I saw a special on TV about cellular memories. They said many painful conditions may be linked to cells "remembering" the injury. Could this explain why I still have chronic head and neck pain after a car accident 10 years ago?

It's possible. Candace Pert, a scientist at the National Institutes for Health discovered chemical messengers in the body called neuropeptides. These messengers are chemicals that carry emotions throughout the body in a biologic form. The theory is that cells damaged from an accident or injury have neuropeptides that "remember" what happened.

In the case of whiplash pain neuropeptides seem to be involved. These pain-related neuropeptides have been found in the nerve fibers and joints of people after whiplash injury. Each time the joint moves past a certain point the pain messengers are released. In this way the spine may "re-live" the injury over and over.

This is only a theory at this time. Discovering neuropeptides was like finding the first piece of a large puzzle. Scientists have many other pieces of the puzzle now. They are still trying to put the pieces together for the full picture.