to the doctor for pain, and experience greater numbers of chronic pain and disability as a result of pain compared to men.
Scientists are even beginning to find that women and men process pain medications differently on a molecular level. They have done studies that show where the brain lights up when pain inputs are sent to the brain. A woman’s limbic system, or the emotional system of the brain, tends to light up when interpreting a tissue damage signal (pain). For men, the cognitive and analytical areas of the brain show increased function when a tissue damage signal is received. Science has also noted that women perceive tissue damage signals and react faster than men do on a subconscious level (aka the fight or flight system is used earlier women then men).
Hormones
As a final note for women, hormones affect how you perceive and react to tissue damage stimuli. They affect your reactions to these stimuli as well. When there are increased levels of Estrogen, women experience greater releases of the chemicals inside the brain that help you deal with pain. However, when you are at the end and beginnings of your cycle, there is significantly less Estrogen present. This might cause you to experience more pain, or have a greater reaction to bump or bruise then you would normally have if you were in the middle of your cycle.
Summary
Pain is a massively large topic. It is dependent upon the person, their experiences, how their body functions, their sex, their hormone levels, how long the pain has been present, how good their bodies are at healing… the list can probably go ON and ON. Scientists are learning more and more about pain each day.
If you are experiencing pain and are looking for a solution- feel free to get into contact with me. Pain is something that I am on a mission to correct for each and every person I meet!
Talk to you soon!
<3 Dr. Paige
Owner/Physical Therapist for Recharged Performance Therapy
Paige@RechargedPerformanceTherapy.com
(321) 802-1630