If you haven't already you need to forget about pain nerves and receptors - we've known for a long time that they don't exist, and today I want to tell you about nociceptors - which give us a much more up to date understanding of pain.

Nociceptors are threat detectors that carry information to the brain. The brain then determines, based on the information it receives, whether or not a response is needed. This response may be pain that is felt in the body;  but it also might be muscle spasm or stress - panic or anxiety. There are a number of outputs that then bring some action to keep our body safe.

This is very useful when our body is in danger, with the possibility of injury, but there are other contributors to may result on ongoing pain experience in the absence of tissue damage. Read on for fun facts. NB Nociception is the process whereby nociceptors are activated.

• Our body can trigger nociception when it is strained, even before there is damage to the body's tissues. This is protective as we need to be aware of our bodies' limits of strength and mobility. Along with lots of other information the brain may or may not decide that a message of pain is warranted. Examples of this are:

• If a strain is enough to exceed tissue tolerance, then injury may result. This creates inflammation. which is a big trigger for nociception. Interestingly pain still may not be felt, if we are in a circumstance like a busy highway, we may not feel pain until later. However now the body is injured and protective mechanisms are required until healing has happened. Pain is our friend here, it makes us protect an injured area until it is healed. In next months blog we'll look at the amazing healing capacity of the body. 
• If we've had an injury in an area before than a danger response will be more likely to be initiated by nocicpetors in the brain, due to learning from past experience. In these situations a pain response may be produced well before even normal strain to the body. It's normal to be a little sensitive in areas of old injury. It doesn't mean we have re-injured ourself. 

• Emotional and psychological stressors increase the sensitivity of nociceptors in the body and the brain and they use the same pathway's. This is why if we injure ourself in circumstances that are stressful pain experience may continue beyond injury healing. So managing life stressors is important to manage pain. It's also important for healing, as the stress hormones can delay healing a little.

• The body's fluctuating chemistry sensitizes nociception. Puberty, monthly cycles, menopause, illness, feeling tired and run down, not eating well, got a bit unfit, partying too much, poor sleep? These all contribute molecules to the blood stream that reach nociceptors and when combined with other messages to the brain, the pains of old strains may recur during these times even in the absence of a new strain or injury in the body.
• Negativity in thoughts, words and seen. Yes, nociceptors are even activated by ideas that we have about our body - it's capacity to heal, our beliefs about pain and what Dr Google  and social media tell us. So be careful what you take in. Best to keep it simple. Go only to practitioners you trust and try to surround yourself with conversations about positive experiences of injury.