Paul, could you start by explaining central sensitisation?
As soon as we get injured our body responds by amplifying pain signals that travel along nerves from the injury site to the spinal cord and up to the brain. This is called central sensitisation and it’s part of the body’s agenda to protect us by making sure we do something about the injury, like rest it. When the injury heals, those sensitised nerves should go back to their normal state. In chronic pain (technically pain that lasts longer than around 10 weeks), the nerves can stay sensitised.
You say that chronic pain doesn’t necessarily mean you have an ongoing injury – can you elaborate?
One upshot of central sensitisation is that even though an
