{"id":25512,"date":"2021-11-29T10:16:26","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T18:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/?p=25512"},"modified":"2021-11-24T09:35:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T17:35:27","slug":"sometimes-it-hurts-and-sometimes-it-doesnt-information-set-theory-of-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/all-mfn\/sometimes-it-hurts-and-sometimes-it-doesnt-information-set-theory-of-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes It Hurts and Sometimes It Doesn\u2019t: Information Set Theory of Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cPain don\u2019t hurt.\u201d\u00a0<em>\u2013Patrick Swayze\u2019s character Dalton in \u201cRoad House\u201d, while responding to the doctor about to stitch up his wounds after a bar fight who tells him that the stitches are going to hurt.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-23183 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/pulled-shoulder.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/pulled-shoulder.jpg 800w, https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/pulled-shoulder-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/pulled-shoulder-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/pulled-shoulder-400x266.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pain is an elusive concept.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sometimes chronic pain or discomfort occurs in muscles and joints without having injured the area where they\u2019re feeling the pain and discomfort.\u00a0 Why?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Why do some people who have structural damage to a muscle or joint (as shown by MRI or other test) have no pain in the damaged area, but others who have no structural damage in an area\u00a0<em>do\u00a0<\/em>experience pain there?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>People use many words to describe sensations in their body they don\u2019t like: pain, discomfort, tightness, soreness, glitches, weakness, and many more. Why do we choose to describe a particular sensation as \u201cpain\u201d and another sensation as some other word? Why are sensations so subjective? Why (and how?) do sensations come in so many &#8216;flavors&#8217;?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sometimes pain is fleeting: it occurs only occasionally or only when the body is in certain positions or engaging in certain activities. Why does the \u201cpain\u201d only occur under certain conditions?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Why is some pain accompanied by a sense of fear, and other pain could be described as simply annoying?<br \/>\nWhy is there an emotional significance to some sensations but not others?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This article will introduce a concept called\u00a0<strong>Information Set Theory,<\/strong>\u00a0which offers an explanation to each of these questions. Information Set Theory is a theory of pain that states the following: all physical sensation, including the choice to use the word Pain to describe it, is a conclusion of the brain based on the quality and quantity of information flowing within and throughout the body at any given moment.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>PAIN IS AN INFORMATION PROBLEM<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>So what is it about pain that makes it so tricky? The reason pain is such a mystery to us is that <em>pain is a subjective conclusion made by the brain<\/em>. Pain isn\u2019t a \u201cthing\u201d we can remove or fix. Even though you might be able to point to your knee and say, \u201cI feel pain here\u201d, it doesn\u2019t mean your knee is the reason for the pain. Weirdly, the pain is actually in your brain. The brain is presented with information from all the body\u2019s parts, and your sensation is simply a part of the brain\u2019s final conclusion about the total information present. Where you feel the sensation isn\u2019t necessarily the source of the information that led to the pain.<\/p>\n<p>The human body is a miraculous vehicle, certainly greater than the sum of its parts.\u00a0 Part of its genius is in its sophisticated setup for\u00a0<em>communication within itself:\u00a0<\/em>the body is one continuous, cohesive system with a built-in mechanism that allows for every part to be aware of, and work with, the other parts to achieve the goal of operating efficiently. The field of engineering refers to this as the\u00a0\u201cSystems Approach\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Your body is not simply a set of individual parts, welded, glued, and bolted together, with each operating blindly to the others. Your body grew together from its conception \u2013 as a system. It is impossible to tease out one part from the next without disrupting another part in some way. The bones grew as the muscles grew. The tendons grew as the ligaments grew. The blood vessels grew as the nerves grew. This inherently connects all of the body\u2019s tissues creating a continuous information stream.<\/p>\n<p>Your muscles are part of this interacting, interconnected, and interdependent system. The operation and movement of your body is based on extensive collaboration. And that collaboration requires <em>information<\/em>. . . lots of continuous, high-quality information \u2013 from and about each of the body\u2019s regions \u2013 communicated to the rest of the system. Every body movement is a <em>whole-body task<\/em>\u00a0that requires an internal,\u00a0<em>whole-body solution<\/em>. Brilliant!<\/p>\n<p>When you decide you want or need your body to move (or purposely not move), a negotiation occurs between your nervous system and muscles about how these tasks will be completed; think of it as a \u201cproblem-solving session\u201d.