CHRONIC PAIN&

THE POWER OFEXPECTATION

Dr Jonathan Kuttner

The truth behind why people don't get better is

because everyone focuses on the bits that hurt. Your

pain system that’s located deep inside your body and

has started to malfunction. Now, the most important

part of your pain system is in your brain.

You might be sat there wondering how I can tell that

your chronic pain is coming from your brain, but the

reality is your brain can completely change the way

you feel pain.

So I'm going to tell you about one of the most

powerful drivers of chronic pain. It’s called

expectation.

The truth behindwhy people don't getbetter is becauseeveryone focuses onthe bits that hurt.B Y J O N A T H A N K U T T N E R

Expectation falls into thiswonderful category of what you

expect to happen actually happens.It’s very powerful.

And in the thick parts you’d expect to feel

less pain. Now the truth, in medical terms,

there’s no thick or thin bits on the palm of

your hands. The nerves are pretty equally set

out. The thickness of the skin is the same. In

other words, what she carried out with the

group was a bit of medical nonsense. But

because the group were scientists, she

created a very strong expectation.

For every scientist in the group, the Nuffield

Professor created an expectation. She gave

them good reasons why they were about to

feel more pain than expected. And guess

what happened? The individuals felt more

pain.

And when the professor told the group

they’d feel less pain, guess what happened?

They felt less pain. This shows exactly how

strong and powerful it is to create an

expectation.

So there was a study done by a wonderful

professor named The Nuffield Professor of

Pain in the UK and she took a group of

scientists and performed a small scale study.

The group of people were asked to take the

palm of their hand, and then an electric shock

was applied to different parts of the palm.

She got very scientific and showed the group

how certain parts of the palm have very thin

skin and have lots more nerve endings. Other

parts of the palm have really thick skin and

don't have many nerve endings. So she drew

this out in great detail for the group.

She then said “I’m going to warn you

beforehand, I want you to measure how much

pain you feel”. She sat the group down and

she’d point out the thin and thick parts of their

palms. The professor told the group she was

really interested to see how much pain they

felt.

What predicts the long term outcome of your pain isthe expectation you carry in your brain.

YOU WILLGET BETTERAS LONG ASYOUBELIEVEYOU WILLGET BETTER

After learning about this study as a doctor, I

noticed something quite common with many of

my patients who came to me with terrible back

pain, as an example. They go off and see a

Doctor who tells them they need images, more

x-rays and maybe even a CT scan. It might go

as far as an MRI scan which shows the anatomy

in exquisite detail.

Now, if you’re over 50 years of age, you can be

totally guaranteed that your MRI will not be

normal. There will be tears in your disk wall,

there’s going to be bulges and bits of extra

bone that have grown out to adapt.

This all comes down to wear and tear of the

body. They’re just like my wrinkles, however

what happens in the consultation is you’ll

come back and the doctor will say “oh my,

you’ve got a terrible back! You have this big

bulge and a terrible tear” . And this would

completely explain the pain you’re feeling.

As you hear something happening in your mind

and think “oh my god my back really is that

bad”, what you’ve done is create yourself an

expectation. And you end up stuck thinking

your back can’t get any better, and basically,

you’re screwed!

One of the greatest studies that’s

ongoing in medicine showed that if you

take X-Rays, CT’s, MRI’s and you have

radiologists look at them and write down

all the terrible things they see, and then

ask people how much pain they feel in

their back. The funny thing is, there’

absolutely no correlation between

changes on an MRI Scan and back pain.

It ’s fascinating. The changes on an MRI

scan don’t predict the long term outcome

of your pain.

My big message for you is that you may

have been sold something that’s not

true. The changes in your back are

because you’ve lived. You’ve lived a good

life.

That back has worked hard and it's

adapted to your lifestyle. Maybe you’ve

got a bit of back pain now because you

tweaked it a little. But the changes on

your MRI or CT scan does not affect how

your back is going to be.

As long as you change the expectation you

hold that’s previously doomed you, I can

virtually guarantee that your back pain

will start to improve. It ’s a mind & body

interaction.

Your mind is the most powerful part of

you. When you get your mind working for

you rather than against you, you can

change everything and anything.

I hope that this was useful for you and

that you can start creating positive

expectations to improve your chronic pain.

For a free guide to break free of chronic

pain and get your life back go to: