Description of Types of Pain
We have more words to describe pain than an Eskimo does for snow. Describing pain accurately is essential in manual therapy, as it helps in identifying potential physiological pathologies. Here’s a list of pain descriptors along with their commonly associated physiological pathologies:
- Aching: Often associated with muscle strain, overuse, or chronic conditions like arthritis or fibromyalgia.
- Sharp: Can indicate acute injuries, such as a muscle tear or a herniated disc, and sometimes nerve impingement.
- Throbbing: Commonly linked to migraines, headaches, or inflammation, as it often correlates with the pulsing of blood vessels.
- Radiating: This type of pain, spreading from one area to another, is frequently seen in nerve irritation or compression, such as sciatica.
- Tingling: Usually related to nerve compression or damage, neuropathy, or conditions like diabetes affecting nerve function.
- Burning: Often indicative of nerve damage, such as in neuropathies, or conditions like complex regional pain syndrome.
- Stiff: Typically associated with joint disorders like osteoarthritis, or muscle tightness and spasm.
- Tender: This is often found in areas of local inflammation, injury, or with conditions like tendinitis.
- Shooting: Commonly related to nerve pain or neuropathy, where pain travels along the path of the nerve.
- Cramping: Usually due to muscle spasms, electrolyte imbalances, or dehydration.
- Nagging: Often associated with chronic pain conditions, such as chronic lower back pain or osteoarthritis.
- Heavy: This sensation is sometimes reported in chronic fatigue syndrome or venous insufficiency.
- Dull: Frequently related to chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia or long-standing injuries.
- Piercing: Often associated with acute conditions like acute gout flares or acute disc herniation.
- Gnawing: Commonly seen in conditions like peptic ulcers or chronic gastritis.
- Lancinating: Often described in nerve pain conditions, such as trigeminal neuralgia.
- Electric: Typically related to nerve injuries, like in a pinched nerve or multiple sclerosis.
- Sore: Commonly due to muscle overuse, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), or mild musculoskeletal injuries.
- Stabbing: Can be a feature of conditions like acute appendicitis or renal colic.
- Twisting: Sometimes associated with spasmodic pain, as seen in certain gastrointestinal conditions or in ovarian torsion.
Understanding these pain descriptors in the context of their associated physiological pathologies can be highly beneficial for manual therapists and bodyworkers, aiding in the diagnosis and in tailoring specific treatment plans, especially in practices like fascial manipulation which rely heavily on the accurate assessment of pain characteristics.
Additionally using a scale can be very helpful. I usually ask “On a scale from 1-10, with 10 being high, what is the pain level.”
Visualization for Pain Management
Visualization techniques for managing pain involve using mental imagery to reduce the perception of pain. These techniques can be particularly helpful as they are non-invasive and can be used alongside other pain management strategies. Here’s an overview of how visualization can be used for pain management:
- Understanding the Pain: Before using visualization, it’s important to accurately describe and understand the pain. This includes identifying its location, quality (sharp, dull, throbbing, etc.), intensity, and any triggers or alleviating factors.
- Creating a Mental Image: The person is encouraged to create a mental image that represents their pain. This could be a symbol, a color, or any object that they associate with their pain. This image is then used as a focal point in the visualization process.
- Transforming the Image: During the visualization, the individual imagines changing the pain image in a way that represents pain relief. For example, if the pain is visualized as a red, throbbing ball, they might imagine it cooling down, changing color, shrinking, or moving away from the body.
- Guided Imagery: This involves listening to guided instructions, often from a therapist or a recording, that leads the person through a series of relaxing images and scenarios. This can help distract the mind from pain and induce a state of relaxation.
- Mindfulness and Relaxation: Visualization techniques are often combined with mindfulness and relaxation practices. By focusing on the breath or engaging in progressive muscle relaxation, individuals can further reduce their pain perception.
- Regular Practice: Like any skill, visualization for pain management becomes more effective with regular practice. Over time, individuals may find it easier to control their pain through these techniques.
- Scientific Basis: Research indicates that visualization can alter the way the brain processes pain signals, leading to reduced pain perception. It engages parts of the brain involved in pain perception, offering a form of cognitive pain relief.
- Personalization: It’s important to personalize visualization techniques to the individual’s experiences, preferences, and the nature of their pain. What works for one person may not be as effective for another.
Visualization for pain management is often used in conjunction with other treatments like medication, physical therapy, or psychological support. It’s always advisable to consult healthcare professionals for a comprehensive pain management plan.
PAIN AND TENSEGRITY
Although pain is a function of a range of pathologies, from a Tensegrity Biomechanics viewpoint all of these types of pain can be an expression of unbalanced nodal stress/strain – where one(or more) node in the tensegrity structure is responding outside of its functional scope. This is more likely true if the pain response initiates in a specific posture or gait pattern. If this is the case, Manual Therapy treatment will likely be beneficial.
ORIGINS OF PAIN
Musculoskeletal pain is a primal cognition we inherited from our ancient antecedents. It functions in animal morphology to drive compensations in movement patterns that assist healing. In animals within their natural habitat, this is counterbalanced by the necessity to move. If they want to eat or not be eaten they will move regardless of their level of pain. In our developed surroundings we generally no longer experience this constraint and consequently while healing, we adopt the compensatory movement patterns without the counterbalancing call to action. Doing so usually results in adhesions and congestion within the connective tissue matrix that can remain chronically painful. In the wild, these adhesions resolve through movement, as movement optimization is crucial, and animals move continually (with exceptions).
For us, inhabiting our energy-dense built surroundings substituting for physical effort, these adhesions can persist indefinitely. Fortunately, it is possible to address connective tissue adhesions and congestion with manual or movement therapies.
Musculoskeletal pain is a part of a dynamic system that evolved as an attribute of movement.