Larry O'Mahony

I can never change that.

Whereas actually lots of people will have changes on a scan, but actually no pain.

And some people will have minimal structural change and they might have a lot of pain.

So we know that if we can actually start to get our brain involved because of neuroplasticity, which is our brain's ability to change, that we can actually retrain our brain to start to feel less painful.

Yeah, and quite often people will say, oh, are you saying this is all in my head?

Yes.

Which absolutely it is not.

But it's recognising that pain is so much more complex than perhaps we realised in the past.

And so it's recognising that as it is more complex, there's other and more available ways to treat.

So painkillers are brilliant, maybe to allow you a window to become a little bit more active, maybe to engage in some exercises, maybe to...

do a little bit more around the house.

So it's definitely, it's your brain is all responsible for the pain.

And if we think of, I don't know if you've ever heard of phantom limb pain.

Yes.

So when somebody has like an amputation.

Yeah.

And so it's because your brain has mapped out in your head all the parts of your body.

So, you know, if you have a pain, that's flashing red.

So similarly, if somebody has an amputation, the brain still has that mapped out.

And so therefore they can still get pain, which is just going to really underscore the fact that you can have pain without actually having a lot of damage.