Pain isn’t just an annoyance; it’s your body’s red flag, signalling that something needs attention. But what causes pain, and why does it sometimes linger after an injury has healed? In this article, we explore the differences between acute and chronic pain, how your brain influences your pain experience, and science-backed methods for managing it.

To skip to the solutions, click here to learn ways to address acute pain, or here to learn 3 ways to help manage chronic pain.

Pain Explained: Your Body’s Alarm System

Pain is often mistaken as the problem itself, but it’s a symptom, like a smoke alarm going off when there’s a fire. One common cause is inflammation, your body’s natural defence system.

Think of it like a fire brigade rushing to the scene of injury or infection. In the short term, inflammation helps healing. But when it hangs around too long, it can damage tissues and lead to chronic pain conditions.¹

All pain begins when special sensors in the body, called nociceptors, detect inflammation. These sensors send signals through the nerves to your brain, creating the sensation of pain.

In people with chronic pain, these nerves can become extra sensitive, like turning up the volume on a speaker. This means that even small triggers can elicit a strong pain response, and the brain can become stuck in a state of heightened sensitivity.²

How Your Brain Turns Up (or Down) the Pain

Once pain signals reach your brain, it decides how loud the alarm should be.² In chronic or high-pain conditions, increased inflammation and extra-sensitive pain receptors can turn up the volume. This happens through a process called neuroplasticity, where the brain rewires itself to become more tuned in to pain.³,⁴

Imagine a walking track that gets more entrenched every time you use it. The more pain signals travel that path, the easier it becomes to feel pain, even when there’s no real threat.

These changes in the brain are also linked to low moods, which can make pain feel even worse. This creates a cycle where the brain becomes more sensitive and reacts more strongly to pain over time.³⁻⁵

Types of Pain: Acute vs. Chronic Signals

Understanding the type of pain you're experiencing can help you make sense of it and manage it better. Let’s break down the two main types of pain, acute and chronic, and explore ways to support healing.

Acute Pain: Your Body’s SOS Signal

Acute pain is short-term, usually caused by injury or inflammation. It’s sharp and fades as the body heals.⁶ Examples include:

• Broken bones
• Sprains
• Surgery recovery
• Cuts and burns

How to Support Acute Pain

Acute inflammation is part of healing, but it needs the right care in the early days. Instead of the old RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation)method, new research recommends PEACE + LOVE for better recovery.⁷ After the first few days, natural supports like turmeric, Boswellia, white willow, and ginger within Joint Intensive Care may also aid healing without slowing the body’s repair process.

1. First few days:  PEACE + LOVE 

To support acute pain, research supports PEACE and LOVE, which features a few extra steps for better results.⁷

PEACE (in the first few days):

• Protect: Rest the area for 1–3 days
• Elevate: Raise it above your heart
• Avoid anti-inflammatories: Too much ice or ibuprofen can slow healing when inflammation is naturally helping
• Compress: Use wraps to reduce swelling
• Educate: Learn about your injury and recovery

LOVE (after the first few days):

• Load: Start gentle movement
• Optimism: Stay positive- your mindset matters
• Vascularisation: Do light cardio to boost blood flow
• Exercise: Build strength and balance without pushing through pain

2. Natural Support for Acute Pain: Turmeric, Boswellia, White Willow & Ginger

In some cases, acute flares of inflammation can occur in joints and tissues that are more susceptible due to age-related changes or structural weakness. Natural anti-inflammatory support can help manage these flare-ups and provide relief from mild joint discomfort. 

Joint Intensive Care combines herbal extracts and nutrients with natural analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, including turmeric, Boswellia, white willow, ginger, quercetin, and citrus bioflavonoids. This combination may help temporarily relieve mild joint pain and inflammation associated with conditions such as mild arthritis and osteoarthritis.⁸⁻¹⁰

Next, let’s explore chronic pain issues, which is when pain management becomes about playing the long game.

Chronic Pain Explained

Chronic pain lasts longer than three months. It can be caused by¹¹:

• Joint wear and cartilage loss (like osteoarthritis)
• Immune system reactivity against the body (like rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia)
• Nerve inflammation (In conditions that feature intense inflammation or pressure near nerves, such as endometriosis and sciatica). 

Unlike acute pain, chronic pain isn’t just about the original injury. It often involves how surrounding structures, such as nerves, amplify pain signals in the brain.

In some pain conditions, immune cells called glial cells trigger inflammation in the nerves. This heightens pain perception and turns up the volume of pain signals sent to the brain.¹²,¹³

Three Ways To Help Calm Chronic Pain Signals

If you live with chronic pain, we've shared three effective science-backed strategies that can help below. These approaches work by calming the nervous system and slowly shifting the brain’s expectation of pain and stress.

