Chronic Pain: Why It Persists and How Chiropractic Care Can Help
- Julian Simpson
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Chronic Pain: Why It Persists and How Chiropractic Care Can Help
If you’ve been dealing with ongoing back pain, neck pain, headaches, or muscle tightness, you’re not alone. Chronic pain affects millions of people and is one of the most common reasons patients seek chiropractic care.
But one of the biggest frustrations with chronic pain is this: scans often look “normal,” yet the pain keeps coming back. So what’s really going on?
Chronic Pain Is Not Just a Tissue Problem
Acute pain usually has a clear cause — a strain, injury, or sudden overload. Chronic pain, however, is different. Pain is considered chronic when it lasts longer than three months, and in many cases, the original tissue injury has already healed.
Research now shows that persistent pain often involves changes in the nervous system, not just muscles and joints.
When pain sticks around, the brain and spinal cord can become overly sensitive. This means they continue to send pain signals even when there’s no ongoing damage. This process is sometimes referred to as central sensitisation.
When the Nervous System Becomes Overprotective
An overprotective nervous system can cause:
Pain that feels stronger than expected
Pain triggered by simple movements or posture
Muscle tightness or guarding
Pain that flares without a clear reason
Ongoing stiffness or fatigue
Importantly, this pain is real — it’s not imagined or “all in your head.” It’s the result of how your nervous system is processing information.
Why Pain Can Keep Returning
Once the nervous system learns a pain pattern, it can become stuck in “alert mode.” Poor posture, stress, lack of movement, or fear of re-injury can reinforce this loop.
This is why many people experience:
Recurrent flare-ups
Pain that moves or changes location
Loss of confidence in movement
Frustration with short-term fixes
Breaking this cycle requires more than rest or temporary relief.
How Chiropractic Care Supports Chronic Pain
At Health Wise Chiropractic, we look beyond where it hurts and focus on how your body and nervous system are functioning together.
Chiropractic care can help by:
Restoring healthy joint movement
Reducing muscle tension and guarding
Improving posture and spinal mechanics
Influencing how the nervous system processes pain
Supporting better movement patterns
Research suggests that spinal adjustments don’t just affect joints — they also interact with the nervous system, helping to calm overactive pain pathways.
Recent research looked into 12 weeks of Chiropractic care and how it affected the body
12 weeks of Chiropractic care modulates biomarkers linked to neuroplasticity, inflammation, and stress.
Increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor and interleukin-6 suggest enhanced neuroplasticity and inflammatory responses, while decreases in tumour necrosis factor-alpha indicate a regulatory effect on systemic inflammation.
Interleukin 6 issues a warning signal in the event of tissue damage, which can lead to inflammation . It can also be triggered by stress or negative emotions.
Your Tumour Necrosis Factor Alpha cells are made by the immune system and help regulate inflammation Its crucial for defence against pathogens, including bacteria, fungi and parasites.
For more information about how we can help YOU with your muscle pain and improve your underlying dysfunction so the problem doesn’t come back . Please call Health Wise Chiropractic 03 9467 7889 or book online to see one of our Chiropractors in Sunbury or Melton/Strathtulloh Today!
We are also really proud to offer our patients an APP for their Mobile- iPad. With access to your rehab exercises and our health tip blogs with over 600 articles.
Chiropractic has moved online. We offer our online program -STAND CORRECTED- To help you through the day.
We have over 30 programs on different health conditions
Each program contains
- Information about the conditions
- things to do and things to avoid
- nutrition advice
- all the stretches that are needed to help
Amjad I, Niazi IK, Kumari N, Ghani U, Rashid U, Duarte FCK, Fortuna F, Iglesias S, Gonzalez D, Sumich A, Fabre B, Holt K, Haavik H. The effects of 12 weeks of chiropractic spinal adjustments on physiological biomarkers in adults: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2025 Dec 11;20(12):e0338730. doi:
Comments