A precise immune shift determines whether muscle injury resolves or becomes chronic. Certain immune cells release pain-triggering chemicals in response to injury or stress; prolonged activation maintains tissue inflammation and ongoing pain. Blocking the immune trigger in animal models reduced both inflammation and pain. Consistent movement prevented the pain-triggering immune response from activating in mice, stopping chronic pain development. Movement appears to control molecular switches that flip the immune system between repair mode and persistent inflammation, offering a practical way to prevent acute soreness from transforming into long-term pain.
This is the point where temporary soreness turns into chronic pain, where that dull, nagging ache becomes the new normal. It affects more than just your muscles. Your sleep suffers. Your energy drops. Over time, your brain circuits that process pain grow more sensitive, creating a vicious cycle that's hard to break. What determines whether you bounce back or break down? That's the question researchers at the State University of Campinas in Brazil set out to answer.
And what they uncovered was a precise biological shift - a moment when your immune system flips from repair mode to persistent inflammation. That shift doesn't happen randomly. It's triggered by specific molecular switches and, most importantly, movement appears to control the outcome. To understand how that switch works, and what to do to control it, let's look at what the researchers found.
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