MN chiropractors understand that it is a myth to believe that pain from an injury can be cured with a magic pill.
  The downside to modern pain killers-the dangerous side effects.
  In the article below we examine what pain and inflammation is, and how the body attempts to heal itself following injury.
  We begin in depth to really understand what it takes to relieve pain naturally.
Pain, Inflammation and Tissue Repair What is pain?  Simply put, pain is a signal from our body saying that something is wrong.
  It is a message to get our attention.
  In terms of biology or physiology, pain generally occurs when there is tissue injury or damage.
  When tissue damage occurs chemicals are released from the tissue that irritate pain nerve endings.
  Some of the chemicals released from the injured tissue also attract cells from the immune system.
  These immune system cells also release chemicals that further irritate the pain nerve endings, causing more pain.
  The immune system starts a process that we call "inflammation".
  "Inflammation" is actually the process whereby the body heals itself.
Inflammation is part of the healing process.
After an injury and repair of the injury through the process of inflammation, the inflammatory process ends.
  When the inflammation is gone the pain is gone too.
  This raises an important question.
   "What happens when you use anti-inflammatory medications to lessen inflammation?  If you interfere with the inflammatory process you will interrupt the process of repair.
  You are preventing the body from repairing the damaged area.
  Research studies have shown that people who take NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) actually increase the rate of deterioration of their joints.
  So when you are taking NSAIDs for chronic pain, you risk increasing the speed of degeneration of the very joints that are hurting.
  The point here isn't that we shouldn't take a drug if we need to get relief of pain.
  The point is that we shouldn't rely on drugs long term because of the fact that they prevent self-repair, in addition to their other harmful side effects.
  Lets look a little more at the process of inflammation.
  We can use the analogy of damage to a house.
  If a house is damaged, the first thing is to get rid of all the damaged timber, siding, roofing, etc.
  house construction, whenever there is tissue damage or injury-or damage to the house, the first thing is to get rid of all the debris.
  Once the debris is removed, then rebuilding can begin.
  This debris or damaged tissue is removed by the immune system.
  So we remove the debris, then we rebuild the house, and once the rebuilding is done...
...
the job is complete.
  We don't need to work on the house any more.
  It's done.
  With regard to inflammation, that means that the process of inflammation is over and tissue repair is complete.
  There is no more swelling, or stiffness...
no more tenderness and no more pain.
  This is the cycle that we want to see whenever we are injured or suffer from pain.
  This means that we recover without pain and that our function-range of motion, muscle strength, coordination and balance-are back to what they were.
Chronic Pain as an Illness In chronic pain, the repairs are never finished.
  It's like getting 50-75% of the way through rebuilding a home, but not being able to complete the job.
  The area often remains inflammed and chronic pain persists.
  Because the process of inflammation continues the pain doesn't go away.
   Chronic pain is different than acute pain.
  Normally when we are injured, our body goes through a cycle which results in healing of the tissues that were injured.
  Once the area is healed the pain goes away.
  When the pain doesn't go away it means that our body is unable to heal the injury.
Not being able to heal is a sign of weaknesses or imbalances in our body's overall function.
  In order to relieve the chronic pain, we must address the issue of our body's overall healing ability.
  Chronic pain is really a type of chronic illness, a specific type of chronic illness.
  It is an illness of chronic inflammation and poor healing ability.
  There are eight key factors which retard the body's overall healing ability and lead to chronic pain.
   Another is mechanical instability of joints resulting in ongoing tissue injury, inflammation and pain.
  The disruption of the nervous systems ability to signal the need for and to coordinate the body's healing response slows healing.
Another of the list of factors which retard the body's overall healing ability and lead to chronic pain is immune system dysfunction which in turn retards the body's healing response.
  Chemical imbalances in the diet can also cause a systemic pro-inflammatory state which prevents resolution of tissue healing and inflammation Nutritional deficiencies can retard the healing response when the body doesn't have the raw materials it needs to rebuild the injured tissues.
  Protein and vitamin C are key nutrients needed for tissue healing.
The presence of toxins in the body can also retard the healing response and provoke a global pro-inflammatory tendency throughout the body.
  Finally the presence of mental-emotional patterns and habits that disrupt the body's healing response.
Repeated, low level trauma results in chronic pain.
Low level trauma which causes constant re-injury to the area of injury and pain prevents healing.
  A bone spur cutting into a muscle whenever one moves is an example.
  This repeated trauma may also be the result of something as simple as sitting too much, frequent bending and lifting (even of light loads), or repetitive activities such as typing or using a computer mouse for hours.
MN chiropractors attempt to summon the body's maximum healing response by removing these blocking factors that are in the way.