When the Rainham Osteopathic Clinic became more than a twinkle in my eye many names were considered in its creation. “The House of Pain” is one of the more tongue-in-cheek options (go on, people of a similar age, I know you want to “Jump around”).

Apart from the reference to 90’s popular rap, house of pain was apt as Osteopaths treat pain primarily. During treatment sessions, our patients often comment and marvel at how treating somewhere that seemingly has nothing to do with the painful area improves their pain levels.
Patients comment how “treating my belly reduces my neck pain” or how “treating on my neck reduces my back pain.”

How does this work, and how does Osteopathy approach this?

Pain is your brain’s perception of signals from your body; however, it is not as straightforward as a direct connection. It is possible to examine someone with no pain but find areas of their body where the mobility is reduced and this would send signals to the brain however for this person their brain is ignoring these signals so they perceive no pain.

What affects the way our brain perceives these signals?

The nervous system is designed to be constantly assessing our environment through our sense system (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch) so that we can survive our environment. Whether we feel relaxed (rest and digest) or alert (fight, flight, or freeze) either reduces or increases our brain’s perception of the outside. Also, our beliefs affect pain perception, the Nocebo effect (a negative effect induced by the patient’s expectations).

If you are told something will be painful before the treatment, you will report higher pain ratings than another person not told) and Placebo effect (a positive effect induced by the patient’s expectations. It is often the case patients report feeling an improvement in their symptoms as soon as they have booked an appointment with us!) demonstrate this.

So our beliefs and experiences directly affect our pain levels. So the fundamental question is, what do I think about my pain? What does it mean to me? These are things that are explored together on your treatment journey with your Osteopath.

That’s all very interesting, Chris, but what about that magic stuff you do? You put your hands on me, and it feels better, I can hear you say! The assessment is so we can understand what is causing your pain but, more importantly, why?

For example, once an overstrained muscle in your back is found, we then must understand why it is overstrained. As Osteopaths, we use our sense of touch to understand the important sites of tension, and we treat to change these. This either reduces the load on those painful structures or changes the feedback from the nerves that reduce the pain perceived in our brain. Our body is interconnected through the tissue called fascia, and that is why seemingly distant sites from our pain can cause/contribute to our symptoms.

Pain is a complex mechanism, but remember, although you feel it in your body, it is always perceived in your brain!