A few weeks ago my back started hurting. Nothing terrible. A few needles and it was gone. But it reminded me of my terrible back pain during the winter when I suffered for almost a week.
And it got me thinking about pain. Where did it come from? What was wrong with my body? How did it go away so quickly?
When it comes to pain there is a lot that we know, but also a lot that we don’t fully understand.
The most straightforward definition of pain is: an uncomfortable sensation when specific nerves called nociceptors detect tissue damage and transmit information about the damage along the spinal cord to the brain.
This pain is an uncomfortable signal in your nervous system that something is amiss. It can feel like a prick, tingle, sting, burn or ache.
Pain can come from muscles, tendons, and joints – like neck, back, and knee pain. It can also come from organs that are not functioning properly – like abdominal pain. My focus for now is on musculoskeletal pain.
Pain can be divided into two categories: acute and chronic. Acute pain usually comes on suddenly because of an injury, a disease, stress, or inflammation. It is usually self limiting and often straightforward to treat with heat, rest, stretching, and acupuncture.
Acute pain usually does go away, though sometimes it can turn into chronic pain that lasts for a long time. I find that acute pain that drags on for more than a couple of weeks is more likely to become chronic when left untreated. As you might have guessed, it is usually easier to treat acute pain than chronic pain. It is important to check with your doctor about any pain of unexplained origin that lasts for more than a few weeks.
While most of us don’t like pain – it is actually important – because it serves as a warning to us to pay attention, to rest, to not overuse, and often to seek treatment for the source of the pain.
Finding the source of the pain, however, can sometimes be tricky.
Pain can migrate or radiate from the origin of the pain to a different location. For example I often find that headaches can be referred pain from the neck and upper back muscles. Sometimes leg pain (knee, calf, or heel) can be pain that is referred from misalignment in the lower back.
That means that where you feel the pain might not be the actual source of the pain.
This wandering pain can be attributed to trigger points and dermatomes.
In cases like the headache example above the headache can actually be caused by trigger points in the neck and upper back.
A trigger point is a hyperirritable nodule found in tight bands of muscles. It can be caused by trauma, overuse, repetitive straining or imbalances in alignment. These trigger points can cause pain in areas both close to and sometimes far from their location. The pain follows relatively defined routes in the body. And releasing the trigger point usually eliminates the referred pain – in this case the headache. For more information on trigger points you can click here to check out this amazing resource.
In the second example the leg pain is caused by referred pain from misalignment (or tight and spasming muscles) in the lower back via the dermatome – the nerve path that is supplied by that particular vertebrae.
For example – the heel is innervated by nerves from the fifth lumbar vertebrae so heel pain can be caused by misalignment in the lower back.
Acupuncture is a great way to treat all kinds of pain – including pain from trigger points and dermatomes.
When you come to my clinic for pain treatment I always start with looking for the source of the pain – and then I work at treating, and eliminating, the source of the pain.
So if you are struggling with pain – don’t hesitate to contact me so you can start feeling better ASAP.
