How to cure pain?

The ability to feel pain is essential for humans and animals to survive. Basically, pain is an alarm system. Its “sensors” – pain receptors – are located in the skin, organs and other tissues. Receptors in the skin react to external trauma – burns or wounds. “Sensors” in the tissues – for internal damage and disease. Most of the time, pain is just a symptom. Chronic, on the other hand, suggests that the problem is much more serious than a cut on the finger or a slightly stretched muscle.

What is the danger of chronic pain

If we grab onto a hot kettle, pain receptors located in the area of ​​damage send a signal to the central nervous system. The brain gives a command, we feel a sharp pain and withdraw our hand. At the same time, the internal anti-pain system of the body is activated, and painkillers – endorphins, serotonin, norepinephrine – begin to flow into the blood. The stronger the pain, the higher the level of these substances in the blood.

The pain suppression system is an evolutionary mechanism, it provides the ability to run away from the danger zone and hide. Therefore, people with the most serious injuries – gunshot wounds, fractures – may initially feel nothing at all. Such pain – it is called acute – passes faster than the wound or burn itself heals.

But sometimes the pain control system breaks down. Pain receptors spontaneously send signals to the central nervous system even after the danger has passed or the person has recovered. The central nervous system becomes overexcited and begins to react inadequately. The work of the pain suppression system is disrupted. Everything has been fine with the body for a long time, but the person still hurts. If the pain continues for more than 3 months, it is called chronic and is considered an independent disease.

Why failures in the work of the nervous system occur, scientists have not yet fully figured out. But it is already known that stress and overwork can contribute to this. And one more fact: the longer a person suffers, the worse the pain suppression system works. I mean, it gets worse and worse. That is why pain should be treated, and not endured and suppressed with pills.

Three kinds of pain

According to statistics, 80% of those who live with constant pain do not go to the doctors. 40% do not believe there is a solution to their problem. 60% self-medicate. And often they do not think about the fact that if drugs are abused, the pain can be caused by the very drugs that should fight it.

Many doctors still do not understand what chronic pain is and how it can be treated. With acute pain, everything is clear – he hit his finger with a hammer, which means that the finger needs to be treated, and everything will pass. This does not work with chronic pain because the real problem is often not where it is felt.

It’s all about the changes that occur in the central nervous system. And to cope with pain, you need to know how they arise. There are three types of pain, and the treatment of each of them requires a different approach.

Nociceptive. It causes hypersensitivity of pain receptors, which most often develops as a result of inflammatory processes. It is characteristic of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, with muscle spasms.

neuropathic. It occurs when the nerve fibers that carry signals from pain receptors to the brain are diseased or damaged. A typical example is postherpetic neuralgia.

Dysfunctional. Changes occur in the brain, but there are no gross pathologies. These are tension headaches, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome.

It is very important to correctly determine what kind of pain your pain belongs to.

Why do we perceive pain differently?

Pain treatment is complicated by the fact that there are no standards that determine what and how a person feels in a particular situation. Pain is feelings and emotions, and they are always subjective. The same injuries cause different sensations in different people.

The perception of pain depends on gender (in men, the pain threshold is higher than in women), genetics, biorhythms, and age. The pain system can be affected by anger and rage, which activate it. Therefore, during a fight, a person may not feel pain. But a depressed person has a much lower pain threshold.

Much depends on traditions and upbringing. “Inhabitants of the northern latitudes are less sensitive to pain, it’s indecent to complain here, people learn to endure from childhood,” says Alexei Barinov, director of the Academy of Interventional Medicine.

Algologist Ivan Portnyagin adds: “Culture in society has a great influence on the perception of pain. The Spaniards, for example, are very expressive, they tend to regard any problem as a catastrophe, which is why they feel pain more strongly than Norwegians or Russians. More emotional people are generally more sensitive to pain, because they are more likely to be anxious, afraid of something and tend to wind themselves up.

Sensitivity to pain is increased by depression, insomnia, loneliness, fear, anxiety, physical inactivity, and obesity. Reduce – positive emotions, movement, meditation.

Pain management

“Pain is the most difficult experience in a person’s life,” said John J. Bonica, the man whom Times magazine called the founding father of a separate direction in medicine – it is also called pain management, or “pain management”.

After World War II, Bonica worked as an anesthetist in a military hospital. Here he took up the study of pain, which was practically not done before. Bonica devoted his whole life to this problem and wrote the book “Pain Management”, which his colleagues called the “Bible of Pain”. In it, Bonica considered new treatment strategies, new ways to block pain.

He was the first to put forward the idea that a variety of specialists should be involved in the treatment of pain syndrome – therapists, neurologists, psychotherapists, nurses. For many years, Bonica himself suffered from severe osteoarthritis. Knowing from his own experience how hard it is to live with chronic pain, he could not ignore this problem. Bonica founded a multidisciplinary pain clinic.

If the pills don’t work

In our country, there are also specialized pain clinics, where one patient is treated not only by algologists (pain specialists), but by a whole team of doctors.

“The treatment of chronic pain is a long story. The treatment should take into account the biological, psychological and social aspects, explains Alexey Barinov. – One injection of painkiller, as in the case of acute pain, will not do here. A set of measures is needed, including medicines, physical education, and relaxation techniques.

Individual recommendations are developed for each patient. It is necessary to change his whole life, teach him to lead the right way of life, otherwise he will become a regular client of the pain clinic.”