🧠 When Pain Won’t Switch Off: Understanding Chronic Pain
- Julian Simpson
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
🧠 When Pain Won’t Switch Off: Understanding Chronic Pain
Pain. We’ve all felt it.
Stub your toe? Ouch. Touch a hot stove? Pull away fast.
That’s normal pain — your body’s alarm system doing its job.
But what happens when the alarm keeps ringing… even after the danger is gone?
Welcome to the world of chronic pain, and more specifically, conditions like:
Neuropathic Pain (NP)
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
Central Sensitisation (CS)
Fibromyalgia (FM)
At Health Wise Chiropractic, we see many patients who feel frustrated because their scans look “normal” — but their pain is very real.
Let’s break this down in a way that makes sense 👇
🔥 Pain: It’s Not Just About Tissue Damage
Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience.
Normally, it protects us.
But in chronic pain, the nervous system can become overprotective — like a smoke alarm that goes off when you make toast.
This is called central sensitization — when the brain and spinal cord amplify pain signals.
And here’s the kicker:
👉 Pain without visible injury is still 100% real.
📊 The Scale of the Problem
Chronic pain is one of the largest global health burdens.
Some powerful stats:
6–10% of the general population experiences centralized pain.
Neuropathic pain affects anywhere from 0.9% to 20% of people.
Fibromyalgia affects between 0.2% and 11% of the population — most commonly women.
CRPS occurs in approximately 5.5–26.2 cases per 100,000 people per year.
In CRPS, 31% of people are not back at work 2 years after onset.
About 15% of CRPS patients still have severe symptoms two years later.
That’s not minor discomfort.That’s life-altering pain.
⚡ What Is Neuropathic Pain?
Neuropathic pain happens when the nervous system itself is injured or malfunctioning.
Instead of responding to damage, it creates pain.
Symptoms often include:
Burning
Electric shock sensations
Pins and needles
Hypersensitivity (allodynia)
Pain from light touch
Unlike normal pain, it doesn’t switch off easily — and many treatments only provide partial relief.
🌀 Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
CRPS is one of the most severe forms of neuropathic pain.
It often starts after a minor injury — but the pain becomes far greater than expected.
It can involve:
Temperature changes
Skin color changes
Swelling
Movement restriction
Severe burning pain
Diagnosis is difficult. There’s no single definitive test.
And the impact?Significant reduction in quality of life and increased mental health risks.
🌪 Central Sensitization: When the Volume Knob Is Turned Up
In central sensitization:
The nervous system becomes hypersensitive.
Light, sound, temperature — even gentle touch — can feel painful.
The body’s internal pain brakes don’t work properly.
It’s often associated with:
Fatigue
Brain fog
Sleep disturbances
Anxiety or depression
Heightened stress responses
This is why chronic pain isn’t just physical — it’s neurological and multisystem.
💫 Fibromyalgia: More Than “Just Pain”
Fibromyalgia is a widespread pain condition with:
Chronic pain
Fatigue
Poor sleep
Cognitive difficulties (“fibro fog”)
Balance issues
Higher fall risk
Muscle strength in fibromyalgia patients can be up to 35% lower than healthy individuals.
And yet — there are no clear blood tests or imaging markers.
That doesn’t mean it’s not real.
It means the nervous system is involved.
💊 Do Medications Solve It?
Medications are often used — including:
Anti-inflammatories
Antidepressants (SSRI/SNRI)
Anticonvulsants
Gabapentinoids
Opioids
Monoclonal antibodies (for migraine)
Cannabinoids
But here’s the reality:
Most provide modest improvements at best
Side effects are common
Opioids can actually increase pain sensitivity long-term (opioid-induced hyperalgesia)
Many patients never achieve complete relief with medication alone
That’s why modern pain science emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach.
🏃♂️ The Most Powerful Tool? Movement.
Exercise is one of the most evidence-supported treatments for fibromyalgia and chronic pain.
Research shows exercise can:
Improve strength
Reduce pain
Improve balance
Increase serotonin (5-HT)
Boost natural opioid pathways
Improve heart rate variability
Reduce fear of movement
Even home-based exercise programs and exergaming showed measurable improvements over 20–24 weeks.
And when proprioception training was added?Balance, fatigue, and quality of life improved significantly.
Movement retrains the nervous system.
🧘♀️ The Mind–Body Connection
Chronic pain is closely linked to:
Catastrophizing
Hypervigilance
Anxiety
Depression
Poor sleep
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is considered one of the most effective psychological treatments for chronic pain.
Importantly:
Seeing a psychologist does NOT mean your pain is “in your head.”
It means your nervous system is involved.
👐 What About Hands-On Care?
Manual therapy and gentle touch can activate special nerve fibres (C-tactile fibres) linked to:
Oxytocin release
Limbic system calming
Reduced wind-up pain responses
Gentle touch at specific speeds (around 10 cm/sec) has been shown to reduce pain more effectively than neutral touch.
Pain modulation is neurobiological — not just mechanical.
🥗 Nutrition Matters Too
Evidence suggests:
Mediterranean-style diets support brain health
Obesity worsens fibromyalgia and migraine outcomes
Vitamin B12 may support neuropathic pain
Vitamin E deficiency can cause neuropathy
Antioxidants may support neuroinflammation control
The gut microbiome also influences serotonin and GABA — both key in pain regulation.
Pain care is bigger than just muscles and joints.
🧲 Emerging Therapies
Research is exploring:
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
Photobiomodulation (laser therapy)
Vibration therapy
Vagal nerve stimulation
Mirror therapy and motor imagery
Some show promise. Most show modest benefits. All reinforce one key theme:
🧠 The brain is central to chronic pain.
💡 So What Does This Mean For You?
If you’re living with persistent pain and feel:
Dismissed
Confused
Frustrated
“Nothing shows up on scans”
Please hear this:
👉 Your pain is real.👉 Your nervous system may be stuck in protection mode.👉 There are ways to retrain it.
At Health Wise Chiropractic, we take a biopsychosocial approach — looking at:
Movement patterns
Nervous system regulation
Stress load
Lifestyle
Exercise prescription
Gentle manual therapy
Collaborative care when needed
Because chronic pain isn’t just a tissue problem.
It’s a system problem.
And systems can be retrained.
Neck Pain Chiropractor
Q: What causes neck pain that chiropractors treat?Common causes include poor posture, desk work, whiplash, and muscle tension.
Q: How does chiropractic care relieve neck pain?Through gentle spinal adjustments, soft tissue therapy, and posture correction.
Q: Is it safe to adjust the neck?Yes, when performed by a qualified chiropractor, neck adjustments are safe and effective.
Q: Can chiropractic help with tech neck?Absolutely — chiropractic care can ease strain from long hours at computers or devices.
For more information about how we can help YOU with your neck 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.
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We have over 30 programs on different health conditions
Each program contains
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Quodling N, Hoffman N, Carrick FR, Jemni M. Beyond the Pain: Rethinking Chronic Pain Management Through Integrated Therapeutic Approaches-A Systematic Review. Int J Mol Sci. 2026 Jan 26;27(3):1231. doi: 10.3390/ijms27031231. PMID: 41683658; PMCID: PMC12897678.
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