Inflammation and Pain: Good or Bad?

Acute Inflammation - Good

The acute inflammatory process is what helps heal the tissue. Hypothetically, if it were possible to remove all the inflammatory chemicals after an injury, the damaged tissue would NOT heal. The key is to control inflammation versus stopping it.

Ice or heat?

If there are obvious signs of inflammation (pain, heat, redness, swelling and loss of function), then ice works well as it causes the blood vessels to vasoconstrict thus slowing down the flow of inflammatory chemicals into the injured soft tissue. If there are minimal or no signs of inflammation, then heat works well.  Think about what works best after a hard day’s work. A nice hot tub is effective as your muscles are tight and it is best to keep the blood vessels open and encourage the fluids to flow on through! NOTE: If in doubt whether to use ice or heath, ALWAYS choose ice.

Chronic Inflammation - Bad

The problem occurs when the Inflammation becomes constant (chronic). Chronic inflammation may occur in soft tissue from old nagging injuries that never heeled properly or from serious disease processes, or inflammatory diet.  In chronic inflammation, the natural body response that was once your ally starts to attack your own body, destroying tissues, changing your natural chemistry and weakening your immune system.  Chronic inflammation in the joints occurs when the joint looses its normal alignment and motion, which leads to altered function. When a joint loses its normal motion, waste products build inside it, soft tissues around the joint become overstretched or shortened around, causing more chronic inflammation, resulting in a vicious cycle. Chronic inflammation is followed by joint degeneration, bone spurs, arthritis, and more pain.

Pain - neither good or bad

Let's look at pain. Pain should be seen is neither good or bad, rather as an indicator that something is happening. The severity of pain does not always correlate with the severity of the injury. Here are some examples: Calf cramps, paper cuts, hitting your shin on the coffee table; these all hurt like crazy but are no big deal. Certainly you are not headed to the ER. Try this. Pinch the skin on your forearm. Go ahead. That really hurts, but the lesson is a high degree of pain is not always a big problem. And try this. Bend your finger back until it's painful. (I know crazy, silly stuff). A biopsy of the tissue won't reveal a tumor, infection or any lesion.  But releasing the finger and letting it return to its "position of comfort" will allow the pain to subside. We need to think about low back and neck pain in a similar way: functionally.  97% of back pain seen by primary care physicians is mechanical in origin; there's something wrong with the muscles, ligaments or connective tissues.  On the flip side many deadly diseases, like cancer and diabetes, are life-threatening but can cause virtually no pain in the early or even late stages.

Chiropractic adjustment

Some people are fearful of chiropractic adjustment because it may hurt or it looks like it hurts. The reality is that for most patients it is a painless event. More importantly it can give you great relief! It is possible that you may be sore for a few days after the initial adjustment or two, but that is just old trapped inflammatory chemicals releasing and new chemicals flowing in.

For more information on chiropractic and inflammation go to Chiro-Health's, Inc You tube channel.  For questions or phone consultations, you can call Chiro-Health, Inc in San Ramon at (925) 831-1461 or Chiro-Health, Inc is San Francisco at (415) 546-1461 or visit http://www.chirohealthsf.com/services/.

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