Why do things tend to hurt on the same side of the body
- sam17903
- 14 hours ago
- 2 min read
When I'm going through a clinical history with a client, a common theme often emerges, that past injuries have frequently occurred on the same side of the body. Whilst there isn't any research specific to this phenomenon, there are a few plausible mechanisms as to why this occurs.
The first is the natural asymmetry that we have in our bodies. Now this might be the result of an activity that uses our body in an asymmetrical way, such as playing a sport like tennis, or just normal asymmetries in our resting posture. This causes one side of the body to be loaded more than the other.
Then we can also have changes that occur to the body following an injury, such as changes to movement patterns, or decreases in the strength or flexibility of tissues on one side that causes increased stress to be placed on that side of the body. And this isn't specific to upper or lower limbs. If we take that example of tennis, let's say we have a lower back or hip injury on one side and we're not able to rotate our trunk as well anymore, then we may have to compensate by producing more force through the arm, therefore putting stress on the shoulder or elbow.
Finally, we may have a level of sensitisation through the nervous system of one side of the body. Our brains work in a hemispheric way, so if there has been a previous injury on one side of the body, then the hemisphere of the brain associated with that side will potentially be more sensitised and more likely to produce a painful response in reaction to stressful stimuli.
Regardless of the mechanism, the best way to decrease the likelihood of an accumulation of injuries on one side is to make sure that injuries are fully rehabilitated and you regain full function afterwards.
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