1. Progressive Muscle Relaxation Breathing After Back Surgery

Breathing exercises, like Progressive Muscle Relaxation can make a real difference when it comes to pain. This technique involves deep breathing, with slow muscle tensing and relaxation of different muscle groups, starting from your feet and moving upward (or vice versa). 

Research shows that people who practised this for 30 minutes twice daily, in the afternoon and again in the evening for three days after surgery reported less pain, less stress, and better sleep.

It’s a simple way to help your body release tension and ease into a more relaxed state, giving it a bit more flexibility in how it perceives and responds to pain.¹⁴

2. Mind-Body Therapy for Long-Term Pain

Some people experience long-term pain that’s influenced by the brain and emotions, not just the body. In one study, participants learned how stress and past experiences can affect pain, then used visualisation of painful movements to help retrain their pain response.

At first, just visualising the movement could cause pain, showing the brain was stuck in a pain loop. But by repeating the visualisation safely, the brain started to realise the movement wasn’t dangerous. Once the imagined pain faded, they slowly returned to real-life movement with more confidence.

They also learned healthy emotional expression and mindfulness tools like breathing and meditation. After 12 weeks, nearly half felt fully recovered, and over 60% were pain-free, showing how working with the mind can help heal the body.¹⁵

3. Natural Support for Chronic Pain: PEA and Saffron

PEA (palmitoylethanolamide) is a natural fatty acid your body makes to help calm irritated nerves and adjust how the brain perceives pain. As discussed in this article, a special form of PEA with LipiSperse® technology absorbs 1.7 times more effectively.¹⁶

More than 11 high-quality studies show that PEA can help with many types of pain, both short-term flares and long-term issues.¹⁷ While, saffron has also been shown to help with different types of chronic pain, such as joint pain from arthritis and fibromyalgia.¹⁸

You’ll find both of these powerful ingredients in PainX Advanced, a supplement that supports personalised pain care.

Building a Personalised Pain Plan

Different types of pain can benefit from support, and the good news is, there are plenty of options available to help. If you’re new to natural health care and wondering how supplements might help with pain relief, take a look at our Pain and Inflammation Range to explore what’s available.

If you're curious about exploring physical therapies, like chiropractic, osteopathic, or physiotherapy care, this article explains how these can help, plus how natural health practitioners, like naturopaths, can support you. Click here to find a local pain management specialist near you.

Supporting Effective Pain Management 

Pain is personal, and your approach should be too. If pain is your body’s alarm system, your job is to figure out what’s setting it off and support your body in calming it down. Whether it’s through movement, mindset, or natural support, there are effective ways to help your body heal and feel better.

References: 

1. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Inflammation. Published August 8, 2018. Accessed November 8, 2018. 
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11. Cairns BE, Arendt-Nielsen L, Sacerdote P. Perspectives in Pain Research 2014: Neuroinflammation and glial cell activation: The cause of transition from acute to chronic pain? Scand J Pain. 2015 Jan 1;6(1):3-6. doi: 10.1016/j.sjpain.2014.10.002. 
12. Bashir ST, Redden CR, Raj K, Arcanjo RB, Stasiak S, Li Q, Steelman AJ, Nowak RA. Endometriosis leads to central nervous system-wide glial activation in a mouse model of endometriosis. J Neuroinflammation. 2023 Mar 6;20(1):59. doi: 10.1186/s12974-023-02713-0.
13. Ramer MS, Kawaja MD, Henderson JT, Roder JC, Bisby MA. Glial overexpression of NGF enhances neuropathic pain and adrenergic sprouting into DRG following chronic sciatic constriction in mice. Neurosci Lett. 1998 Jul 17;251(1):53-6. doi: 10.1016/s0304-3940(98)00493-5. 
14. Bahçeli A, Karabulut N. The effects of progressive relaxation exercises following lumbar surgery: a randomized controlled trial. Complement Med Res. 2021;28(2):114-122. English. doi: 10.1159/000509055.
15. Donnino M, Thompson G, Mehta S, et al. Pyschophysiologic symptom relief therapy for chronic back pain: a pilot randomised controlled trial. Pain Rep. 2021 Sep 23;6(3):e959. doi: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000000959.
16. Briskey D, Mallard AR, Rao A. Increased absorption of palmitoylethanolamide using a novel dispersion technology system (LipiSperse®). J Nut Food Sci. 2020 May;5(2):1-6.
17. Lang-Illievich K, Klivinyi C, Lasser C, Brenna CTA, Szilagyi IS, Bornemann-Cimenti H. Palmitoylethanolamide in the Treatment of Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrients. 2023 Mar 10;15(6):1350. doi: 10.3390/nu15061350.
18. Pourbagher-Shahri AM, Forouzanfar F. Saffron (Crocus sativus) and its constituents for pain management: A review of current evidence. Phytother Res. 2023 Nov;37(11):5041-5057. doi: 10.1002/ptr.7968.