Pain.

[Michaelangelica]

Pain is central to the human condition.

Without it we would die.

Sometimes with it we die.

Rather than post this in "medical science"
I thought social science has more ways of dealing with pain than medical science
Medical science has 6 or so drugs to deal with pain Social science has dozens of ways of dealing with pain

To start
LiveScience.com - The Pain Truth: How and Why We Hurt

The Pain Truth: How and Why We Hurt
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 31 January 2006
08:19 am ET


Some 50 million U.S. residents live with chronic pain, experts estimate. Pain forces an estimated 36 million of them to miss work every year and results in roughly 70 million doctor visits.

Yet scientists know very little about how pain works. They can't even agree on a definition.

They do agree it's a huge problem.

"Pain is a silent epidemic in the United States," says Kathryn Weiner, director of the American Academy of Pain Management.
Painful Facts

How pain hurts Americans:

* 1 in 6 suffers from arthritis.
* More than 26 million between the ages of 20 and 64 have frequent back pain.
* More than 25 million have migraines.
* Pain costs an estimated $100 billion each year.

SOURCE: American Pain Foundation


The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) is colored blue, and the peripheral nervous system (major peripheral nerves) are yellow. Shown are the brain inside the cranium, spinal cord inside the vertebral column, and the spinal nerves coming out of the intervertebral foramen.

Real numbers are hard to get at. A Gallup Poll done in 2000 found that 80 percent of American believe pain is part of getting old, and 64 percent said they'd see a doctor only if their pain became unbearable.
More than a quarter of them figured there is no solution to their pain.

"Pain has significant impact on the pain sufferer and their family," Weiner says. Pain and its treatment "represents a major problem confronting our modern culture."

What is pain?

If you suffer chronic pain, you'll probably find little solace in the fact that doctors and scientists don't understand it very well, and that just popping an aspirin is clearly far form a cure-all.

In fact experts can't even agree on what pain is.

"Pain is complex and defies our ability to establish a clear definition," Weiner says. "Pain is far more than neural transmission and sensory transduction. Pain is a complex mixture of emotions, culture, experience, spirit and sensation."

The American Academy of Pain Medicine isn't much help either. In its online FAQ, under the heading "What is pain?" you'll find this answer: "It is an unpleasant sensation and emotional response to that sensation."

There are several ways to define pain, however, and knowing which you have is important for considering how to treat it.

What we know

One way to divide pain (and perhaps conquer it) is to distinguish between acute and chronic, explains Sally Lawson, a professor of physiology at the University of Bristol in the UK.

Acute pain is what you get when you hit your thumb with a hammer, should you choose to do so. You can also achieve it with a twisted knee or a burn.

Chronic pain is long-term, continuous and far more frustrating. It can result from physical injury, viral infections of the nerve, or arthritic damage to joints and degeneration of bones, Lawson writes.

Scientists also distinguish between evoked pain (use the hammer on your thumb to demonstrate this type) and the spontaneous variety, for which there is no obvious external cause.

One type of chronic pain, called neuropathic, results from damaged nerves rather than the original injury. However, recent research by Lawson and a colleague suggests this pain may sometimes be transmitted by the undamaged nerves.

Not so simple

If it were all that simple, pain probably wouldn't hurt so much. But there's a lot more to it.
. . .

[orbsycli]

Next time you get hurt, before you start howling-
Think about how intense it is.

How many things can make you fall to the ground screaming?

Um...I know of only TWO.

Pain, and a Kundalini Awakening.

Orgasms are intense, too.

Pain don't hurt no more.

And no, Don't come at me with a chainsaw that's just disrespectful.

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

Orgasms are intense, too.

Unless, of course, orgasms give you instant migraines.

I kid you not.

[orbsycli]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

Unless, of course, orgasms give you instant migraines.

I kid you not.

Are you serious?
Do you suffer from that?

Well, then those migraines must be intense.
I know, pain is hard to deal with, but you really really
can tune it out. Migraines are a bit harder and I'm not good
at believing they're just intensity, but...
Zen philosophy.

[Pyrotex]

In the computer game, Alpha Centauri, one of the computer "villains", the leader of the Mind-Hive faction, is this ascetic looking oriental guy. At one stage of the game, he says, "Pain? What do I care for your agony and suffering? Pain is just data input. Become master of the input, and you become master of the output."

