top of page

Is your pain a hardware or software issue? This question is an important one.

Writer's picture: Jonathan BrownJonathan Brown

back pain, chronic pain, pain treatment

Is your pain a hardware or software related issue?


The answer to this one question will dictate:

  1. The severity of things

  2. The likelihood that possible surgical intervention is required or not

  3. The likely length of any rehabilitation or treatment plan


What do we mean by hardware vs software?


Hardware in this instance relates to the bones, muscles, connective tissue like tendons and ligaments, cartilage of joints, teeth, organs, blood vessels, nerves and skin. All physical, tangible parts of you.

Software relates to the interactions/messages/processing of the nervous system that travel along the nerves to the brain and back. The software of your body is a mixture of electrical, magnetic, chemical or hormonal responses or signals.


A more real world example would be that of a computer. The hardware is the circuit board, screen etc and the software is the code that drives the actual workings of the computer. Both are vital but have very different roles. Damage to the circuit board or chip of a computer would require some level of replacement parts or repairing of the physical elements of the computer. Software issues in computers are electrical in nature and require checking the code that makes apps etc work. Finding that code and correcting/rewriting/debugging the code to ensure that the apps work as designed is the simplest way to correct a software issue. Note that in the case of software problems, there is almost never a physical, broken or damaged part.


Your body is very similar.

Lets use an example to drive this home:


Someone presents with pain in their right knee when walking or squatting.


Damage to the meniscus (think cartilage or padded pillow like structure within the knee joint), tears or inflammation to the ligaments that hold the knee in place present one possible hardware cause for the pain. This is an actual injury that will require surgery, more photobiomodulation laser therapy, time and an extended period of treatment.


A software related cause to the pain could be hypersensitivity to particular stretch information of one of the ligaments of the knee. In a software related issue, there is no damage or injury to the knee; the ligament in question is absolutely sound. Any scan or test would show that the tissue is perfectly healthy.


The stretch information travels from proprioceptive nerve endings within the ligament to the brain where it is processed for safety. It also processed as part of a feedback loop that tries to match the use of the ligaments in response to the activity you are consciously choosing to do (if you choose to sprint, a huge force is required in all the muscles/ligaments etc, when you choose to walk, a lesser force is required and the brain attempts to match the output with the demand of the activity).


In this instance, for one reason or another, the subconscious part of their brain is highlighting this specific stimulus as dangerous. As a result, the brain attempts to protect them from this danger and makes the individual feel pain in a direct response to this, or as a result of the tonic changes to muscles, tendons, the ligaments etc in a bid to compensate or avoid the potentially “dangerous” area. For a software related cause for pain, the treatment required will come in the form of desensitisation to the hypersensitivity, a degree of photobiomodulation treatment and some movement patterning movements or exercises.


It is important to remember that pain is a response in the brain designed to protect you or warn you that you are damaging or potentially damaging yourself. It is the end part of a whole heap of subconscious processes, not the start.

10 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page