Why does it burn here and stab there? Where is my pain coming from?
Pain comes in many different forms but each type tells a different story. First let’s define pain; “Physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness or injury.”
So the different types of pain you can feel can range from sharp, stabbing, dull, aching, local, or referred. Each one of these tells a different story. The simple rule of thumb is, the sharper the pain, the more local the cause. A good example of this is if you cut your finger, where you cut it, really hurts. This will account for the sharp or stabbing pain.
When pain migrates or radiates the location can be less obvious. A dull ache or burning sensation means the pain is distal, or moving away from the origin. An example of this is sciatic pain. Sciatic pain can be felt in the butt, all the way down the leg and sometimes-even manifest in the foot or the big toe. Even though the pain is felt in the leg or foot, the cause is usually coming from the pelvis or lumbar spine. A disc being herniated or compressed will most of the time be the culprit.
So the lesson here is even though it hurts in one spot it might be coming from somewhere else. When you see your massage therapist, chiropractor or doctor, make sure you describe the type of pain as well as where it starts and ends. This will all help your practitioner better address the route cause of your pain.
At MetaTouch your therapist will ask these questions to make sure they treat the true cause of your pain and get you out of it as quickly as possible. www.metatouch.com