That little speech always gives me chills up my spine. But, as I was going through therapy between November and January, that speech went through my mind over and over again. As the therapists were stretching my arm up, past the point where it wanted to go, pulling at rebuilt tendons and tearing muscle adhesions.

I whimpered. Tears trickled down my cheek. "...become master of the input... become master of the input...", repeated endlessly in my mind.

And then, of course, my arm fell off.
Easy come, easy go.

[orbsycli]

Reminds me of Tim Leary Zen,

It's true
and it's hard
until it's
not.

[arkain101]

Are you serious?
Do you suffer from that?

Well, then those migraines must be intense.
I know, pain is hard to deal with, but you really really
can tune it out. Migraines are a bit harder and I'm not good
at believing they're just intensity, but...
Zen philosophy.

Hmm.. sounds like to tune pain out, one is actually tuning pain 'in'...

Embracing and accepting it.

I don't care what people say about tuning pain out. Fall 50 feet out of the sky on a frozen hill side (ski jump) flat on your back on ice and dirt.

When you wake up and can't breath, can't think, you try to "tune" pain out.

The neato thing is that you can however embrace the pain, and realise you are still alive.

[freeztar]

There's only been a few times when pain was so intense that I almost blacked-out.
One was falling a good distance and landing on my back. I couldn't breathe for what seemed like eternity and I ruptured my spleen a little bit.
The second was a urethra "rape" (who came up with the idea that this is more humane then wet beds???). Peanut Gallery: The Sheet Changers!!
And the third was a root canal.

In all those cases, I'm glad I felt the pain, but it would be nice to be able to zone it out.
While studying wilderness survival many moons ago, I read a Tom Brown Jr. book in which he described cold as something that needs to be embraced.
I've noticed that if I'm really cold and shivering, I can step back mentally and embrace the cold (invite it in for tea if you will). It works as long as I maintain my complete focus on that idea of embracing. As soon as I drop my attention, I become cold once again.
It can be a deadly practice considering hypothermia.

I'm always curious about people who are into pain. Are they numb-er than most, and thus seek relatively macabre avenues of sensation?
From my armchair, I've noticed that people who have repressed feelings and self-forgotten tragedies tend to have a higher tolerance for pain on either a physical or emotional level. It seems as if physical/emotional pains are linked in eternally inexplicable manners. How can one truly say that they can "correctly" empathize with another?

Do you feel me?

[Michaelangelica]

A few leaves of feverfew (Chysranthum or Tanacetum (?) parthenium) taken daily as a prophalaytic is said to eventully give migraine relief to 70-90% of those who persist (over 2 years ) with the treatment.

It is a pretty, easy to grow small daisy. I think it is best to grow and use the fresh herb as there are some doggy pills out there. (It is also very much cheaper especially as Feverfew actually self seeds everywhere.)
Feverfew

Migraine Headaches
Feverfew gained popularity in Great Britain in the 1980s as an alternative to conventional medications for migraine headaches
. In fact, a survey of 270 migraine sufferers in Great Britain revealed that more than 70% of individuals felt substantially better after ingesting an average of two to three fresh feverfew leaves daily.
Since then, several well-designed studies have been conducted to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of feverfew for the prevention and treatment of migraine headaches. Most of these studies have found beneficial results.
For example, in a study of 76 migraine sufferers, those who ingested feverfew capsules (70 to 114 mg) daily for 4 months experienced a 24% reduction in attacks and a substantial drop in symptoms that often accompany migraines, such as nausea and vomiting, compared to those who received placebo.

*****************************

This weeks "Whats on in science" email from the ABC had this. I haven't listened to it yet. They usually have a transcript about a week after the broadcast. Bit of a worry as many are taking l;ow dose aspirin to "thin the blood" and reduce heart attacks

THE PULSE: Painkillers can raise blood pressure
When used frequently, painkillers like aspirin and paracetamol can raise blood pressure, say US researchers.
Painkillers can raise blood pressure - The Pulse - Health Matters

[Jay-qu]

I dont lightly turn to pain killers, why shoot the messenger? If you have a headache, modern medicine says "here have a paracetamol tablet" when really there must be a reason for the pain. So instead of getting rid of it, I try to find out what the pain is telling me. Have I drunk enough water today? Did I push it to far at the gym, did I drink to much last night