Hi!! I would like to talk to you about a common mistake in which we're experts. PAIN

FRIEND OR FOE?

We have always seen pain as that NUISANCE that comes into our lives to stop us living them in peace. And everything around us keeps reinforcing the idea that it's something we must reject, avoid and suppress at all costs. Hence the enormous spending on paracetamol, ibuprofen and the like.

But... do you really know what pain is??

When your stomach hurts, do you go to the doctor and take something to kill the bug torturing you? I'm sure the answer is YES, and... does it get better? Yes again!

When you get injured... do you avoid the movement that hurts? If you kept putting your foot down the same way after spraining your ankle... what do you think would happen? You would end up breaking everything!!

On the other hand...

How many people have you lost to a heart attack?

To that high blood pressure nobody knew about?

To cancer?

All these conditions are known for not causing pain (unless they're at a very advanced stage); even in the health world high blood pressure is known as "the silent killer".

Having asked you these questions, I put it to you: pain, friend or foe?

I think you're starting to see where I'm going with this.

Pain is simply our body's way of telling us that something doesn't seem right to it. And YES!!! I DID NOT SAY "THAT SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT", I SAID "IT DOES NOT SEEM RIGHT TO IT"!!

Physiology

Let's clarify: physiologically we have receptors in charge of telling the brain when there's damage in our body, called "nociceptors", but these do NOT give us a pain signal; they only tell the brain that something is being damaged. When this information tries to reach the brain to be interpreted, before getting there it passes through the thalamus, the place where emotions are regulated. And... what happens as it passes through? The information from the nociceptors gets mixed with emotions, and the result is a pain signal whose perception will vary depending on those emotions.

To see it more clearly...

Imagine a day when you feel awful, you're flat out on the sofa, with barely enough strength to breathe. Got it?? Now think what would happen if the person you most want to see in your life called you and said they will be at your door in 10 minutes and want to go out for dinner. What happened??

A big smile has probably spread across your face and suddenly... I don't know where from... you have found the energy even to dance!!! Hahaha

The question is... weren't you so ill?? Hehe.

I bet that if you had had a simple whitlow and that tiresome relative you were supposed to meet up with had called you, you would almost have had to go to hospital. Hahaha

It's true that sometimes we add a bit of drama, but it isn't just that.

What happened?

The desire to do the thing you wanted so much produced emotions that meant the pain wasn't received as such a serious threat to your body. Your brain decided it was more important to make you happy.

Our brain is the most powerful computer you can imagine. It receives all the signals coming from both outside and inside the body, processes them and decides which are good for us and which we must avoid.

This means that, among its countless functions, the brain is in charge of looking after us. Obsessed with picking up whatever it considers a threat and making us react to avoid it. Exactly like a first-time mum, hehe.

That sounds perfect, right?? Well, not so much.

Earlier I explained how important it's to feel pain, and it clearly is, but... like a first-time mum... the brain sometimes overdoes the caring too.

Sometimes the emotions we feel are picked up as threats and the body, in some way, also tries to get rid of them.

Let's say we have someone in charge of giving orders in our head. This person receives a signal of excessive stress, increases your breathing and heart rate and even starts stopping you from sleeping well so that you nap during the day. It's telling you to stop! But... you don't stop. The days go by and the stress increases, you go out one slightly chilly night and... a massive flu!!! And it wasn't even that cold. Once again, your body has lowered your defences and is trying to put you to bed; it's asking you to switch off and look after yourself. But... you don't. What will happen?? Well, your body will try, in every way it can think of, to slow you down, and it won't stop until it succeeds.

Maybe that sprain from years ago starts bothering you again, or new pains appear that you can't get rid of. All of it, until you stop!!

If we think about all this, we realise that these pains don't necessarily have to be real injuries; there doesn't have to be damage to our tissues: our body is simply trying to avoid this threat (stress or other things) in whatever way it can afford.

Having looked at pain from different situations...

What should we remember?

That the mix of damage to our tissues and our emotions is what will give us one level of pain or another. (So damage, such as simply sitting for a long time and needing to change position, is detected by the brain as damage, even if we don't consider it pain. But if we aren't well emotionally, we may perceive this discomfort as pain.)

That pain is simply your body asking for your attention, that you must learn to listen to it and, most importantly, make decisions to help it get rid of these threats. (Whatever kind they may be)

That we're recently learning techniques to tell the brain that the threat is over. (Right now I'm preparing a programme focused on fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.)

And most importantly: that you have in your hands the power to leave pain behind; you just need to find the way to guide it.

I already try to make my patients aware of this, but with this post I would like to reach more people and so do my bit to help you overcome your aches and pains.

As always, there's a link to the scientific evidence above. But this time I want to recommend the book "Explain Pain" by the renowned researchers Lorimer Moseley and David Butler.

See you soon!!

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