Pain is Created in Your Brain

Your brain can decide for you that you should feel pain even if it only thinks there is a potential threat of tissue damage. This means that even if you have no actual tissue damage you can still experience pain.

Even with tissue damage, your brain may not create the feeling of pain

The Paradox of Pain

It means that the pain you feel does not always reflect the severity or even the location of your problem – if there is a problem at all. Science has shown beyond a doubt that pain is created in the brain. Our brains create for us the experience of pain to let us know that something is not ok.

For some people pain can persist even after an initial injury has healed. For these people the pain has become non-informative and non-helpful. The pain itself has then become a problem. The brain has learnt to be in pain. The way the brain does this is very similar to the way the brain learns anything else. It’s called neural plasticity – or brain adaptations.

Video Transcript

Did you know that pain is created in your brain?

Did you know that scientists now know that the feeling of pain is something your brain decides that you should experience – if it believes that there is a problem? 1 Your brain can decide for you that you should feel pain even if it only thinks there is a potential threat of tissue damage.2-5 This means that even if you have no actual tissue damage you can still experience pain.6 

We also know from scientific studies that even when there is true tissue damage, your brain may not create the feeling of pain for you! 7 8

This is called the paradox of pain. It means that the pain you feel does not always reflect the severity or even the location of your problem – if there is a problem at all. Science has shown beyond a doubt that pain is created in the brain.2 4 9 10

Sometimes pain can be very helpful and informative.1 Our brains create for us the experience of pain to let us know that something is not ok.1 Maybe we are over exerting ourselves, or repetitively bending into awkward postures, causing harm to the body. Maybe we have had an injury that we need to be careful with to allow the body to heal and to avoid further damage. The pain can let us know what not to do while the body heals the problem.1 This pain is helpful and informative. If we listen to our bodies these pain experiences are a good thing.1 

But for some people pain can persist even after the initial injury has healed.7 And for some people the pain can spread to other areas where there is no injury at all. For these people the pain has become non-informative and non-helpful. The pain itself has then become a problem. The brain has learnt to be in pain.9 11 12

The way the brain does this is very similar to the way the brain learns anything else. It’s called neural plasticity – or brain adaptations. Did you know that what you focus on actually drives neural plasticity?13-15 This is obviously good if you are focusing on learning something because it will help you to learn it. But if you are focusing on your pain this may actually make your pain worse or persist and harder to get rid of. It is therefore best to focus on the good things.  Focus on what is working well. Focus on what makes you happy. Focus on what you are grateful for. This alone can help you heal.1 

We know that chiropractic care can help some people with things like back pain,16-19 neck pain20-22 and some types of headaches.23-25 Brain scientists who have studied the effects of chiropractic spinal adjustments have discovered that adjustments also change brain function.26 Chiropractic has a neuroplastic effect on the brain.26 Therefore, it’s possible that you feel better after seeing a chiropractor because changes have occurred in the way your brain interprets your body which impacts how much pain you experience.27 28 In particular adjustments change function in a part of the brain called the pre-frontal cortex.29 The pre-frontal cortex is actually a part of your brain that’s very involved in where pain becomes chronic.30 31 Regardless, neuroscientist believe that chiropractic care most likely helps reduce your feeling of pain by enabling your brain to ‘turn down’ or ‘switch off’ the perception of pain in the brain.26 

This means chiropractors may or may not adjust your spine exactly where you feel that it hurts. They are looking for parts of your spine and body where there is a lack of proper movement and will adjust you there26 – so don’t worry if it’s not exactly where you feel the pain is.  Remember that the feeling of pain that you experience is created by your brain and does not mean it’s where the problem actually is. 

Chiropractors are very good at finding the parts of your spine and body that need to be gently adjusted.33 Research studies have shown that adjusting your spine helps your brain know more accurately what is going on in your body,26 so that it can more appropriately respond to what is going on and control your body better.26 It improves your brain-body communication.26 

For more information, go see your family chiropractor so you can sort the pain in your brain.

Video References

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