18/02/2026
Longevity - Pain!
We have all experienced some form of pain, it is one of the fundamental human experiences and there as a defence mechanism against the world. Without pain, we would very rapidly break ourselves and be in considerable danger of harm.
However, there are 2 types of pain and within that, a number of subtypes.
We have acute pain and chronic pain.
Acute is hitting your thumb with a hammer, falling over or catching your leg on a table as you walk past. It can be very distracting, but with intervention (pain killers, removing the source, time), it will improve.
Chronic is pain that hang around for weeks on end and doesn't really go away. You can often learn to live with it, but it can be draining, and in some cases isolating.
You also have peripheral and central pain, as well as visceral. Peripheral tends to be arms and legs, central tends to be more towards the middle of the body, but can also mean central nervous mediated. Our friends with neurological conditions, for example Multiple Sclerosis or Spinal Cord Injury will be all too familiar with these ones, as they are challenging to treat and challenging to live with.
Visceral pain is that organ pain, far too many people who menstruate know that one, but also anyone with a appendix, gall bladder, kidney or pancreatic problem will have experienced it as well.
If we focus on musculoskeletal chronic pain of known cause (IE if you're worried, you've already seen a medical or clinical professional), for example back pain or osteoarthritic pain, then there are things that we, as practitioners can do to help ease and resolve the pain.
Finding balance within the body, providing exercises to help strengthen and support, guiding the body away from the pain state towards a more active approach and offering changes that allow you to reframe the pain all help and can make a real difference in every day life.
