Chronic Pain at Azzolino
PAIN and Your BRAIN
By definition, pain is an “unpleasant emotional response due to adequate nociception, and there is no correlation between the amount of pain one experiences and the level of tissue damage.” To appreciate this statement, we must understand how the brain processes pain.
Embedded throughout many tissues of the body — especially the skin, joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles — we have free nerve endings acting as pain fibers. These nerve endings, called nociceptors, respond to harmful mechanical pressure and chemicals liberated from damaged tissue.
When pain fibers are activated (nociception), they transmit signals to the brainstem, where the nervous system responds by firing the “fight-or-flight” response increasing:
• Heart rate
• Blood pressure
• Breathing rate
• Sweating
• Muscle tone
They also transmit signals to the limbic system (the emotional seat of the brain), and the somatosensory cortex (the area of our brain that maps our body to allow us to localize sensations).
It’s important to understand that only 25% of our pain fibers connect to the somatosensory cortex, while the remaining 75% direct information to our brainstem and limbic centers. Therefore, it is possible to have abhorrent tissues (spinal subluxations or degenerative joint disease) activating nerve endings and the fight-or-flight response without actual pain perception. We cannot judge health by the absence of pain, and using pain-blocking drugs does not decrease the deleterious effects of nociception.
Long-term activation of pain fibers creates “wind-up” and “central sensitization”; Pain-sympathetic loops grow new nerve connections and become more efficient, and tissues throughout the body become hypersensitive. It also causes an overactive stress response, leading to Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), Chronic Pain Syndrome (CPS), and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
Since these pain syndromes cause decreased blood supply, muscles rapidly fatigue, and more pain-activating chemicals are released. The patient becomes predisposed to overuse-type syndromes, and rehabilitation is difficult.
Chiropractic neurologists’ unique approach is to effectively treat these syndromes by restoring joint biomechanics, prescribing brain-based exercises, and using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT.)
- Improved joint movement activates mechanoreceptors, which inhibits pain and fight-or-flight responses.
- Brain-based exercises activate relay centers in the brain that naturally inhibit pain, decrease hypersensitivity, and improve blood flow.
- HBOT improves oxygenation and is very beneficial in pain syndrome treatment.
We have extensive teaching and clinical experience dealing with the early diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of individuals suffering from pain syndromes.
OUR DOCTORS
Get to know us and our doctors. We are Neurological Chiropractors, Integrative MDs, Naturopaths, Respiratory Therapists and more.
SPECIALIST
SERGIO F. AZZOLINO
Dr. Sergio F. Azzolino is an internationally renowned clinician who has been serving his profession and patients from around the world since 1995. In 2012…
Read more about Dr. Azzolino
SPECIALIST
SERGIO F. AZZOLINO
Dr. Sergio F. Azzolino is an internationally renowned clinician who has been serving his profession and patients from around the world since 1995. In 2012 he was appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. to the California State Board of Chiropractic Examiners, and served as Chairman of the Board for several years. He is President of the American Chiropractic Neurology Board, an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology for the Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies.
