Pain In The Brain

[yogi]

Speaking of brain information ...

A professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University writes that the sensation of pain is all in your head. Emotions control the intensity of the pain. Thus the brain constantly monitors a body for sensory inputs regarding pain and it can control the intensity of it because two different neural circuits are involved. It was discovered that cool, calm, and collected individuals feel less pain than the hper-neurotics among us. This control of pain intensity can be learned, possibly through meditation.

What do you think? Have you been able to control your experiences of pain with any success?

REFERENCE: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/02 ... dium=email

[pilvikki]

well, as i've read that painkillers actually block the pain reception in the pain, it's kinda like old news. but on the other hand (or foot), in a way it's irrelevant as the cause of the pain is in its primary location; when you nail your thumb with the hammer, it's not your head that hurts.

however, i now understand why i've heard women say "oh, childbirth is a pain, but nothing one can't forget at once!"

oh. really. :shock:

i had no support, so perhaps that's why i remember it as a torture session that i remember ever so well.

then there is the aspect of pain being an indication of there being something wrong. if a person manages to suppress all pain sensation, how does one know what to do with a potentially lethal condition like a bleeding ulcer?

also, the doc who was shredded and didn't notice, isn't that just the common condition called shock?

and why does one not notice being cut with something razor sharp, while a dull knife makes you yelp? so often at work, i, or someone else, would get a cut - even a deep one - and not notice but for the trails of blood?

[yogi]

The necessity for pain is obvious and well understood. Exactly how it's processed by the brain has been somewhat of a mystery. It turns out that the pain from the toe you stub in the middle of the night is indeed all in your head. The news here is that it's in at least two different places. One part of the brain takes the sensory input and decides if it's pain or not. The other part of the brain decided how much it should hurt, or the intensity. Those parts are mixed in with the emotion processing centers which means that we have the ability to control the pain to a certain degree if not entirely. Many drug companies would go out of business if this process becomes well known and practiced.

I recall reading about experiments where people where administered morphine for their pain. Half the group received placebos. Nobody knew who had what, but it was learned that some people in the placebo group felt the exact same relief of pain as those who were getting the real thing. Amazing. :!:

[pilvikki]

you know, thinking about this I remembered an instance a few months ago. i'd get a nasty, nagging pain in the back my thigh, probably from driving. it was one of those that would go away with medium strength pain killers, but I was fed up with taking them. so one day I got totally off side and thought "ENOUGH AREADY AND STOP IT AT ONCE!"

and it did.

:shock:

so... someone pass me some placebo morphine, for my arm is killing me... :roll:

[Icey]

I have strange responses to pain.

I gave birth to 2 children without any pain relief, and it was bearable enough for me to start applying lipstick in between the throes! The midwives found it hilarious and said they'd never witnessed anything like it, but apart from being exhausted after the first labour which lasted 25 hours, I was fine and just got on with the job.

When I fell and smashed my arm in multiple places 16 months ago, I refused pain relief at hospital. I was sure that I'd broken some bones by the way my hand and arm swelled up, but since I hadn't broken anything like that before, I wasn't sure until they took a good few x-rays and showed me the splintered remains. Eventually, I took a tablet they offered me - more to placate them than because I needed it, but they insisted that I must've been in a lot of pain. I wasn't.

Cue to the dentists, where I can barely have my teeth cleaned and polished without wincing. I have to be sedated for fillings or anything worse, as no amount of local anaesthetic takes on me. I find the whole thing bizarre.

[pilvikki]

hm... here's me, who needs a topical to have my teeth cleaned, but will not have freezing for my front teeth for that is worse than the rest.

the worst pain experience I've had was a nerve conductivity test by this totally cold and nasty tech who couldn't have cared less about my "slight discomfort" that had me squirming despite being told several times to keep still. from that experience I could very well understand the "i'll tell you everything!" stage. and he wasn't even trying to hurt me. I think... it was exactly that bit about the intermittent pain that was expected, but unknown to strength and duration that got you.

according to my reading material, my fibromyalgia is making me more sensitive to pain, but as compared to whom?

[Icey]

You make a good point there; compared to whom?

I think we must all have different tolerances of different sorts of pain. Nerve pains're the worst - toothache, earache, headache etc., so it doesn't surprise me that fibromyalgia makes you more sensitive, because it often DOES make people react to stimuli more than people who don't have it.

If you stub your toe hard, most people yell out, but if we sustain a cut finger, some can ignore the stinging whilst others run round screeching.