Understanding Persisting Chronic Pain
What is Pain?
Pain is a protective response from the brain alerting the body to take action to avoid harm. When pain persists beyond the expected healing times, it is called ‘chronic’ or ‘persisting’ pain.
Everyone’s experience of pain is unique. It can depend on several factors including:
- Mood
- Past pain experience
- Thoughts and beliefs
- Past injury
- Understanding of injury
- Environmental factors and context surrounding injury
This means that two people with the same injury can have different pain experiences.
When Pain becomes unhelpful:
Sometimes pain can persist even once tissues have healed. Rather than protecting the body, chronic pain can start to interfere with a person’s ability to perform normal daily activities. The longer the pain persists, the less reliable it can be at indicating bodily risk of harm.
Currently in Australia, chronic pain effects multiple aspects of life:
- 56% of Australians live with chronic pain that restricts what activities they can undertake.
- 45% of Australians living with chronic pain also experience depression or anxiety.
- 1 in 3 Australians over 65 years are living with chronic pain.
Chronic Pain Management: The Benefits of Exercise for Chronic Pain
Well established research supports regular physical activity to improve pain, function and wellbeing for those with persisting pain. This includes individuals with chronic conditions such as:
- Osteoarthritis
- Neck and back pain
- Shoulder pain
- Fibromyalgia
- Post-surgery pain
Increasing exercise tolerances can result in fewer flare-ups as the system becomes less sensitive. This may take some time to achieve and requires the correct type of exercise, usually prescribed by a professional.
Exercise has positive benefits on different systems including:
- Improved sleep:
- People with poor sleep have been linked to higher pain levels.
- Improved mood, stress and anxiety:
- Exercise results in releasing neurotransmitters which can reduce your pain perception.
- Increased pain tolerance:
- Daily exercise can increase pain tolerance and help participation in previously difficult activities.
- Improved Immune function:
- Exercise reduces systemic inflammation which can improve immune system function, mood and reduce pain.
Final Words:
Chronic or persisting pain effects many Australians, with forecasts showing increased prevalence in the coming years.
By understanding the mechanisms behind pain perception, individuals gain control of their chronic pain.
Specifically, consulting with an exercise physiologist, who is educated in chronic conditions, can assist in increasing exercise participation which is a proved method of improving persisting pain.
Find out how Tailored Exercise Physiology can help you manage your chronic pain.
Resources: Pain-eBook
