As Pain Awareness Month draws to a close this September, Dr. Eric Anderson, a neurologist and Chief Medical Officer of Lin Health, the virtual health care company based in Denver, CO, is drawing attention to the nervous system's often-overlooked role in chronic pain. In a recent statement, Dr. Anderson emphasized that pain is not merely a signal from injured tissue but is produced by the brain and nervous system. "Pain is always produced by the brain and the nervous system," he 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."
This process, known as central sensitization, occurs when the nervous system becomes oversensitive, causing even mild stimuli like a light touch to trigger pain. Dr. Anderson notes that understanding this mechanism opens new avenues for treatment beyond simply addressing the site of pain. "The nervous system is plastic, meaning that what it may have learned, it can unlearn," he added. "That is the most encouraging news in pain medicine right now."
Lin Health's brain-based approach is rooted in this understanding. The company pairs each patient with a trained pain-recovery coach following a medical review, then delivers a personalized plan incorporating 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). These therapies help patients understand how pain is processed and reduce fear and reactivity around symptoms. Patients engage in weekly live sessions and in-app messaging, with daily exercises accessible via the Lin Health app, available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
The results are notable: Lin Health reports that 92% of patients experience significant improvement in pain and function, pain intensity drops by 45%, and 59% of patients with medium-to-high pain reduce it to low or no pain after six months. The company also holds a 4.8 rating on TrustPilot.com.
This announcement matters because chronic pain affects millions worldwide, and traditional treatments often focus solely on the body part that hurts. By targeting the nervous system, Lin Health offers a scalable, insurance-covered alternative that addresses the biological, behavioral, and social drivers of pain. As Dr. Anderson points out, such interventions are rarely implemented effectively due to access limitations and clinician shortages. Lin Health's virtual model bridges that gap, providing affordable care that aligns with clinical guidelines and produces measurable outcomes. For patients and providers, this underscores a paradigm shift: understanding pain's neural origins could unlock more effective, lasting relief.