\u00a0 The nervous system receives the information about the intention of your muscles to complete an action, the brain interprets the information and makes the most efficient conclusion it can about how to solve the \u201cproblem\u201d based on the information and resources it has available. How the body feels while completing the task is a product of how well your body \u201cpulled off the task\u201d, or how good your body\u2019s \u201csolution\u201d was.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>WHEN INFORMATION GOES WRONG<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Did you ever play the game Telephone as a kid? A bunch of kids line up, and the first kid in line whispers a message to the second kid. The message the second kid heard from the first kid\u2019s whisper gets whispered to the next kid in line, and so on. Each kid whispers their version of the message down the line, and the game ends when the last kid in line announces the message. Usually, \u201cBananas are better than biscuits\u201d ends up something more like \u201cBandanas are butter and lipsticks\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Communication within the nervous system works in a similar manner. Clear, concise, well-communicated information between the muscle system and the nervous system produces a precise, efficient conclusion on the part of the brain, which produces high-quality movement and a high-quality sensation to match. Just as in the case of our friends and their game of Telephone, a piece of garbled, low-quality communication \u2014 or even excessive, unnecessary information \u2013 will produce a result much different than the body intended. The brain\u2019s conclusion about this low-quality information will be poor in quality as well.<\/p>\n<h4><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9523 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/arthritis-woman.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"424\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/arthritis-woman.jpg 283w, https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/arthritis-woman-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Have you ever watched a contestant on <em>Wheel of Fortune<\/em> attempt to solve a puzzle for the grand prize? What happens when the contestant is presented with a complex puzzle and only a few letters are available for the contestant to work with to solve the puzzle? They may attempt several erroneous solutions to the puzzle, frustration ensues, and eventually the buzzer goes off and the contestant has lost the prize. They didn\u2019t have enough information to successfully solve the puzzle, or the quality of the information they had wasn\u2019t good enough for the contestant to easily come up with the correct answer within the time limit to win the prize.<\/p>\n<p>Now, what if that contestant was presented with the same puzzle to solve, but this time they had more letters revealed so more information was available in their problem-solving arsenal?\u00a0 Maybe a critical \u201cz\u201d or \u201cq\u201d was at their disposal.\u00a0 The contestant now has the information they need to complete the task with ease. . .\u00a0 because the information set they possessed was robust and powerful. Knowledge is power!<\/p>\n<p>The same holds true for the nervous system. The more knowledge it has about how to approach a task, \u00a0the better quality the outcome will be.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s apply Information Set Theory to our original questions about pain. Why would you feel pain when you\u2019re not injured? Why would you feel pain during some movements and not others? Why does pain come in a dizzying array of &#8216;flavors&#8217;?\u00a0 <em>Your body\u2019s sensations are a conclusion about your body\u2019s current information state.<\/em> Your body\u2019s information set changes from moment to moment; your brain\u2019s system of processing and interpreting information is ever adapting and ever-evolving. Your body\u2019s ability to devise a high-quality solution to a problem will differ depending on the conditions of the situation, the capabilities of your muscle system under those conditions, and the information your nervous system has available. If your system has enough useful information available to solve the problem with high quality, then you\u2019ll move well and feel good. If necessary information is missing, then the way your body moves and feels will suffer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>As a Clinical Exercise Physiologist, Certified Medical Exercise Specialist, and Certified Holistic Nutritionist with 20 years of experience in both clinical and health\/fitness settings, <a href=\"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/members\/jessica-cahen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jessica Cahen<\/a> has helped hundreds of clients improve their health and wellness and improve chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, weight issues, metabolic issues, muscle and joint instability, arthritis, and pre-\/post-rehab. Her company, Perfectionist Health LLC, offers full-service, custom-designed medical fitness and holistic wellness plans to help you achieve your own perfect, unique strategy for health and happiness<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pain is an elusive concept. Sometimes chronic pain or discomfort occurs in muscles and joints without having injured the area where they\u2019re feeling the pain and discomfort. Why? Why do some people who have structural damage to a muscle or joint (as shown by MRI or other test) have no pain in the damaged area, but . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278,"featured_media":23183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[198,291],"class_list":["post-25512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-mfn","tag-fitness-professionals","tag-pain-management"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/278"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31048,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25512\/revisions\/31048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}