Pain: an uninvited guest in your daily life
Pain. You've certainly experienced this sensation at some point in your life. But do you know how it arises, what the causes are, and how it can be relieved most effectively? Let’s take a look behind the “biological scenes”! What is pain? It is a defensive mechanism, your body's self-protective reflex that draws attention to some danger or harmful effect and triggers a specific action for defense/survival. […]
Pain. You've certainly experienced this sensation at some point in your life. But do you know how it arises, what the causes are, and how it can be relieved most effectively? Let’s take a look behind the “biological scenes”!
What is pain?
It is a defensive mechanism, your body's self-protective reflex that draws your attention to some danger or harmful effect and triggers a specific action for defense/survival. There can be many causes for its appearance, for example:
- strong mechanical impact, trauma
- temperature exposure higher or lower than physiological
- muscle cramp
- oxygen deprivation
- chemical substances released during burns
- nerve root compression or inflammation
- tumor
- psychological disorders
Pain can be classified by its location of appearance, the type of tissue, and organ manifestation. The former classification is as follows:
- Superficial pain is sharp, stabbing, burning in nature; it originates from superficially located tissues, is well localized (you can easily find the spot) and begins suddenly.
- Deep pain is more dull, pulling, cramping, numb or pressing in nature and is less well localized because it is more diffuse and widespread. It originates from deeper tissue layers (muscle, vessel, periosteum, joint, etc.).
- Visceral pain is even harder to localize than deep pain; its boundaries are blurred. It is caused by organ torsion, cramping contraction, circulatory disturbance or inflammation.
Classification of pains based on tissue type and organ manifestation:
- pain originating from the skin
- muscle pain
- joint pain (in inflammatory form it does not subside at rest; in mechanical form it stops when placed at rest)
- bone pain
- organ pain
- nerve pain and radicular (nerve-root) pain
- headaches
- so-called trigger points (small, well-defined, hypersensitive areas in the skin, muscle, or connective tissue)
Pain relief methods
You must take the sensation of pain seriously, because it is your body's signal warning that “something is wrong.” Before you start relieving pain, the cause of the pain must be determined!
Using painkillers for pain of unknown origin can be dangerous because you may mask the real problem, which could later reappear in a more severe form.
Once the cause is known, you can alleviate it with various methods: medications (frequent use, however, often comes with side effects), anesthesia, neurosurgical operations, acupuncture, psychological methods, and physiotherapeutic treatments. In this article I focus on the latter methods (you can read about the difference between physiotherapy and physical therapy here).
For acute pain, use the following physiotherapy methods:
- cold–heat therapy
- TENS (nerve stimulation) treatment
- MENS (microcurrent nerve stimulation) treatment
- Ultrasound treatment (pulsed, low dose)
- Softlaser treatment
For chronic pain, the following are considered:
- TENS (nerve stimulation) treatment
- MENS (microcurrent nerve stimulation) treatment
- Softlaser treatment
- Ultrasound treatment (continuous mode)
- Iontophoresis
- Magnetic therapy
- Infrared light therapy
- Heat therapy
Treatments can now be performed easily and safely at home with modern medical devices. In a previous article I wrote about home medical devices and the main things you should know about them.
