This article was published on: 03/8/22 6:45 AM
Exercise-induced analgesia is not just about getting some temporary feel-good chemicals from a jog or weightlifting session. Analgesia is the lessening of pain or the absence of pain. It’s usually used in the context of medicine as a more technical way of saying “pain relief.” It is about tuning up a system whose proper function is necessary to keep you feeling good all the time. Exercise is an integral part of the rehabilitation of patients suffering from a variety of chronic musculoskeletal conditions, such as fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain, and myofascial pain. Regular physical activity is recommended for the treatment of chronic pain and its effectiveness has been established in clinical trials for people with a variety of pain conditions.
People who participate in regular physical activity typically have enhanced mental health and psychological well-being, whereas individuals who are physically inactive are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. Physical inactivity is a risk factor for chronic pain, that exercise stimulates the pain modulatory system, and that a healthy balance in the system is necessary to avoid chronic pain. Regular physical activity changes the state of central pain inhibitory pathways and the immune system to result in a protective effect against a peripheral insult.
Physical activity can cause pain by causing complex changes in the behaviour of the immune system, both locally and globally. Another reason exercise may kill pain is through conditioned pain modulation. It is basically the likely mechanism for pain reduction in a wide variety of manual therapies, including deep tissue massage, acupuncture, dry needling, instrument-assisted soft tissue manipulation, and foam rolling. Exercise-induced analgesia is not just about getting some temporary feel-good chemicals from a jog or weightlifting session. It is about tuning up a system whose proper function is necessary to keep you feeling good all the time.
