Therapy thoughts (13/5/25) - Pain science isn't dead!

Just because you can't think pain away by calling it an "alarm" or "overprotective" doesn't mean that pain science is useless, its just not really a standalone treatment!

I origianally did a diagram around this topic back in 2017, you can find that below 

I decided to do an update for 2025, both graphically and some conceptual tweaks too

Ultimately, pain science is.....the science of pain! This always has always been valuable in helping us understand things! 

It helps us understand why....

• Hurt doesn't simply equal harm
• Pain experiences are often quite different 
• Exercise for some increases pain
• Health & lifestyle matter
• Nociceptive & immune function matter

All of these things require some knowledge of the systems and factors that influence pain 

Knowledge around both the inflammatory/immune systems & nociceptive systems really help us get beyond a basic pathalogical/tissue model that really is limited when we understand the wider biopsychosocial profile of most MSK problems

The broader health profile of the organism also will affect the function of immune system and the inflammatory status both systemically and the local tissue. We are seeing much more discussion of this on traditionally tissue focused models such as tendinopathy

Maybe exercise's most powerful influence is on health rather than biomechanics!?