Back and neck pain is the fourth leading cause of disability in Australia and, no doubt, in most countries. So, out of 25 million people, 3.24 million Australians live with chronic pain. Low back pain and neck pain are the leading causes of years lived with disability in most countries and most age groups. That is a big problem.
Most people seek the services of a chiropractor because of neck or back pain. However, chiropractic is not pain treatment. Because of what a chiropractor does to adjust the spine, people often experience pain relief. Pain is a huge burden for all of us, whether directly or indirectly, and statistics show the cost burden, financial and otherwise.
3.24 million Australians were living with chronic pain in 2018. For 56% of Australians living with chronic pain, their pain restricts what activities they can undertake. The total financial cost of chronic pain in Australia was $73.2 billion.
These include billions in health system costs, productivity losses and other financial costs. By 2050, chronic pain costs are estimated to reach $215 billion.
The effects of pain are profound. It's not only the social and psychological aspects, but it also affects the neurological networks, which cause changes in the brain. Researchers believe these neuroplastic changes in the brain are responsible for maintaining pain, even if the initial source of that pain is no longer there. This can move pain into a chronic phase, even amplifying It.
Several things are involved in the mechanism of pain. One of the things we know is that the severity of the pain a person feels does not necessarily equal the degree of tissue damage. As a chiropractor, I have often seen people come in with severe pain, and they may have no tissue damage at all. It doesn't mean that the person is making up their pain. It's genuine suffering and is real but maintained or learned by the brain. Pain, in fact, is perceived by the brain. Also, where you hurt does not necessarily indicate the source of the pain. For instance, a person may have nerve interference in their neck but experience tingling with pins and needles in the fingers.
I have also seen people with no apparent damage yet suffer severe pain. They may have spinal subluxations––misalignment and altered spinal motion––but not arthritis or disc degeneration.
So, two things can be going on concerning pain. You could have a structural problem with pathology, let's say in your knee, such as a ligamentous tear or torn meniscus.
You could also have neck or back pain with an obvious pathology problem or no pathology.
The feeling of pain means that nerve pain receptors called nociceptors are firing. That's the old idea of pain. The newer concept is that these receptors are not firing, and you may still feel pain. Nociceptors are one small part of our body's danger warning system.
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