Podiatrist · Specialist in Biomechanics · Founder of VOLKAN
"The brain does not produce pain to punish you. It produces it to try to protect you."
"If the MRI is fine… why does it still hurt?"
Some time ago, a patient came into the office with that same question.
She brought a folder full of tests.
X-rays.
MRIs.
Reports.
Everything seemed relatively normal.
However, she could barely walk for twenty minutes without an intense pain in her foot.
The first thing I did was tell her something I never expected to hear.
—I believe you.
Because an imaging test can show how a structure is.
But it cannot explain, by itself, how the system that interprets that information is functioning.
And that system is the brain.
Pain is an alarm, not a photograph.
When the fire alarm in a building goes off, several things can happen.
There may be a fire.
There may be a lot of smoke.
Or it may have been triggered by a system failure.
The alarm is real.
The sound is too.
But the reason may be different in each situation.
With pain, something similar happens.
The brain receives information from the tissues.
From the nervous system.
From the eyes.
From the inner ear.
From the skin.
From the emotional state.
From the context.
From our previous experiences.
And with all that information, make a decision.
Do I need to protect this body?
If the answer is yes, pain may arise.
The body remembers.
A significant injury leaves a mark on the tissues.
But it also leaves a mark on the nervous system.
Many people continue to walk cautiously weeks or months after the tissue has healed.
Not because the body is weak.
But because the brain still interprets that there is a threat.
It is a survival mechanism.
It has been extraordinarily useful for millions of years.
The problem arises when that protection remains active longer than necessary.
Much more than muscles and joints.
This is where everything starts to connect.
The brain not only receives information from the foot.
It also receives signals from the visual system.
From the vestibular system.
From breathing.
From sleep.
From stress.
From the emotional state.
From our beliefs.
From fear.
From trust.
That’s why two people with very similar injuries can have completely different experiences.
One continues with their life just a few days later.
The other develops fear of movement and each step becomes a source of concern.
The tissues may look similar.
The interpretation of the brain is not.
What doesthis have to do with barefoot?
Much more than it seems.
Barefoot is often discussed only from the mechanical point of view.
But there is another equally important dimension.
When the foot regains mobility, it participates more in balance and receives a richer sensory information, the brain has new data about the environment.
That does not mean that minimalist footwear eliminates pain.
It would be a simplistic and incorrect statement.
It means that, in some people and under certain circumstances, it can be part of a broader strategy aimed at improving the function and the quality of the information that the nervous system receives.
Like any other tool, its usefulness will depend on the clinical context and the adaptability of each person.
What I see every day in consultation
One of the most beautiful transformations occurs when a patient understands that feeling pain does not necessarily mean that their body is broken.
That moment changes the conversation.
They stop asking themselves:
"What part do I have damaged?"
And they start to ask themselves:
"What does my body need to feel safe again?"
Sometimes the answer lies in improving mobility.
Other times in regaining strength.
In sleeping better.
In managing stress.
In losing the fear of certain movements.
Sometimes we need to work on several aspects at the same time.
Because the body never stops functioning as a whole.
What can you do starting today
The next time a discomfort appears, try doing a small exercise.
Instead of only asking yourself:
"What hurts?"
Add another question.
"What might my body be trying to protect?"
You won't always have the answer.
But you will start to look at pain with more curiosity and less fear.
And that change in perspective, by itself, already modifies the way we relate to our body.
🔬 In one sentence
Pain is a real experience whose main function is to protect, not to accurately describe the state of a tissue.
The most important idea
The body is not a machine that responds only to mechanical forces.
It is a biological system capable of learning, remembering, anticipating, and protecting.
That’s why understanding pain requires looking much further than the structure that bothers us.
Modern biomechanics does not separate muscles, joints, the nervous system, and emotions.
It integrates them.
Because that’s how humans function.
A question to reflect on
When a discomfort appears...
Are you trying to silence the alarm… or understand why the body has decided to activate it?
In the next article…
If the brain continuously decides how to move us and how to protect us, a fascinating question arises.
Do we born knowing how to walk… or do we learn to do it?
We will discover why walking is not an automatic reflex, but a skill that the nervous system builds and perfects throughout life. Understanding this process will allow us to understand why an adult can relearn to move better and why it is never too late to change a movement strategy.