Defining PAIN

Pain. Nearly everyone has it at some point in their life. (There is a medical condition with which a person cannot feel physical pain but this is very rare). Whether that pain is from over activity or lack of activity, pain is the tactile response the body gives your brain to signify when something is amiss. Although it is uncomfortable, the existence of pain is usually a good thing. Pain signifies that your body is functioning properly and it knows when it has worked too much or too little. If part of your body is in pain, it is not the end of the world, and rather than be avoided, pain should be embraced as a signal from your body to change something. Not that one should try to induce pain upon themselves! Pain is still a signal that something is wrong or was wrong with the body and needs attention, not exacerbation.

Pain comes in many different forms that we can describe in different ways. The feel of different types of pain often signify different things. If you pinch yourself, you receive one kind of pain, if you get your hand caught in a door, you feel a different kind of pain, if you get hit or scraped or burned - all of these induce slightly different negative feelings which we can categorize as pain. Usually when we have pain from an external wound, we can identify the source and the reason for the pain - we can see it. The hard part is taking this understanding of pain and recognizing signals of internal pain as well.

Pain on your skin and pain within your body is actually very similar. In both cases, you can feel burning, tingling, pressure, sharpness, and nagging ache. We can see the source of any one of these pains on the surface, but it is much more difficult to identify the sources inside your body. So lets go through some types of pain and what these various pains could mean. NOTE!!!! If you are injured and any kind of pain persists beyond your control, you should not try to self-diagnose any malady you may have. Defining pain doesn’t mean you can cure it! You should seek professional assistance for any pain you cannot safely manage yourself but by defining the pain, you can give that medical or health professional a better understanding of what may be going on in your body.

The most common source of pain at any point in the body from arthritis to tendonitis to heart attack is swelling. Swelling is just an increase in blood flow and fluid movement within a certain area. All of the pain signals described above can be the result of some sort of swelling or inflammation. When your body is injured it will try to send more blood and healing fluids to that injured site to help in the repair process. The collection of fluid hurts - sometimes a little or sometimes a lot, but it will always hurt. Medical jargon defines swelling in confusing ways - edema, any word that ends in “-itis” - but ultimately it is all swelling and can be treated to some extent through simple maintenance procedures.

Now that we understand there are different types of pain, the next step is to understand what different types of pain may mean. Again, all pains could ultimately be the result of inflammation, but some locations of inflammation is more dangerous than others (like in the heart). Here, I’ll describe the different types of pain you could experience from physical activity as in a fitness gym.

D.O.M.S. - DOMS, or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is actually one type of pain that doesn’t necessarily come from inflammation, however you experience it quite frequently after periods of high activity. DOMS is the normal result of a workout in the gym, shoveling snow, doing a difficult hike, or any other activity you haven’t engaged in for a while. DOMS occurs within the belly of the muscles, that is, not in and around joints, and not near internal organs. You don’t get DOMS in your elbow, nor would you experience DOMS in your pancreas. To be honest, the health industry is still not sure exactly what the direct cause of DOMS is, other than to recognize that the pain experienced from DOMS is not an indication of injury, merely an indication of fatigue. If you don’t feel DOMS once in a while in the day or two after your workout, you may not be working quite hard enough. On the other hand, if you experience this type of soreness for five days or more, you may have overdone it a little bit.

Ache - The word ache is almost synonymous with soreness. Ache is essentially the feeling one would use to describe the feeling of DOMS within the muscle. Ache is also frequently associated with conditions like tendonitis, arthritis, fasciitis ... notice all the “-itises”. NOTE: a headache is not usually a condition of physical strain and should be considered differently than other aches in the body. A headache may, however, evolve from other aches within the neck, back or shoulders. Ache is often the result of simple lack of movement or over movement of a particular structure. Aches are usually most evident when the body is or has been at rest for an extended period of time like after sitting or sleeping. Aches are often affected greatly by weather conditions and barometric pressures. The “ache” pain can frequently be alleviated with mild movement of the afflicted area. General simple activity which increases blood flow and allows tissues to move properly like taking a walk or doing some other mild exercise for over 5 or 10 minutes time will often help relieve the ache feeling. The ache will return, however, when the body has cooled and slowed its metabolic processes. Ache in organs should not be overlooked for more than a few days as it could be indication of a greater problem. Aches which occur in joints and other parts of the extremities shouldn’t last much more than a week or two. Again if they continue, seek professional examination.

