Chronic Pain – So much more than just physical pain receptors!

Acupuncture license renewed! This year the Oregon Medical Board required everyone to take an online course on “Changing the Conversation on Pain,” which was as cheesy and awkward as you’d expect a state government-produced video to be, but contained excellent information on how mood, nutrition, movement, social contact, and cultural factors (stress / bad care from racism, etc) can impact chronic perception of pain. They even covered neuroplasticity (how the brain changes) and becomes “better” at creating pain.

Our perception of pain has more to do with how our nervous system is reacting than the actual level of damage!

By understanding the how and why of this, we can stop the ramping up and quiet the alarm bells. This both reduces the amount of pain you perceive in the moment, and allows the movement you need to heal. This is all stuff I’ve learned before, but I’m super excited the OMB is forcing ALL practitioners to hear it, because based on what my patients tell me, most docs are still just pushing drugs and PT.

I’ve lived this personally – you feel lousy, so you quit moving, eat garbage, and watch TV. Then you feel worse and the chronic pain cycle continues.

Instead, making small incremental changes (some stretches, an apple instead of chips, shifting your internal monologue) can literally reduce how much pain you experience… which frees you up to move a little more, cook something, see a friend… and you feel slightly better! Gradually, you start the cycle towards improvement.

I’m NOT saying smile and ignore it – pain is real! But making these adjustments will retrain your brain. Every little bit helps.