‘It feels like a miracle’: The Survivor challenge that showed to unlearn chronic pain

A Survivor challenge led Australian researchers to discover patients can get past chronic pain after better understanding how it works.

Australian researchers are working with patients to determine if they can “unlearn” chronic pain.

Hayley Leake, a physiotherapist and academic researcher at the University of South Australia, which is conducting the research, put her own body on the line in one integral experiment to understand pain.

She stood on narrow pegs for five hours during a gruelling test on last year’s Survivor program and went on to become 2021 champion.

“I’d already been in the Outback for 47 days so when I heard about the test, I approached it thinking it would hurt but then asked myself if it would actually be harmful,’’ Leake says.

“Does hurt always equal harm? What is the worst thing that will happen if I stand here for 10 hours even though the pain will get worse? I realised my bones would be fine, my nerves would be fine and I wouldn’t get any muscle tears when standing still.

“The worst would be a blister but if I kept moving my feet, that shouldn’t happen either.’’

After 5½ hours, she stepped off the pegs with stiffness because of lactic acid build-up but no other problems.

Hayley Leake winning the peg challenge on Survivor in 2021. Picture: Channel 10

Her approach was one of the key elements in research last year into ways to help people suffering chronic pain for at least three months.

The study of 97 adults found they all recovered after understanding more about how pain worked.

The research found it helped sufferers to reframe what they thought was causing their pain.

“Most people with pain assume they’re damaged, that something is broken and they shouldn’t move so their life gets very small and the pain doesn’t improve,’’ Leake says.

“Then they reported that when they’re stressed, their pain worsens.

“That knowledge empowered them to know that pain isn’t in their heads but certain thoughts, emotions and stress affects their biology, so the pain worsens.’’

Hayley Leake, who is a physiotherapist and academic researcher at the University of South Australia.

Leake says the brain is extremely powerful, ultimately deciding if pain is necessary for protection.

Just as it’s the brain that decides you’re hungry, not the tummy, it’s also not your injured foot that decides it’s in pain, the brain does.

“If the foot is painful, it gives the brain information but it’s not all the information the brain will use. It will also use fear and emotion to decide whether protection is required.”

Emotions are a crucial part of the mix that causes pain. The research participants also learnt they can retrain their protective pain system.

“Pain is there to protect us – the pain you feel touching a hot stove tells you to be careful – but if pain persists for a long time you can become over-protective,” Leake says.

“So then you have to ask yourself, although this is painful, is it dangerous?

“Is your nervous system now sensitive to pain and being over-protective when it may not need to be? Does it mean I have to avoid everything? Where is it coming from? If I change my understanding of it, could it get better?

“Learning the source of your pain can be really empowering because it opens your options of what to do about it.’’

Similar research was done last year by PhD candidate Scott Tagliaferri at Deakin University.

Pooling data from almost 3000 people with and without back pain, he found people with mental health issues were more likely to experience back pain.

“It’s not like you can think yourself in and out of pain but your emotions can really influence your pain,’’ Tagliaferri says.

“Some people recover slightly when realising this and some recover completely. We then have to look further into whether it’s fear, anxiety, depression, beliefs of what is causing the pain, to further understand it.’’

Lower back pain sufferer Daniel dos Santos Carlos of Sydney.

PAIN FREE

Lower back pain was part of life for Daniel dos Santos Costa.

Costa, 38, of Sydney, injured his back while setting up festival equipment 15 years ago and, at times, could barely move.

“I felt my disc was damaged and, from that moment, the chronic pain was always there in higher or lower intensity,” he says.

“I arrived here in Australia in 2015 and would go to the hospital at least three times a year with lower back pain.”

But when he joined Leake’s research project and learnt his memories of pain were influencing his present pain, it stopped.

“In two sessions with Hayley, I wasn’t feeling pain anymore. It feels like a miracle.”