Understanding Pain is like Drinking Wine

“Is that plum I’m tasting?”
“This cabernet has hints of rich mahogany.”
“This would go nicely with roasted chicken.”

If your friend says this to you while sipping a glass of wine, you might think they’re exaggerating—or maybe just showing off. And sometimes, they are. But true wine experts can actually detect subtle differences in taste, aroma, and texture among various wines. They’ve trained their senses to identify what most people would overlook.

Treating pain is similar to tasting wine. Just like wine has its main categories—reds, whites, and blends—pain has its own “varietals”: nociceptive, neuroplastic, and mixed-type pain. Nociceptive pain might be described as the straightforward “table wine” of pain—it’s the body’s response to a physical injury or inflammation. Yet, even within these categories, there are countless nuances. Two people with the same injury can experience pain in dramatically different ways.

"To truly understand your own pain, you must become a sommelier of your own body."

Understanding pain, like appreciating wine, is a practice. Practice trains awareness, and awareness exposes subtlety. Just as a grape's flavor is shaped by its region, soil, and weather, a person's experience of pain is influenced by context, environment, and mental state. Stress, mood, and social surroundings can all color how pain is felt and how intensely it impacts someone’s life.

Because pain is deeply subjective, symptoms often depend on the circumstances. Just like wine is tasted differently in a bustling restaurant than in a quiet vineyard, pain can feel sharper or duller depending on one’s environment and mindset.
​
To truly understand your own pain, you must become a sommelier of your own body--learning to recognize the subtle hints, context, and triggers that affect it. Only then can you begin to find the right “pairings” of treatment and lifestyle that work for you.

---