How Our Bodies Work, Including Why We Experience Pain…

We have massive amounts of receptors throughout our bodies that are located at the ends of thousands of nerves.

The receptors are activated by different and specific types of things from our environment and within our bodies.

The nerves send the information up into the brain so our brain can understand what is going on inside and around our body.

The brain processes the information and can make some type of response.

The way this processing and response works is that receptors fire nerves that go upwards in the central nervous system.

This is sensory information.

It enters and gets sent up to different lobes of the brain for different sensations.

These areas are located towards the back in different sections.

The brain then processes the information, basically putting it into context with other information it is receiving.

The processed sensory info is then sent forward into the motor parts of the brain for some type of action.

The pre-frontal cortex is one such area at the front of the brain.

If the brain ‘decides‘ that certain patterns of information are causing damage then it will decide to make you feel pain.

Other information may cause other types of sensations and activities in the brain.

The activity of connections between neuron cells are influenced by different factors including the immune system.

Our brain (and the rest of our bodies) are very highly adaptable.

The brain adapts to activity within the brain.

If a particular group of cells fires over and over again, it essentially learns that this is important.

This is the way learning in school or in any other venue occurs.

Unfortunately, it also occurs in the pain system.

This is how chronic pain occurs.

The autonomic nervous system is intimately involved in this pain system.

The autonomic system is an unconscious part of the nervous system that is divided into 2 parts.

• The sympathetic ‘fight or flight‘ system.
• The parasympathetic ‘rest and digest‘ system.

The sympathetics prepare you for more action by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, fuel delivery to muscles, and much more.

The parasympathetics are the opposite. It allows you to calm down, digest food, repair, and heal.

The sympathetics are involved in the pain system.

In part this occurs through part of the sympathetic system, the adrenals that release different things including adrenaline.

This causes the pain system and nerves to become more sensitized and more likely to fire.

This increases what is interpreted as pain in the brain and increases your brain’s ‘learning‘ that you are threatened and should experience pain to avoid that threat.

This system made more sense when we had to hunt for food and avoid attacks.

In our modern day activities though, chronic stresses create the same types of responses.

This effects every part of our body from our organ function to our thoughts, moods, and our musculoskeletal system.

The video above mentions the importance of exercise and undoubtedly it’s true.

It’s very important.

Exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle that helps us function better.

However, in many people their pain or other health problems make exercising almost impossible.

Often with chronic pain and chronic health problems how you start exercising might be simply walking for 5 minutes a couple of times a day. In other cases, different movements and intensities might make sense.

The right chiropractic care can dramatically improve pain and dysfunction in the vast majority of people.

In simplest terms, chiropractic helps ‘reset‘ your brain’s understanding of what is happening in your body and it’s immediate environment.

This rest comes from restoring a better communication between the body and the brain so that the brain can make appropriate decisions about how it directs all the processes within your body.

Chiropractic care can help your brain better control your body. This can not just help you feel better, but actually be better.

This improves so many things including movement, balance, strength, coordination, sensorimotor integration, and much more… including ‘turning off‘ the pain system when it’s no longer needed.

Chiropractic care can reduce your risk of injury, improve sports performance, and more.

Chiropractic care has been shown to improve brain function in different areas, including the pre-frontal cortex.

The Pre-frontal Cortex is critical for very high level brain functions including planning complex behavior, personality, decision making, and moderating social behavior by evaluating how our behaviors may impact us.

Chiropractic treatment is most commonly associated with pain, injuries, and chronic pain particularly in the neck, back, and with various types of headaches.

Of course this post discusses that pain involves other parts of the nervous system and that chiropractic care changes these things in order to help get people out of pain.

The big idea though is that chiropractic isn’t just a pain treatment.

Chiropractic care improves function in your body and nervous system.

A ‘side effect‘ is that we can get you out of pain BUT there is much more to the story!

If you live in Texarkana, and would like to see Dr. Hagebusch in our Texarkana Clinic… Come see us!

Dr. Hagebusch can talk with you about your symptoms and how they occurred as well as doing a comprehensive examination to locate any problems and discuss what can be done to help you.

If Dr. Hagebusch can help you, he’ll let you know and if you need to see someone else… he’ll tell you!