Know pain know gain

 Know pain, know gain

Pain is 100 percent produced by the brain. Pain is based on a perception of threat that requires the brain to take action.For example, in low back pain, irritated tissues send information to the brain, and pain is produced by the brain. Pain grabs the person’s attention and action is taken, such as going to the doctor. Through the ages, medicine has attempted to alter or minimize the danger messages the brain receives. Treatments often aim to decrease the incoming messages and alter the brain’s perception of threat, lessening the pain experience. This is the “bottom-up” approach, and it has its place in treating pain.
However, the “top down” approach is beginning to emerge, which directly targets the brain to influence how it perceives threats. People’s thoughts and beliefs heavily influence their pain experience. For example, orthopedic surgery studies have shown that patients who received “placebo” surgery (no corrective surgical procedure was actually performed) had the same results as patients who received the real surgical procedure. This powerfully illustrates that if the brain believes the threat is decreased, pain is decreased by the brain.
"Research shows that patients who are taught about how pain works can experience less pain, function better, move more easily and exercise more."
Conquering fear
People in pain are interested in their pain. Research shows that patients who are taught about how pain works and what pain really means (therapeutic neuroscience education) can experience less pain, function better, move more easily and exercise more. How does this work? Return to the low back patient. Traditionally, such a patient is shown the “bulging disc model.” They would be told they have a bulging disc, to avoid certain tasks and to be careful not to aggravate the disc. This approach has limited treatment value and actually increases fear, anxiety (threat) and, ultimately, pain.

In contrast, therapeutic neuroscience education teaches people that the nerves in the low back work like an alarm system. When someone hurts their back, their nerves “wake up,” sending messages to their spinal cord and alerting their brain of potential danger. In most people, their alarm system calms down over time, and normal life resumes. In other people, their alarm system remains in an elevated, extra-sensitive state, impacting their activities and movement. In essence, their alarm system is too sensitive.
Training your brain
Now, the discussion focuses on strategies to calm down the nervous system. Strategies include regular exercise, movement and pain education. Research has proven that changing people’s thought processes of why they experience pain, i.e., explaining low back pain is more likely due to extra-sensitive nerves than a bad disc, lessens the perceived threat to their brain. As a result, the brain produces less pain to protect, allowing improved movement, function and quality of life. Pain is a normal human experience – living in pain is not.

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Faheem