Where Did That Pain That Came Out Of Nowhere Really Come From And How Do I Get Rid Of It?
Over 30 years of practice, the phrase that I have heard more than any other when asking patients about their pain has been "It just came out of nowhere". Pain is unpleasant. When it seems to come out of nowhere it can be downright scary. The truth is: It NEVER comes out of nowhere. There is always a cause. And because there is always a cause, that cause can be corrected in most cases and the pain will, to use another popular phrase, "go away as quickly as it came".
Although the pain mechanism is very sophisticated and complex, it can be described simply. There are special nerve endings all over the body that transmit signals through nerves which join bundles of nerves that enter the spinal cord and go to the brain. Only after the brain interprets one of these signals as pain do we say "Ouch!". So, we have a nerve ending, a nerve, the spinal cord, and the brain involved in a painful sensation.
These nerve endings exist all over the body. That's why they have a "threshold" of pressure or inflammatory chemicals that must be crossed before the nerve ending will "fire". Otherwise, every touch would hurt. So, you have to enough pressure or the inflammation has to be great enough to cause the nerve ending to fire or you won't even know anything is going on. The nerve endings that register pain are like switches, not dimmers. They are either on or off. The intensity of pain is caused by the number of them that are firing. Â
Imagine that you are sitting in a room reading. Someone on the other side of the wall where the switch is located is pushing it down very slowly. You have no idea that anything is going on at all until the switch hits that point where the contact is broken and the light suddenly goes off. It happened out of nowhere as far as you are concerned.Â
Something similar happens inside your body. The pressure or inflammation builds up slowly over days, weeks, months, or even years, but you have no idea of what is happening until there is enough to cause the nerve ending to fire. Then, you show up at the chiropractor's office and tell him: "It just came out of nowhere!"
After taking a history and doing an examination, the chiropractor will decide whether or not he can help you. If he can, he will perform a chiropractic adjustment to an area that has lost its normal position and motion. By restoring normal motion, the pressure will come off the nerve ending and the inflammation will also subside. That is how a chiropractic adjustment gives such quick, sometimes even immediate, relief to a painful area without the use of harmful drugs or dangerous surgery.Â
Once the pain is gone, your chiropractor and you can get to the important business of restoring normal function to the formerly painful area so that irreparable damage will not occur. Remember, pain is only a signal, not the problem.
Although the pain mechanism is very sophisticated and complex, it can be described simply. There are special nerve endings all over the body that transmit signals through nerves which join bundles of nerves that enter the spinal cord and go to the brain. Only after the brain interprets one of these signals as pain do we say "Ouch!". So, we have a nerve ending, a nerve, the spinal cord, and the brain involved in a painful sensation.
These nerve endings exist all over the body. That's why they have a "threshold" of pressure or inflammatory chemicals that must be crossed before the nerve ending will "fire". Otherwise, every touch would hurt. So, you have to enough pressure or the inflammation has to be great enough to cause the nerve ending to fire or you won't even know anything is going on. The nerve endings that register pain are like switches, not dimmers. They are either on or off. The intensity of pain is caused by the number of them that are firing. Â
Imagine that you are sitting in a room reading. Someone on the other side of the wall where the switch is located is pushing it down very slowly. You have no idea that anything is going on at all until the switch hits that point where the contact is broken and the light suddenly goes off. It happened out of nowhere as far as you are concerned.Â
Something similar happens inside your body. The pressure or inflammation builds up slowly over days, weeks, months, or even years, but you have no idea of what is happening until there is enough to cause the nerve ending to fire. Then, you show up at the chiropractor's office and tell him: "It just came out of nowhere!"
After taking a history and doing an examination, the chiropractor will decide whether or not he can help you. If he can, he will perform a chiropractic adjustment to an area that has lost its normal position and motion. By restoring normal motion, the pressure will come off the nerve ending and the inflammation will also subside. That is how a chiropractic adjustment gives such quick, sometimes even immediate, relief to a painful area without the use of harmful drugs or dangerous surgery.Â
Once the pain is gone, your chiropractor and you can get to the important business of restoring normal function to the formerly painful area so that irreparable damage will not occur. Remember, pain is only a signal, not the problem.
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