The Odd Thing about Pain (and Pain Relief)

Finding pain relief can be complicated, not just because the detective process of connecting the dots to the root of the pain is hard, but pain itself is complicated. 

Consider this about pain: 50-80 percent of amputees experience phantom limb pain for years after the limb is gone. While initially there was tissue damage, after healing, the pain remained in a limb that is no longer there. So why is that? Well, pain is odd and fickle, something that the amazingly approachable illustrated book—Pain in Really Strange—illustrates well.  Many times pain may indicate actual tissue damage (like a sprained ankle, broken toe, ruptured tendon), but there are other times it is a multi-faucets sensation from the body that might not be linked to any damage of the tissue. 

The Experience of Pain

There’s also this: even when pain is linked to tissue damage, the experience of pain by someone varies. Many people might have over- or under-active responses to pain. And what’s more some can momentarily shut it out. For example, Kerri Strug competed in the 1996 Olympics in gymnastics with a severely injured ankle to win the Americans the gold with her memorable vault performance, and Manteo Mitchell competed in the 4x400-meter relay at the 2012 Olympics with a broken tibia. There is also cases of the flip side, consider the patient who feels pain at the slightest touch, a condition called hyperalgesia. 

There’s still a lot we don’t know about pain, but what we do know is that pain is a protective mechanism that involves many systems of the body. In addition, chronic pain can actually make pain worse and can lower the threshold to noxious (harmful: for example, like a hot stove) stimulus—which mean that your body needs less and less noxious stimulus to create a cascade of reactions. And lastly—sometime most profoundly—our perception of pain can influence the pain itself. Lorimer Mosley, a prolific Australian pain science professor, illustrates pain and what it is in an entertaining video called Tame the Beast.

How to Work with Pain

What this DOES NOT mean is that pain is all in your head. What is means is that there are a myriad of ways to address pain, first beginning with the relationship we have to our pain. Research shows that acupuncture affects pain by releasing beta endorphins (natural pain reliever), as well as affecting the limbic system (which affects the perception of pain) and reducing inflammation, which can trigger a pain response.

When pain isn’t linked to tissue damage, it is sometimes associated with chronic overuse or misuse of tissue  that can potentially lead to the development of trigger points.  For example, over time the effects of  poor posture, intense athletic training or dysfunctional movement patterns by an athlete or recreational hobbyist can be linked to the development of trigger points. This is especially true if there isn’t a solid practice of creating balance in the body and focusing of correct form in a given movement. 

However, just because someone has bad posture or centers their life (or all their free time) around a sport, doesn’t mean that they will definitely have pain. 

These constant repetitive motions during work (think of the painter) or play (the constant one-sided swing of a golf club) can cause issues in the myofascial systems of the body (myofascial = muscles + fascia).

Acupuncture—especially Acupuncture Physical Medicine, a style that the Balance Point Acupuncture is well trained in—can make a huge difference in the myofascial systems of the body and active trigger points causing pain. Feel like this is you? It might be time to book an appointment.