How Pain Can Transfer from One Body Part to Another
Pain often doesn’t stay in the area where it originates. It can travel throughout the body, affecting other areas due to the complex system of bones, muscles, and connective tissue that link everything together. That’s why it can be hard to get rid of pain, because often we end up treating the symptoms instead of the root cause.
I’m Lauren Masi, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. I’m also the owner and Clinical Services Director of Bay Area Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy. Today we’re going to talk about how pain can transfer from one body part to another.
Your Body Is an Interconnected System
Do you remember that song that goes, “the foot bone’s connected to the shin bone”? Yes, the bones in our skeleton are certainly all connected.
But what that song doesn’t tell you is that we have a thin connective tissue called fascia that connects everything inside your body, from your bones to your muscles and even your internal organs.
Any stresses in one area of the body can be relayed through to other parts of your body, which can feel like pain or tightness.
Sometimes Pain in One Body Part Is a Sign of Injury Somewhere Else
As a physical therapist, I can tell you that we can easily be tricked. A patient might come in complaining of pain in one area, but the cause of that pain might actually be coming from a completely different part of the body.
Sometimes, a patient has ignored the pain long enough that they’ve started compensating. Those compensations can cause pain in a different area. Our job is always to get to the root cause of the pain. One way we do that is by looking at the joints above and below the area where the patient is reporting pain.
Tightness in One Area Can Create a Domino Effect
Tightness in one area of the body can create a domino effect. A small issue, like an ingrown toenail, can affect how you walk. It might hurt, and maybe it’s bumping into the front of your shoe, so you start walking a little bit funny. That change in your walking pattern can cause your knee, hip, or even lower back to experience different forces than they’re used to. As your body adapts to these changes, you might start to feel tightness in the muscles or fascia.
I’ve even had patients who develop headaches that are actually caused by issues like an ingrown toenail or a stiff big toe joint. That’s why we always have to look at the whole person and understand how everything is connected.
We also have to remember that you need both strength and flexibility throughout your body. In some areas, we might need to work on strengthening, while in others, we may need to focus on flexibility with stretches. We want to make sure that the whole system can work in balance, where everything is used equally and we’re not adding stresses or strains in one particular area.
Acting Early Prevents Long-Term Issues
If left untreated, your pain could stay with you for a long time and affect other areas of your body. This can even lead to future problems like arthritis. I always say, if you start to notice something isn’t moving as well as it used to, or that you’re not as strong as you used to be in a particular area, or if you’re having pain, you definitely want to act on it sooner rather than later. That way you don’t start compensating in ways that trickle through the body and lead to longer lasting problems.
Reach Out to Bay Area Physical Therapy for Expert Care
If your movement system isn’t as efficient and effective as it should be, please reach out today to Bay Area Physical Therapy. We’d be happy to offer a consultation to help you figure out the root cause of your symptoms.