Burning - Burning is kind of an odd pain. Burning feeling can result from both the feeling of too hot, but can also be the result of feeling too cold. Anyone who has been skiing in thin socks knows this. The sensation of burning isn’t necessarily a heat related response (although it is frequently) but rather another indication of something wrong with your body. If you touch something too hot or too cold for long enough you will feel burning, but the same kind of sensation can occur on the inside of your body as well. Unless you have a fever, your internal temperature doesn’t rise or fall much past the well known 98.6°F, so burning isn’t usually in response to a major temperature change. Rather burning is usually inflammation again often caused by chafing. Not so much the type of chafing you would experience from sitting on a horse saddle too long, but rather the chafing of one structure (like a tendon) over another (like a bone). NOTE: Persistent burning in and around your chest cavity or stomach can be indication of a serious problem! Contact emergency personnel immediately if this type of burning reaches and unbearable state or doesn’t diminish within a few hours! Burning in and around your joints is more common after exercise. Burning in your muscles is common during exercise. The burning in your muscles is actually necessary and is cause by acid which your body creates in response to using energy. If you are trying to strengthen muscles and they don’t burn, they aren’t being strengthened. Burning in and around joints is often related to another -itis. Usually an -itis like burn is not exclusive, however and will be accompanied by other sensations like tingling or numbness which we will discuss later.

Pressure - This is an odd sensation. Pressure doesn’t necessarily always hurt. Sometimes more serious injuries such as a broken bone or impaling will initially feel like pure pressure for a moment before other pain receptors alert you to the fact there is something really wrong. Pressure is often associated with aching when it does start to hurt but can lead to a very intense pain if the pressure persists and grows. Pressure, of course, can also be a sign of inflammation due to an excess of fluid in a certain area, but if a pressure sensation does persist and increase to unbearable levels, seek emergency help immediately! Pressure isn’t usually used to describe injuries unless they are injuries of inactivity. Someone may feel a pressure or stiffness in certain areas due to a lack of movement as opposed to excessive movement. This sort of pressure, like aching, may be alleviated with mild repetitive movement or stretching, but is not usually detrimental to the structure feeling the pressure. Rather it is another one of your bodies indicators that something is amiss.

Sharpness - Sharpness is the most cut and dry kind of pain. If you feel sharp pain, usually your body will react without your conscious control to alleviate that pain as quickly as possible. Sharp pains are rarely indications of minor maladies and should not be overlooked. Rather than “-itis”, sharp pain is more often associated with words like tear, break, or rupture. Much more gruesome sounding words for much more serious injuries. Sometimes sharp pains happen within a very specific range of movement and can be avoided, but unfortunately, the body can rarely heal the cause of a sharp pain without some kind of medical help. Sharp pains frequently require minor surgery to remove and can be the cause of greater problems if they are not addressed promptly. Your body will compensate to avoid the sharp pain, thereby creating some other imbalance in your structure which will most likely initiate a whole new pain in time.

Tingling or Numbness - Tingling or numbness are probably the most fickle of all pain feelings mostly because they don’t actually hurt. Tingling is not usually excruciating and numbness simply means lack of feeling period so there is no pain associated. These two sensations are, however, indicative of the most potentially dangerous conditions. All pain is a recognition and response of the nervous system. Tingling or numbness, on the other hand, frequently means that the nervous capability of the associated part is being restricted or completely cut off. Numbness should never be overlooked - even if it afflicts only a few fingers or toes because this could be a strong indication that something is wrong in some other part of your body - not necessarily the finger or toe that feels nothing. Tingling is more like a severe warning. If you feel tingling doing a certain activity and continue with that activity, there is a good chance you can do irreparable damage to some part of your body. Tingling is often felt in tendonitis in the knee or foot from activities like heavy weight lifting or running. If you persist with the activity that causes this tingling, the sensation will never go away and eventually the structure causing the sensation will break down and cease to function properly. If you have persistent numbness or tingling of any part of your body over a few weeks, seek medical advice.

No pain should be taken lightly. That being said, not all pains are an indication that something is injured. The muscle burning found in exercise is actually a good pain and one that should be sought during training activity. Burning in joints is a different circumstance, though, and must be addressed. If you have pain, pay attention to it. Thats what it is there for. Some part of your body is uncomfortable for some reason and wants to be noticed. Take note of how the pain started: What you were doing? What time of day? Was it consistently before or after a particular activity? Did it persist? Does it increase or decrease with activity? How bad is the pain? Can I make it worse? Can I make it better? These are all questions to ask yourself and tell your health professional the answers to these questions if you happen to seek ones advice. Most minor pains can be reduced and sometimes removed with the help of anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprophen or Aspirin and application of ice to the afflicted area. Major or consistent pains should not be overlooked and need to be addressed before irreparable damage is incurred. Most of all, listen to your body - pain is it’s way of talking to you!