If you stepped on a rusty nail, how would you know about it? Do you have eyes in the bottom of your foot to help see the nail? No, you would feel the nail in your foot, and what do you think you would feel? Hopefully you would feel pain. What does that pain you feel signal you to do next? Maybe pull the nail out, go get a tetanus shot, or go to the ER to be evaluated.
In this experience, pain is a protective mechanism to warn us of potential threats to our survival. Other examples of where pain serves as a protector include:
- Placing your hand on a hot stove
- A sore throat when you have strep throat
- Breaking a bone
- Body aches with the flu
- and many more examples
Recent developments in pain science research have highlighted the importance of the nervous system in the experience of pain. Our nervous system is our body’s living breathing alarm system designed to warn us of potential threats to our survival by producing pain to grab our attention. However, our nervous system can become overly sensitive and can produce pain even when we do not have tissue issues. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT ALL PAIN IS REAL. In essence, the nervous system becomes overly protective and can trigger the alarm to produce pain even when there isn’t a significant tissue issue. The sensitivity of our nervous system is affected by many factors, and this presentation will discuss what factors turn up, or turn down, the sensitivity of our body’s living breathing alarm system: the nervous system.
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