Why Pain Education?
Understanding how pain “works” can actually help you overcome it.
Plus, it’s just really interesting stuff.
Here are some articles about pain, the science of it, and how to deal with it.
Pain Education - Getting Started:
- Why learn how pain works? Because it’s seriously useful science!
Two quick videos that sum up most of the important points:
- [video] Pain Overview: Start here. Quick 5 minute video explaining pain.
- [video] Why Things Hurt: Amazing TED talk by Lorimer Moseley. 15 minute video.
- Here’s another with a little more detail. 25 minutes.
- Part I - Pain – What is it? – what is it for?
- Part II - Acute vs. Chronic – what’s the difference?
- Part III – Nociception – detecting and transmitting things that might hurt!
- More coming soon…
Oversimplifying Pain – Debunking Unhelpful Beliefs About Chronic Pain
- Part I - Damage and Degeneration
- Part II - Posture and Body Structure
- Part III - Muscle Imbalances and the “Core”
- Conclusion - What’s the Harm?
Helpful things to learn:
- Damage does not ’cause’ pain. Not joking. Don’t believe me? Read! An important lesson in understanding your pain.
- [video] How do Nerves Work? – TEDed Video - Useful information when trying to understand pain science.
- [video] How Does the Brain Work? – Very fun, and very helpful information – foundation for understanding pain.
- [video] How to pain relievers work? – Some quick science to help you understand pain (especially new pain), even if you don’t like using these types of medication.
- Chronic Pain Hope: Research now shows that abnormal brain changes in chronic pain can be reversed. An important (and encouraging) discovery.
- How Exercise “Really” Prevents Back Pain (Probably): It’s not about the “core” – you’ll find it’s a bit more complicated than that. But either way, it works.
- Things you don’t know about pain… but you should! 10 interesting facts.
- Healing vs. Recovery: Why do I still hurt? Shouldn’t I be better by now? Injuries and pain are not the same thing, and neither is healing vs. recovery.
- Muscle Soreness – One of the more frustrating things about exercise. Here’s the deal.
Treatment Ideas
Note: rehabilitating an injury is actually quite different from dealing with pain. Check out the injury section to find out more about rehabilitation. Also, check out the disclaimer.
- Learning Pain Science can Reduce and Prevent Pain – Pain Education actually helps with pain, so review the ‘start here’ section above!
- How to get moving when you have pain – Graded Exposure / Activity as pain treatment.
- But, don’t neglect REST.
- Ice or heat? Both can be good for some pain. Read this for an overview of when to use either. Want guides? try: How to Ice, and How to Heat.
- Pain killers and anti-inflammatory medication – When to use, and when not to.
- But how do they work anyway? Check out: How do pain relievers work?
Despite it’s importance, pain is not well understood, even by health professionals! Thankfully, over the last few decades research in neuroscience has revealed a lot about the science of pain. I think neuroscience is super awesome, so I tend to keep up with this research. I hope the articles on this site are helpful to you.
Thanks for reading, and good luck!