28/02/2024
❌ Structural changes do not ALWAYS mean you will have pain/symptoms
📌 But yes, these changes CAN contribute at times
However...
👍🏼 You should know that you CAN also live completely normally and pain free even WITH structural changes present
⁉️ How?
💯 Well, to keep things short, tissue changes, injury, and/or pathology are NOT directly linked to pain
🤯 You can have pain in the presence of injury, but you can also have pain WITHOUT it!
🏃🏻 That's why people can sprain their ankle in a game and continue to play on it even with multiple torn ligaments, or continue to fight in a battle after half a leg has been blown off, or have multiple bruises on the body and never remember how they even got there (those are just a FEW EXAMPLES)
😫 It's also why someone pinching you can hurt a lot without causing any actual tissue damage , or why stress or lack of sleep can make your upper back and shoulders ache really bad, or why even the thought of unpleasant memories/experiences can make things hurt worse
😯 And it's also why this many people (based off of a study of 3110 individuals from 1946 to 2014) can have "pathology" present in their spine but WITHOUT PAIN or dysfunction!
⁉️ The take away?
💯 Structural changes seem to be more highly correlated with NORMAL AGING than with pathology/dysfunction
👨🏻As the authors of this study summarized:
"Imaging findings of spine degeneration are present in high proportions of asymptomatic individuals, increasing with age. Many imaging-based degenerative features are likely part of normal aging and unassociated with pain. These imaging findings must be interpreted in the CONTEXT of the patient's clinical condition."
✅ So, like I said earlier, being diagnosed with any of these issues does NOT mean you're doomed to a life of pain and misery
