Persistent Pain or Chronic Pain

We all feel pain from time to time. When someone injures themselves, specific nerves recognise this as pain, which in turn triggers the body’s repair mechanism. As the tissues repair, the pain tends to improve and usually disappears. This type of pain could be argued to be beneficial: if it hurts, you are likely to try and adapt doing whatever it is that has caused the pain, in the future, so you are less likely to injure yourself in that way again.

Occasionally the pain continues even after tissue healing has finished. When pain continues after this point, it becomes known as persistent or chronic pain. This type of pain is not beneficial and in the illustration of walking; what happens is that the person will get better at using their compensatory pattern. Walking slowly, differently, shorter steps, rather than truly improving their control of balance, leading to further injury.

Persistent pain is very common and effects over 14 million people in the UK alone. It often does not respond to conventional medical interventions and needs a different kind of approach, but there are many things that you can do to manage your pain yourself with the support of your osteopath, your family and loved-ones.

Keeping active, performing exercises and stretches can help, learning to pace your activities as well as treatment, are all very important and can help you to maintain a fulfilling lifestyle.

For more information on how to manage your persistent pain, speak to your osteopath.