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There have been great advances in the past few decades in our scientific understanding about pain. For example, we know now that the feeling of pain is always – 100% of the time!! – created in the brain. This usually happens due to actual tissue damage, however, this can also happen even if there is only just the potential for tissue damage! Because the latest science tells us that pain is created in the brain – to warn us about danger. The problem is that this system is also neuroplastic (changeable due to your experiences) so can in itself become a problem. We know now that maladaptive neural plasticity can cause chronic pain. So the experience of ‘pain’ can change and adapt over time depending on the person’s experiences. Your brain can basically learn to be in chronic pain in the same way you can learn to ride a bike or play the piano. We now know that for a lot of chronic pain there may no longer be any tissue damage present at all – it has literally become a learnt problem within the brain itself. Physiological and psychological stress also plays a major role in this maladaptive process. Heidi is going to walk you through all the latest science on this topic in her usual fun and entertaining way! She will also cover the latest scientific understanding about the function of the spine and its neuroplastic impact on brain function. This is very relevant because there is compelling evidence that an educational strategy addressing the neurophysiology and the neurobiology of pain alone can have a positive effect on the pain, disability, catastrophization, and physical performance experience by those with chronic musculoskeletal pain disorders! 1 Heidi can provide you with such an educational package that you can use to educate your patients with chronic MSK disorders. This alone can help these people have less pain, experience less disability, catastrophise less and function better! Join this webinar with Dr Heidi Haavik and learn how easily you can educate your patients with MSK disorders about the brain and pain, and the neuroplastic effect of chiropractic care.
Heidi will also cover the latest scientific evidence from neuroscientists who specialize in pain, who are calling for a move towards a neuroplasticity model and urging that we move away from a structural pathology model, particularly when it comes to chronic MSK disorders. 2 There is even a recent study that showed that a neuroplasticity explanation of the mechanisms of manual therapy (as compared to a traditional biomechanical explanation) resulted in significantly better clinical outcomes in a chronic low back pain group when receiving manual therapy. This suggests that if you explain chiropractic care using the new neuroplasticity model your patients may do better than if you are still talking about bones out of place, squashing nerves (which is a structural pathology model explanation). So join Heidi for her webinar on this topic and learn how easily you can educate your patients about the brain and pain, and the neuroplastic effect of chiropractic care!
She will focus on the mechanisms of an adjustment, based on the latest relevant scientific research studies, and how this is likely altering the way a person’s brain is ‘feeling’ pain. We use to think we were ‘fixing’ problems locally in the spine (the structural pathology model) when it now turns out we are more likely to be ‘fixing’ problems at the level of the brain, and actually turning down or switching off the sensation of pain directly in the brain. Heidi will also discuss what has been shown clearly in the literature to work when it comes to retraining the brain out of pain and give practical tips and advice on how best to train the pain out of the brain.