The Birth of Chronic Pain

Pain is a fascinating concept. I didn't think much about pain until I got sick about seven years ago. I experienced pain like no other and I was pushed to points I thought were not possible. That's when I started thinking more about the origin of pain and its staying power and truly trying to understand the philosophy of pain.

A pain impulse usually starts its trip along the pain pathway when you suffer an injury or illness.

Let's take a look at an example: Let's say you cut your finger.

Have you ever noticed that when you cut your finger you first feel the sensation of being cut before you feel the pain from it? That happens because you have separate nerves for touch and for pain. And the touch nerves send signals much faster than pain nerves.

Your touch nerve signals travel to the brain as fast as 200 miles per hour while the pain signals travel at around 40 miles per hour and chronic pain signals travel as slow as 3 miles per hour.

Going back to our example, when you cut your finger you tend to instinctually rub it because it relieves some of the pain and makes your finger feel better. The reason it feels better is because those fast touch signals outrun the slower pain signals. By the time the pain signals reach the pain gates they are so overcrowded with touch signals that the pain signals have a hard time getting through.

I learned early on that you could outsmart pain. And one technique I used was exactly like the example above; I gave my "nervous system a competing source of input" one that was faster than the pain signal. That was one of the first anti-pain strategies I learned and I used it often.

Throughout my health journey, I learned that there were many techniques to providing competing sources of input to my nervous system. It can be done pharmacologically, mechanically, electrically and, the most powerful tool of all, it can be done with your thoughts.

When pain signals start their journey up your spinal cord working their way to your brain they automatically trigger the release of chemicals that help them travel to the brain. These are called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters carry pain signals from one nerve cell to the next. These are the same neurotransmitters that your brain uses to carry all your thoughts and feelings.

"The three neurotransmitters that ship pain signals to the brain are substance P, NMDA (n-methyl-d-aspartate), and glutamate. Of these, substance P seems to be the most active, and most important. Without these three substances - especially substance P-pain - signals have a much harder time reaching the brain. However, if there is an excess of any of these three substances, pain signals have a much easier time reaching the brain."

Another technique to controlling or manipulating pain signal is through the use of pharmaceuticals, over the counter medication and even acupuncture. By using these products the production of neurotransmitters can be decreased therefore altering the pain pathway. "Here's more good news: The body, in its natural, innate wisdom, has its own way of keeping these pain neurotransmitters from flooding the brain, and overwhelming us with pain. The body forces these pain chemicals to travel through a pain gate that sits near the back of the spinal cord. This pain gate is composed of a substance that has the consistency of jelly' it's called the substantia gelatinosa of the dorsal horn."

Thus, another technique to controlling pain: supporting the health and function of this gate. To have a well-tuned, healthy and high functioning gate you have to have a healthy nervous system. If your nervous system is stressed, exhausted or is not getting the nourishment it needs, this gate will lose its efficiency.

So, the better your overall health, the higher your pain threshold.

But NO matter what you do some of those annoying pain signals are going to make their way to the brain. And it's a good thing because without those signals we wouldn't know when we were in danger or if our bodies were suffering from disease.

So, if the pain signals have breached the gate, where to next? The pain signals enter an area of the brain called the thalamus. This is kind of like a way station for all incoming physical signals.

Once the signal enters the thalamus it is then sent to two other areas of the brain, the cortex, which does all your thinking and your limbic system, which handles all your emotions.

Once these two areas have gotten the signals they have a bit of a chat, they compare notes and try to decide just how serious this pain is. They look at the intensity of the signal, the frequency and how long the signals have lasted.

The limbic system and cortex come to a conclusion, they decide either that the situation is not serious or they deem it a major emergency and sound the alarm. If it is determined that the situation is not serious then signals are sent to the body to relax and signals are sent to the neurotransmitters to start pumping out that all so relaxing chemical called serotonin. Soon the pain subsides and things go back to normal. But if the system decides it's a full-blown emergency things start hopping.

A red alert from the limbic system and cortex sends a signal to the neurotransmitters to start producing norepinephrine, which is a form of adrenaline. This sets of the classic symptoms of "fight or flight response." "Your blood vessels constrict, your heart pounds, your muscles tighten, and your nerves go "on edge," as they wait for further problems.

This is when things can really go wrong and it can be the beginning of Chronic Pain if your bodies counterattack does not work properly. "The bodies counterattack has to be just right, not too much and not too little. If the body over or under responds it can contribute to the malfunction of the nervous system leading to the creation of chronic pain."

You see, during this "fight or flight response" your body must find a balance between the production of the stimulating effect of norepinephrine and the calming effect of serotonin. When your body is alarmed, it badly needs the production of serotonin to help calm it down and close the pain gates. The problem comes in because when you feel alarmed you tend to become more alarmed which in itself is alarming, leading to the overproduction of norepinephrine which leaves the pain gates open and at times even jams them open indefinitely.

So now more problems start to arise, the brain begins to closely monitor the injured area via the nervous system. The nerves around the injury then become more sensitive creating pain in areas that are not even injured. Now we have even more pain signals heading toward the brain and when the brain receives those signals it sensitizes the area even more contributing to the cycle of pain. To add to the problem pain signals can also jump from one nerve to another. This creates pain stimuli in a nerve that previously had no pain leading to more pain signals heading to the brain, which of course contributes to the perpetuation of the cycle of pain.

However, the healthier your nervous system and the more you nurture your nervous system the less likely it is that this cycle will occur. A healthier nervous system creates thicker sheaths around your nerves; it's like a little insulated jacket, which helps prevent these "neurological leaks."

The more pain cycles that are created, sometimes millions of times per hour, the more ingrained the cycle becomes. It is as if it becomes engraved in your nervous system. "Pain signals literally become a physical part of the anatomy of your nervous system, just like the memories that are engraved in your brain. Thus, the Birth of Chronic Pain.

Many of the quotes and excerpts above are from The Pain Cure: The Proven Medical Program that Helps End Your Chronic Pain by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. with Cameron Stauth.. In this book you will find an in-depth overview of how chronic pain is created and methods you can use to overcome pain.

To learn more about my health story go to My Journey.

Take the conscious road to authentic power!

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