Pain Treatment at Blackford Clinic

What is pain?

The latest internationally recognised definition of pain does not directly mention damage to tissues within the body.

This is because pain, simply put, is an unpleasant sensation generated within the brain in response to a stimulus, and it is this generated interpretation of the stimulus that dictates how much pain is felt.

“Pain is a very subjective experience and everyone feels pain differently in different situations.”

Examples of pain presentations;

Whenever I see images of people getting tattoos I’m surprised at how people manage to sit, often for hours having a needle driven into the surface of their skin (incidentally where the majority of sensory nerve endings are), they barely flinch and often can be seen smiling! 

Compare this to an athlete to turns their ankle the week before the biggest event of the year, or someone who is experiencing unexplained prolonged leg pain having seen an elderly relative suffer with an arthritic hip which eventually required surgery. 

The person getting the tattoo will comparatively have positive outlook regarding the sensations they are experiencing, they know these sensations will only last a certain amount of time, they can take breaks if needed and at the end of the experience (fingers crossed) they’ll have a, “look” that they find favourable. 

The athlete may interpret their sensations much more negatively. Will this sensation compromise their ability to compete at an event they’ve been working towards all year, could this possibly impact them financially, may they lose their ranking if unable to compete? 

Then there is the person with persistent leg pain. Why isn’t this pain easing? Is age creeping up on them? The individual really doesn’t want to think about having to go through what Granny went through (she may have not had a good physio), will this pain eventually restrict their participation in a walking group they are keen members of?

All theses situations lead to pain being generated very differently. 

Once pain is demystified and validated. Once the individual receives the relevant information about their pain, only then can things start to move forward.

The physiotherapy service providers at the Blackford clinic are experts in pain diagnostics and combine a large emphasis on collaborative patient-centred eduction (empowering the patient to understand their pain experience), with relevant manual therapy techniques (to make the here and now feel better), and graded movement patterns including Pilates to allow you to move forward independently

The science

We possess a highly evolved nervous system and various nerves exist within and throughout our bodies that react to certain situations. We possess nociceptive nerves and these react to excessive pressure, temperatures and other noxious stimuli. They convert these stimuli to a molecular electric signal which travels up the spinal cord and results in an acute pain. These are the nerves which tell us if we lean on a hot radiator or stand on a piece of Lego without shoes! When this happens the resultant pain is part of a highly specialised defence mechanism, Ouch!! Get away! And we do.

 Other types of pain also exist and can result from the presence of inflammation or things such as nerve damage. These can generate a slower burn of pain, and equally, although more subtly, can result in the brain generating forces within the body to move in ways to avoid that pain. This response is generally a very poor short term solution and can result in faulty movement patterns, poor postural maintenance and inefficient distribution of forces through the skeletal system. If such mechanisms go unchecked and become the norm, this can produce muscular dysfunction, long-term pain states, and catastrophically negative emotional connections to pain. 

“At the Blackford clinic we will NEVER stop working on and solving your problem”