Why do we “pick the scab?”
The following information is from a great book meant for patients to help resolve their own back problems. The book is by Stuart McGill Ph.D. and is called “Back Mechanic: The secrets to a healthy spine your doctor isn’t telling you.” I highly recommend the book if you have or are suffering from low back pain. The end goal is to remove the stressors and spare your spine with proper movement and strengthening exercises.
“Many back pain sufferers would experience a huge breakthrough in their recovery if they only realized that it was the flawed movement patterns that kept them pain-sensitive. Much like a scab forming on our skin, our backs are constantly trying to patch and health themselves. We, however, by continuing to repeat harmful movement patterns in our daily lives cause re-injury.
We are essentially “picking the scab.” It is unreasonable to expect the body to heal if we continue to provoke it in the same way that led to the original injury. Continued aggravation sensitizes the nerves so that the pain is triggered with even less stimulation. Remove the provocative motions and we can find the solution.
Here’s how pain sensitivity works: people increase their sensitivity through repeated stressful and painful loading. Our muscles and joints are loaded with sensors: pain sensors, pressure sensors, force sensors, chemical sensors. Some detect carbon dioxide; some detect pain, some sense histamine for inflammation. Human joints are packed with sensors that relay position and movement information via nerves to the brain. Along the nerves, there are checkpoints or “gates,” at junctions. According to the Gate Theory of Pain, if we can overload the gates with positive information (good movement) we can actually prevent the pain signals from getting through.
Try this: close your eyes and find the tip of your nose with your finger. You are using kinesthetic sensory organs that run throughout your arm to navigate. These sensors alert the brain as to the position of your forefinger in relation to your nose. The sensation of this simple pain-free motion dominates the information traffic on your sensory nerves with feel-good kinesthetic sensory information that identifies position, length, and force. Finding and repeating pain-free motions in your back will cause the remaining painful activities to hurt less. Read the previous sentence again – it really is that important.
By discovering and engraining positive movements for your back, you will find that the pain often dissipates and then disappears entirely. This is because when we remove pain triggers and stop “picking the scab” we give our tissues a chance to rest, heal, and regenerate. Simultaneously our sensors for pain are actually being desensitized. Master this, and you have mastered your back pain.
For those of you that have a known type of injury, your personal recovery strategy should always begin with avoiding the aggravating posture or movements. Pain can be decreased if we avoid the injury mechanism itself. Here’s a recap of some pain avoidance strategies, as well as an introduction of some that will be discussed later. The knowledge in this chapter will provide the foundation that will help you:
- Locate and eliminate the cause of your pain- get an appropriate assessment that provides a specific diagnosis ( you will be able to obtain your own by reading chapter 6).
- Increase your consciousness around what movements and postures cause you pain.
- Develop replacement postures and movement patterns that enable you to function pain-free.
- Stabilize your torso, core, and spine to remove painful spine joint micro-movements.
- Develop a daily exercise plan that includes walking.
- Mobilize your hips
- Learn to create power at the ball and socket joints (hips and shoulders).
- Learn exercises that are based on patterns of movement: push, pull, lift, carry, lunge, squat, etc.
- Make healthy spine choices when sleeping, sitting, or engaging in more demanding activities.
You’re on your way to learning the secrets of a pain-free lifestyle! Let’s make it happen!”
