Comments on: Here’s One Reason It’s Hard To Move When You Have Pain

By: beka

beka — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:54:07 +0000

Hi-
Pain and dystonia are very much associated but whether they are related according to “cortical smudging “, I am not so sure and I question this theory and study. We know that there are over 20 forms of dystonia out there- some being genetic in nature, others being induced by drugs such as Reglan and Compazine.
Dystonia is an involuntary in nature and has been thought to be caused by problems in the basal ganglia of the brain. Science has refered to a mirror effect in the movements involved in dystonia !

beka, RN, MS, NP
http://www.care4dystonia.org
Founder
http://community.wegohealth.com/group/dystonia
Group Leader

By: HtCwP

HtCwP — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:00:29 +0000

Be sure to check out Jeisea’s website, which shows how she works with mirrors. She’s been using this technique a while, and knows some good ways to do it.

By: jeisea

jeisea — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:07:44 +0000

Thank you HTCWP and Matthias. The new approach to pain and pain management has made a huge difference to me. Today I feel great. Having breaks between flare up is new for me and has only been happening since I've been using mirror therapy. I think Matthias, the smudging in the brain you speak of, also explains the spread of CRPS. The point of location of pain becomes less defined and the area of pain spreads out as if you rubbed a pencil word with your finger.

When I do mirror therapy for eg my whole left side. I know the location of injury (or initial pain) is my shoulder. When I begin mirror therapy, the pain retreats back both from the top (head) and the bottom (feet/leg) - rubbing out the smudge. After a while of doing mirror therapy, the pain and symptoms are confined to the shoulder area. This eventually also goes.

Guided Imagery, limb laterality programs such as Recognize and mirror visual therapy have provided a fresh, inexpensive and drug free approach to pain management.
jeisea

By: HtCwP

HtCwP — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:23:43 +0000

Thanks for your comment. You’re right… newer understandings of pain really need to be broadcast!

By: Matthias

Matthias — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:46:09 +0000

CRPS, Dystonia, RSI and all the other diseases are primarily diseases of the brain. The outward symptoms like muscle cramps or sympathetic dysregulation are caused by cortical misrepresentation of the affected limb.
Our brain has the bad habit of basing it’s decisions on the cortical representation and not the actual state of the limb itself.

In Dystonia the cortical fields become “smudged” – there are no longer clear boundaries between the fingers for example. Re-establishing these separate cortical fields is crucial in the treatment of these disorders.

It can only be hoped that blogs like yours and others will get the message out to more people who suffer from these conditions so that the old treatments stop and new – brain based treatments – become available everywhere.

Keep up the good work!

Matthias