What is PAIN?

Ok, now we've got the introduction out of the way we need to explore exactly what pain is.

Pain isn't necessarily a negative experience. Its first job is to warn us that an injury has taken place, so the first thing to do is get it checked out by the doctor. Secondly pain is there to stop us doing any further damage whilst the injury heals. Ok, so once the injury has healed the pain should stop.

Most of the time this is the case, but ocassionally the pain remains, or comes back although no further injury takes place. So let's explore a little further about pain.

Pain is a subjective experience. It is created in the brain and we only have the impression that the pain is felt in an area where the injury has taken place. It has to do this in order to protect the area whilst the healing process takes place. Evidence of pain being subjective is: differing thresholds of pain from individual to individual and also pain felt in 'Phantom Limb Pain' (PLP) cases. Another phenomenon recognised by conventional healthcare is 'Pain memory', muscles can store the memory of pain. As we're already aware pain is just an illusion created by the brain so the memory MUST be in the brain and not the muscle.

Of course, not all pain is derived from an individual injury. Pain can be felt through disease so we'll take a look at Arthritis. Here pain can be felt through inflammation, damage to joint tissue, fatigue and stress. With ongoing pain the nerves tend to get into a routine of sending those pain signals, or more to the point the brain expects there to be pain. This can be likened to 'Pain Memory' and can last for years. I have no doubt that a large percentage of Arthritis pain sufferers are doing so unnecessarily.