This is a summary of the first section of the book “Explain Pain” by David Butler and Lorimer Moseley. Intro The major premise of this book is that pain is normal. It is the way that your brain judges a situation as threatening. Even if there are problems in the body, pain will not occur if your brain thinks you are not in danger. Explaining pain can reduce the threat value and improve pain management. And the good thing about explaining pain? Research shows that it can be an easily understood concept. Pain is Normal Pain from bites, postures, sprains, and other everyday activities are more often than not changes in the tissues that the brain perceives as threatening. This system is very handy, as often it keeps us from making the same mistake twice. I personally akin this to patients as recognizing a certain smell and that smell reminding you of something. Pain is often the reminder of previous injuries. Pain becomes problematic when it becomes chronic. This pain is often the result of the brain concluding that for some reason, often a subconscious one, that the person is threatened and in danger. The trick is finding out why. Pain Stories Stories are some of the best ways to relate pain to patients. There are many cases when you hear soldiers sustaining major injuries yet charging further into battle. On the flipside, take a look at paper cuts. The damage is very miniscule; however, the pain levels are huge.
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The Sensitive Nervous System Chapter II: A Bird’s Eye View of the Nervous System
This is Chapter II summary of “The Sensitive Nervous System.” Intro Here we develop a framework for understanding the nervous system with pain as the centerpiece. The nervous system is very much misunderstood as an input/output system: Myth: Input/output system. Reality: The nervous system is an active activity constructor. It evolves and learns rather than computes. It is also widely distributed without a master neuron pool for a particular sensation. The nervous system is made up of two components, hardware and wetware. The Hardware Neurons make up the hardware. These components respond and keep a chemical history of many different inputs and outputs. This is true for each individual neuron, which allows each one to be ready to go when called upon. This hardware is one time when the part actual does equal the whole, as one neuron’s activity resembles the entire Central Nervous System’s (CNS) behavior. The nervous system’s size is near-astronomical. There are approximately 100 billion neurons with 1014 synapses. This figure only factors in the functionally known nervous system components. If we throw in 103 nodes/centers (connected by 105 pathways) and the 10:1 glial cell:neuron ratio, and we have an incredibly dense system in place. A pinhead speck of brain tissue has 350 million connections. This hardware is also very redundant, as very few neurons go straight from sensory organ to cortex. There are several feedback loops in place which allows for constant checking and rechecking. The Wetware Wetware includes the different neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Examples
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