Chronic Pain Today

There are many things that go on between the time that you stub your toe and the time that you say “Ow”. It may not seem like enough time, but your body just went into overdrive. Find out what happens when you start to feel pain.

The How of Pain
There are many things that determine how we look at pain. From genetics, to gender, to cultural issues, to psychological makeup, it’s all relative on how we perceive pain. What hurts for me may be only a mild hindrance to you. Women have been shown to have lower pain thresholds and tolerances than men, and men are shown to have been brought up to deal with pain without response.

The Gate-Control Theory
Currently the understanding of chronic pain deals with the gate-control theory. It came about during research from World War II veterans and how they reacted to pain. This theory states that instead of pain messages traveling directly from the stimulus to the brain, they meet with specialized nerve cells in the spinal cord. These nerve cells serve as “gate keepers” and determine what pain gets in and what pain stays out. Severe pain will let these gates go wide and will take an express lane to making you react to pain. Weaker pain will be filtered and shut out from the gate, therefore not reaching you fast. This is also why rubbing a sore muscle or injury will help release pain fighters in the body and make you feel better. It decreases the transmission of those pain signals. The same gate keeper nerve cells will also release chemicals that can intensify pain, called windup or sensitization.

The Chemistry of Pain
Pain will be felt when the receptors in the body (skin, bone, tissues, or joints) are stimulated by injury or by a thread made to the body. These changes are in the nerves, the brain, and in the peripheral tissue. Pain is the interaction between brain chemicals and the nerves of the spinal column, called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters will stimulate the receptors on the surface of the nerve and on the brain cell, and it will let messages travel from one to the other. When you take any pain relieving drug, the drug will act on these receptors.