Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability Globally. It affects 20% of the world population.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21978149/
In This Article:
Understanding Pain
Pain is a stimulus that tells us that something is wrong. When we are kids and and burn ourselves, maybe eating something too hot or touching a radiator we immediarly stop what we are doing. The sharp painful feeling is alerting us to something dangerous. This is a warning system that protects us immediately, and the shock also teaches us not to repeat the action in the future!
This system works exceptionally well, and keeps us safe. This is the kind of pain you want! But what about the kinds of pain you don’t want?
There Are Two Main Types Of Pain
Pain can be acute or chronic (persistent). Generally speaking, pain helps and protects the injured tissues or injured body parts while they heal. You feel pain in an area of your body while an injury recovery, but when pain continues beyond this time it becomes chronic. You have an underlying condition that won’t get better on it’s own – it needs treatment!
Acute Pain
- Pains
- Sprains
- Broken Limbs
- Injuries etc.
Chronic Pain
- Nociceptive Pain
- Neuropathic Pain
- Nociplastic Pain
Here at My Pain Kit – we don’t tend to focus on Acute pain, because this requires a different treatment strategy. Instead we are more interested in Chronic Pain.
3 Types Of Chronic Pain Explained
Nociceptive Pain
- Sprain to your Ligaments
- Fractures
- Inflammatory Conditions Like Osteoarthritis
Chronic pain can sometimes be a collection of acute pain signals picked up by pain receptors in our ligaments and bones and sent to the brain via your spinal cord – without stopping!
Neuropathic Pain
Neuropathic pain is different. This is pain that was caused by damage to the nerves that relay information from tissues to the brain via the spinal cord.
To give you an example – we have been recently treating man who did a lot of weight-lifting and gym work in the past. The nerve trauma and over-use from years of heavy lifting, and the cholesterol-clogging of the blood-vessels (in his extremities) are combining to create an extremely painful neuropathic condition.
Nociplastic Pain
The third type of pain associated with chronic pain can occur without tissue injury and damage. This is when pain signals from the peripheral nerves to the spinal cord. If the brain can malfunction it can give altered messages of pain or stimuli.
This misinterpretation of pain signals might explain why chronic conditions are so difficult to treat like fibromyalgia as it is more how the brain interprets pain and sensation as to one specific injury.
Chronic Pain Sufferers
There are even more factors which can affect chronic pain sufferers:
- Genetic factors play a role in how our nervous system processes pain
- A person’s emotions and physical response to pain is extremely important. The fear of pain. The fear of making things worse
- Depression, poor sleep and anxiety over long periods have all led to changes in a person’s nervous system and how they interpret pain
- Some people have become dependent on pain-medication, and have developed a habit around the whole ritual of taking their meds – even outside the addictive nature of opiates
Can Chronic Pain Go Away?
This is where the great challenge of chronic pain lies. Patient-centred approaches have huge benefits in people taking back control of their lives. We are hoping THIS is the direction all practitioners are aiming for and changing how they manage chronic pain, in the future.
With our Pain Kits we are hoping to address these issues – because nobody knows your pain like yourself!
Self-management of your pain alongside your treatment professional, we believe, is essential for longer term Pain Treatment.
