Education is one of the tools we as physiotherapists use to help you get better and stay better. With all our clients, our physiotherapists allocate extra time for education during our Results for Life appointment at no extra charge. One topic your physiotherapist may discuss is pain science, as research shows it must be completed in many musculoskeletal conditions.
Pain science education is the discussion of the cause and reason why we feel pain. Within our body there are danger detectors called nociceptive neurons that can detect changes in temperature, chemicals, or touch. Once our danger detectors pick up these changes, a message of danger is sent to our nervous system (all the nerves within the body and spinal cord, and all the areas of the brain). Once that danger message is received in our nervous system, it is then categorised as a danger worthy of a response or something that will not cause you harm. An example of this is a brush of a stick against your leg when walking in the local park, or bleeding from a cut in your hand.
Our nervous system looks at our past experiences of these dangers and decides whether we need to change our activity or continue as normal. If you have been bitten by an ant or insect on your leg previously, your nervous system will remember that time and how you may have had an allergic reaction to that bite. Now when you are walking in the local park and you feel something sharp on the outside of your leg, your nervous system will recall your previous experience of an allergic reaction and make you feel a large degree of pain in your leg so you cannot think of anything else. This might make you yell in pain or fall over and want to seek immediate medical treatment, however when you look at your leg, you realise it was just a stick that scratched you. This demonstrates how pain is an experience that our nervous system creates from our previous experiences, environment, and emotional state. When people have chronic health conditions or experience pain for long periods of time, our nervous system becomes heightened or more switched on and ready for these danger messages (touch, temperature, chemicals), causing us to experience pain even more.
Give our clinic a call on 8269 3800 to book an appointment where we can help you to reduce the danger messages and reduce pain to support you to stay better and be better.
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