Pain and Perception, What is normal to when pain becomes Chronic

Pain is a vital sensory sense that we need to be able to survive but when it is felt at the inappropriate time it can turn one's life upside down.In an ideal scenario Pain should function as an alert signal to protect us from further injury but when it becomes chronic and persistent and is no long associated with a threat or injury it quickly can become debilitating.In this episode we explore how pain messages are relayed from the periphery to the spinal cord and up to the brain for perception. We discuss how the brain has ways to adapt to pain and modify pain from perception as well as modifying at the level of the spinal cord.We also discuss how we have many other pleasant senses that are there to be felt before pain and ultimate protect us from long term pain.Pain can be divided up neurologically in 2 main ways, Peripheral pain and central pain. Peripheral pain refers to the receptors in the skin that sense pain, the wires and pathways that bring them to the spinal cord and the biochemistry that can increase how easy these nerves can relay brain to the central nervous system. Central pain refers to the brain and the spinal cord and how pain can become intensified due to failure in these central systems.Quick example when someone gives you an anti-inflammatory they are trying to modify pain in the periphery versus when one is prescribed an SSRI medication it is looking to target central mechanisms modifying pain.This episode starts to dig into why pain pathways can become chronically turned on and what things need to be considered.We also discuss what labs can help identify some sticking points in why the pain has become chronic.This will likely morph into a second and third podcast where we go deeper into more and more of the biochemistry, lifestyle influences as well as our team approaches and our therapies we often use to break the cycle of chronic pain for our patients.We hope you enjoy!