What is Pain?

What is Pain?

Pain is both physical and mental unpleasant stimuli that should not be ignored. It is disruptive to our daily activities and living. All of us experience pain in our own unique ways but most people cannot identify or even indicate where the pain symptoms are, most elderly assume pain is a part of the living process.

Essentially, there are 2 types of pain:

1. Acute Pain – a pain, damage or bodily hurting which last within 3 weeks or shorter and may or may not recur.
2. Chronic Pain – a consistent pain that persist for more than 3 months or more, such pain can be intermittent.

There are various classifications of Pain Symptoms:

1. Non-neuropathic Pain (or somatic pain):

Pain that is felt on the skin tissue, muscle, joints, bones and ligaments. Such pain typically cause conditions, damages or infliction on musculo-skeletal joints.

Some of the symptoms are:

• Lower back ache
• Osteoarthritis
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Frozen shoulder
• Myofascial Pain Syndrome

2. Neuropathic Pain:

A pain condition or damage in the nerve system which creates a tingling sensation, sharp pain or pins and needles pain. Such symptoms can be caused by degeneration of nerves, nerves impingement & compression that can be radiated to other parts of the body.

These are some of the symptoms of Neuropathic Pain:

• Slip/herniated Disc
• Sciatica nerve (lower back nerve compression due to eg; overweight)
• Cervical protrusion (Degeneration of neck)
• Whiplash (car accidents)

If pain is not diagnosed at an early stage, it may accumulate and turn into chronic conditions. There are many causes of pain due to:

• Pain Conditions Caused By Sports
• Poor postures in our daily habit or at work
• Work related pain conditions
• Accumulated muscle imbalance
• Headache & Migraine
• Over weight
• Degenerative joints: Osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, arthrosis etc;
• Stress and mental disorder
• Stroke
• Medication – Diabetes, Hypertension, etc;

The best way of pain management is Prevention and Protection and getting the right diagnosis.

Other ways of managing pain includes:

1. Maintain a healthy diet with 150 to 300mins of exercise per week
2. Being mindful of maintaining the right posture at work, daily activities and sleeping
3. Daily physical static stretches on all parts of the bodily joints
4. Increase physical flexibility and strengthening
5. Learn to rest well, relax and maintain positive mindset