Pleasant truths about pain

Baack · Jul 17, 2008

In the short term, pain keeps you alive. It's an essential warning signal, a command that is impossible to ignore. When you yank your finger off a hot stoveor sit down to get the pebble out of a shoepain is doing its job.
When the alert system goes awry, chronic pain may set in. It can arise mysteriously, persist for a long time and be very difficult to treat. Sometimes the cause is obvious. But pain's origin may be elusivean inexplicable headache or a bad back that won't stop hurting. Finding surefire treatments has been difficult because the phenomenon is so complicated. Emotions, memory and expectations all influence chronic pain, and in turn are influenced by it.
Because persistent pain is so complex, a cure for it is not yet on the horizon. But while we wait, a new understanding of why we hurt offers opportunities to use our minds to soften the sting.
Heartburn and Heartbreak: It's All Connected
When you are in agony, the last thing you want to be told is that it's all in your head. But in truth, pain does come from your head, in a group of interconnected brain regions known as the pain matrix. Some regions are involved in delivering descriptive information about the feelingwhere it is, how intense it is, whether it's a dull soreness or a sharp prick. Another part, the anterior cingulate cortex, registers the unpleasant "hurt" of pain. It connects the physical sensation of pain to feelings of distress.
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Pleasant truths about pain

notarps4me · Jul 17, 2008

I know I am alive. I spent 2 hours in the dentist chair having 1 tooth pulled....

Big Don · Jul 18, 2008

"I hurt, therefore I am. . ."

I once knew an individual who literally could not feel pain. I've lost track of him over the years, but he was always in some kind of problem or another because of it.

He broke his arm one time, compound fracture, and was unaware of it until he saw it! Not good at all.

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