Chronic Pain

Article by Lovelyn Bettison

Millions of people suffer from chronic pain. More people call out sick from work because of chronic pain than call out sick because of the common cold. Chances are you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain.

Pain is a necessary part of life. It alerts us when something is wrong with our bodies. It’s normal to experience pain with an illness or injury. Normally, this pain fades as the injury heals or the sickness goes away. This is referred to as acute pain. Pain becomes chronic when it continues after the healing time of the injury. This pain can hang on for months or even years and often causes depression in its sufferers.

Chronic pain can also occur as the result of an ongoing condition, like fibromyalgia, arthritis, or cancer. Back injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, and migraine headaches are some other examples of conditions that cause chronic pain. Some pain can result from injury to the nerves causing them send false signals to the brain.

How massage affects your pain is partly dependent on its source. If your pain is caused by a muscle injury massage can not only help ease the pain but also help speed the healing process.

Pain causes a vicious cycle of muscle contraction. When you experience pain in a particular area the muscles around the area contract to protect the injured region. When the muscle is tightly contracted less blood can flow to the area causing the region to be starved of oxygen. The contracted muscle also holds in toxins. All this causes the region to experience more pain, thus causing the muscles to contract further. Massage can help loosen constricted muscles around an injured area, increase blood flow and help flush out toxins.

Some chronic pain occurs because a nerve becomes entrapped in a tight muscle. This type of pain presents as tingling, numbness or a burning sensation. Loosening the tight muscle releases the nerve and eases the pain.

Massage lowers stress hormones caused by pain and raises the feel good hormone serotonin. The Touch Institute located in Miami has done many studies on the affects of massage of sufferers of chronic pain. In one such study, fibromyalgia patients were given massage twice a week for thirty minutes. A control group was taught relaxation exercise and did those exercises twice a week. At the end of the study

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