The Health Blog

GOOD PAIN, BAD PAIN: TYPES OF PAIN

Some of the different kinds of pains runners get, for example, including shinsplints and tendinitis, can be ambiguous, and it’s important to know how to approach such problems. A shinsplint, for instance, can be a warning of an impending stress fracture, a very serious injury. When in doubt, of course, it is better to be overly cautious.

There will also be times when you will be unable to diagnose your injury accurately because it combines, say, joint pain and tendinitis. In this case, you should see your doctor.

In the first place, people’s individual perceptions of pain vary widely, and such variations can influence both training and treatment. For instance, one question that often gets asked is: Do men and women feel pain in different degrees? I believe that’s a loaded question. For the most part, men and women feel the same degree of pain but may verbalize it differently because of individual past experiences of pain such as childbirth and cultural upbringing. There are some cultures that are more stoic than others vis a vis pain.

However, I do feel that perceptions can differ between novice exercisers and those who have been at it for years. Novices haven’t suffered injuries before and haven’t had to deal with rehabilitation and treatment, so they’re more apt to be obsessed with the pain, while experienced athletes realize that pain goes with the turf; they’re also more likely to give an injury time to heal.

The role of endorphins in combating pain has garnered a good deal of attention in the sports medicine community. One explanation for the role of endorphins has come to be known as the gate theory. Back in the early 1980s, two researchers from Canada and London discovered that there are little “gates” in the brain that pass on the sensation of pain. However, according to the theory, if something else reaches them first, such as the endorphins produced by aerobic exercise, the gates will close and the pain messages won’t reach the brain.

The gate theory is all very neat and logical, but some physicians believe that the concept of endorphins is totally overrated and that the gate theory is really just a framework to help us understand pain.

The lesson, then, is that while your chosen sport may hurt “so good,” it should never hurt “so bad.” The trick is to keep in touch with your body and to understand the often subtle differences in the signals it is sending you, because ignoring them can lead to disaster.

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