How the Mind Controls Pain

Pain is the most common reason for physician visits in the United States. It is a physically uncomfortable feeling that is caused by an illness or an action. It serves as a "warning symptom" that motivates people to draw away from damaging situations or limit body parts from moving while it heals. However, pain can also be caused even after the stimulus is removed, or even without any stimulus at all. This pain can be caused by an internal condition and can be recurrent, which is known as chronic pain.

While pain is helpful, in a way, it can greatly reduce one's quality of life - especially when pain is long-standing or recurring. Chronic pain, like that of the head (migraines), back, neck and other areas of the body are often

Pain and The Mind

Modern science is slowly investigating the support of mind-body therapies like meditation and biofeedback in pain control, following the idea that the mind may have power over the body. But how does the mind respond to and control pain?

What Researches Show

Pain is tied to brain function that also governs one's behavior. The perception of pain greatly varies from one person to the other - not just due to the severity of one's injury - but also due to other psychological factors. These factors involve previous pain experience, anxiety, stress levels, heredity, fear, depression and general health. Motivation also plays a role in pain perception. Depressed individuals may feel incapacitated by a minor injury, while many wounded soldiers ignore their own pain to save other soldiers during a battle.

One study done in Stanford University studied how imagery could control pain. The results show that specific images, such as that of flames could increase the pain. Flowing water, on the other hand helped reduce symptoms of pain.

The same study also revealed that empowerment helped control painful symptoms. The fact that patients could see their pain through imaging, helped them realize that they could control it.

Another study in the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf focused on thinking, and how it could affect pain. Twenty volunteers were given tests - an easier one-back test and a trickier n-back test. While taking the test, the participants received a burning sensation on their forearms. The heating element that was used could reach around 47 degrees Celsius, which was enough to produce a burning sensation but not enough to burn, the skin. It was revealed that participants who took the more difficult n-back test felt less burning and less pain than their counterparts who took the easier test.

What You Can Do Now
Today, more and more studies are being done about pain control techniques with the use of the mind. However, one thing is known and understood by many researchers and scientists our there - pain is exacerbated by tension. This means that if you can control tension in your mind, you can help reduce painful sensations - or even alleviate them. There are mind-body control techniques that have already been proven to work. These include deep breathing, acupuncture, use of imagery, yoga, Pilates, meditation and other relaxation techniques.

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