It is not uncommon to see people with fractures, torn ligaments, or torn muscles without feeling any pain at all. Conversely, people with very minor injuries may experience severe pain that incapacitates them for several days. These situations clearly show how different we all are when it comes to pain and that it is not always correlated with the severity of the injury.

Pain is multifactorial

“How much can cutting yourself with paper hurt? Have you ever noticed a bruise on your skin without remembering how you got it?”

These are situations we have all experienced and which sometimes seem nonsensical. The explanation is simple: pain is an alarm that is triggered when there is danger. In normal situations, this alarm sounds to create pain and thus warn of danger, then stops when it is no longer necessary. Only when it malfunctions can it start ringing prematurely or continue ringing when there is no apparent reason. This is often the case with chronic pain.

Did you know?

⚫️37% of people aged 20, WITHOUT PAIN, have disc degeneration in their spine [1]

⚫️57% of people aged 20 to 50, without hip pain, have ligament and cartilage damage [2]

In these situations, we can clearly see that the physical component of the body is not the only factor to consider when it comes to pain. In fact, it is influenced by many factors: lifestyle, stress, worries, false beliefs, sleep, and a sedentary lifestyle, all of which influence pain sensitivity to a greater or lesser extent. Any information perceived (e.g., stress, annoyance, fear) as a need to protect oneself from danger will therefore raise the alarm and may contribute to creating pain.

It is important to know that feeling stiffness, tension, or sensitivity is completely normal. You should not expect to feel no pain 100% of the time. Sometimes we experience minor pain, but because we have heard negative messages such as “some of your muscles are not working properly” or “your posture is bad” or “it's normal to be in pain, something is wrong with you,” we may interpret this pain as something serious.

All these negative messages and false beliefs can cause our pain or discomfort, which was initially minor, to increase and worsen.

As you can see, even if an injury can explain the onset of pain, it is not the only factor. Pain is multifactorial and is more a question of sensitivity than injury.

Good to know: it is possible to reset the alarm and therefore control our pain.

Our bodies have tremendous capacity for adaptation and tolerance; we just need to train them.

Let's remember that:

➡️Pain is often only weakly correlated with injury.

➡️You can feel pain without there being any structural changes in your body.

➡️Injuries can be influenced by other aspects of your life that you can control.

SOURCES :

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4464797/

[2] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jmri.25565

http://www.greglehman.ca/blog/2013/06/10/your-cranky-nerves-a-primer-for-patients-to-understand-pain

https://journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/2016/09010/Is_There_an_Association_Between_Pain_and_Magnetic.15.aspx