As Pain Awareness Month draws to a close this September, Dr. Eric Anderson, Neurologist and Chief Medical Officer of Lin Health, the virtual health care company based in Denver, CO, is drawing attention to a frequently misunderstood driver of chronic pain: the nervous system. "Pain is always produced by the brain and the nervous system," Dr. Anderson said. "When someone hears 'it's in your brain,' they often hear 'it's imaginary.' But it's quite the opposite. Your pain is very very real. It's generated by real circuits in a real nervous system."
In chronic pain, that interpretation can cause the nervous system to become oversensitive, a process known as central sensitization. As a result, even a light touch can trigger a pain response. "Understanding this process opens up new ways of treating pain beyond simply treating the part of the body that hurts," Dr. Anderson explained. "And the nervous system is plastic, meaning that what it may have learned, it can unlearn. I think that is the most encouraging news in pain medicine right now."
That understanding is central to Lin Health's brain-based approach, which is rooted in modern clinical understanding and evidence-based behavioral therapies. The company's model is designed to help patients move beyond coping with pain by addressing how the nervous system processes and responds to pain signals. Lin Health's program is delivered virtually, matching each patient with a trained pain-recovery coach following a medical review. Patients then receive a personalized pain-recovery plan that incorporates evidence-based therapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), among other approaches.
These approaches are designed to help patients understand how pain is processed, reduce fear and reactivity around symptoms, and develop new ways of responding to pain. Patients work with their coach through weekly live sessions and in-app messaging while having access to daily exercises and other resources through the Lin Health app, which patients can download at the Google Play Store for Android devices or the Apple App Store for iPhones.
The results are notable: Lin Health reports that 92% of patients experience significant improvement in pain and level of function, pain intensity is reduced by 45%, and 59% of patients with medium-to-high pain reduce their pain to low or no pain after six months, with the company currently earning a 4.8 rating on TrustPilot.com.
During Pain Awareness Month, Dr. Anderson and Lin Health are bringing greater attention to the nervous system's role in chronic pain and to an approach that looks beyond simply where pain is felt to how it is processed. For people living with persistent pain, understanding that distinction could open the door to substantially more effective ways of approaching treatment.
For more information, visit linhealth.onlinepresskit247.com.
