Massage Therapy & Chronic Pain Series - Part 1
What is Chronic Pain?
In this 4 part series I will talk about what is chronic pain and where it can come from; chronic pain coming from our nervous system; chronic pain coming from physical trauma & biomechanical dysfunctions; and lastly, chronic pain from genetic/ autoimmune issues & chronic inflammation. I hope to give you some insight into ways of managing your chronic pain that you may not have thought of yet. Chronic pain is defined as any pain lasting more than 12 weeks. While seemingly a simple explanation, it really is a vague term that can include a range of intensities and types of pain.
People can have a nagging aching pain, sharp stabbing pain, muscle pain, or nerve pain. They can have pain in one spot that doesn’t change, pain that moves around their body, or even pain that happens in many spots simultaneously.
There are many reasons why people end up in chronic pain:
- physical and/or mental trauma
- long-term biomechanical dysfunctions and mal-alignments
- genetic predispositions like arthritis
- autoimmune disorders
- chronic inflammation that can come from traumas, regular irritation through poor alignment and job/life repetitive use, or food sensitivities and allergies.
These just name a few and often people have more than one of the different reasons that together all lead to a state of chronic pain.
It can be overwhelming to be in this place and some may give up trying to change their chronic pain. It is important to be realistic with your goals depending on the causes of this pain. However, there are often things that you can still do that may ease the pain, giving you a decreased intensity and/or frequency even for a short term. So what are the things you can do? Well first we need to break down some of the causes, as they will be approached differently.
Check out my next blog in the series: Chronic Pain Stemming from the Nervous System