Chronic Pain vs. Acute Pain: How They Affect Your Brain and How Remedial Massage, Sports Massage, Exercise, and Dry Needling Can Help
- Lukas Vojnar
- Oct 20, 2024
- 5 min read
Pain is something we’ve all experienced in some form. Whether you’ve rolled your ankle playing sport or dealt with long-term back pain, understanding the difference between acute pain and chronic pain is key to knowing how to treat it effectively. Pain isn’t just a physical thing—it’s something your brain plays a big part in. So, let’s break down the differences between these two types of pain and how your brain responds, plus how treatments like remedial massage, sports massage, exercise, electro-dry needling, can help.
Acute Pain: The Body's Warning Signal
Acute pain is what most of us are familiar with. It’s that sharp, sudden pain you get when you’ve injured yourself, like pulling a muscle during a workout or touching something too hot. Your brain's role here is pretty simple—it receives signals from the injured area through your nerves and tells you, "Hey, something’s wrong here. Protect this spot!"
This type of pain is usually short-lived, only lasting until the injury heals, and it's actually quite helpful. It’s your body's way of keeping you safe by preventing further injury. In a scenario like this, the pain subsides once the issue is fixed.
A hamstring tear is a classic example of acute pain or injury. For the first 48-72 hours, you should avoid treating it with massage or dry needling, as this could exacerbate the injury. Once the tear has begun to heal, pain will subside unless you apply pressure to the area or engage in specific exercises. And shortly after you don’t even know about it.
Chronic Pain: The Persistent Problem
On the other hand, chronic pain is a bit trickier. This type of pain can last for months, or even years, well after the initial injury has healed. The brain continues to send pain signals even though there might not be anything visibly wrong anymore. It’s as if your nervous system is stuck in "pain mode."
Chronic pain can be triggered by a number of things, like nerve damage, inflammation, or changes in how the brain processes pain. Common examples include conditions like arthritis, fibromyalgia, or long-lasting back pain.
What’s frustrating about chronic pain is that it can actually change your brain over time. Pain pathways in your brain can become more sensitive, making you feel pain more intensely or even in areas that aren’t directly affected by the original injury.
How Remedial and Sports Massage Can Help
Both remedial massage and sports massage can play a big role in managing acute and chronic pain, especially when it’s connected to musculoskeletal issues. These types of massages aren’t just about relaxing the muscles—they’re designed to target the root cause of your pain and help your body heal.
For Acute Pain: If you’ve got an acute injury, like a pulled muscle or sprain, remedial massage can promote quicker recovery by increasing blood flow to the injured area and reducing muscle tension. By doing so, it helps to break down scar tissue and encourages healing, all while your brain gradually stops sending those pain signals once the area is recovered.
For Chronic Pain: Chronic pain can be more complicated, but sports massage or remedial massage can provide relief by reducing muscle tightness, improving mobility, and addressing those faulty pain signals your brain keeps sending. Over time, regular sessions at Bondi Massage can help retrain your nervous system, making it less sensitive and reducing the overall pain experience.
The Mind-Body Connection
One of the key things to understand is that pain isn’t just physical. There’s a massive mental component too. Chronic pain often leads to increased anxiety, stress, and fatigue, which only amplifies the pain. The calming effects of massage not only work on the physical aspect but also help to ease the mental strain associated with pain. When your mind is more relaxed, your brain is less likely to focus on those pain signals, which can lead to long-term relief.
Things like meditation and Smiling therapy were found to help with chronic pain.
Exercise: Strengthening Your Body to Fight Pain
Exercise plays a huge role in managing both acute and chronic pain, particularly when dealing with musculoskeletal issues. When you exercise, you stimulate blood flow to muscles and tissues, which helps with healing and reduces stiffness. Regular exercise also releases endorphins—natural painkillers that can help alleviate pain and improve your mood.
For Acute Pain: Once the initial injury has healed, gentle exercise can aid in rehabilitation. Low-impact activities like swimming, walking, or cycling allow your muscles to regain strength and flexibility without overloading the injured area.
For Chronic Pain: For ongoing conditions like arthritis or back pain, exercise is one of the best ways to reduce pain long-term. Strengthening the muscles around the affected area helps reduce strain on joints and alleviates tension in soft tissues, which can relieve pain. Regular exercise can also improve posture, which can further reduce discomfort caused by muscular imbalances or poor body mechanics.
Electro Dry Needling: Targeting Pain at the Source
Another excellent treatment for both acute and chronic pain is electro-dry needling, which combines dry needling (a technique similar to acupuncture) with electrical stimulation. Thin needles are inserted into the muscle tissue at trigger points, and a small electrical current is passed through to help reduce muscle tension, release knots, and promote healing.
For Acute Pain: Electro dry needling can help release muscle tightness caused by a sudden injury. It targets the exact spot of pain and helps to relax the muscle, reduce inflammation, and accelerate the healing process.
For Chronic Pain: Electro-dry needling is highly effective for long-term pain conditions, especially when muscle knots or tightness are contributing to pain. By stimulating blood flow and releasing tension in the affected area, it can help retrain the nervous system to reduce pain signals, providing long-term relief for chronic conditions like fibromyalgia, sciatica, or tension headaches.
Finding the Right Treatment
If you’re dealing with either type of pain, treatments like remedial massage, sports massage, exercise, or electro-dry needling at Bondi Massage could be what you need. For acute pain, it’s about speeding up recovery. For chronic pain, it’s about retraining your brain and body to manage pain better over time. Either way, the goal is to help you live pain-free or at least reduce discomfort significantly.
If you’re dealing with pain that just won’t go away, don’t hesitate to book a session and see how our tailored treatments can make a difference.
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