Tag: pain research

Habituation: “Give me a pain that I’m used to!”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

When I first read about a pain study called “Give Me a Pain That I Am Used To”, it made perfect sense to me.1  Published in the journal Nature: Science Reports, this came out about the same time I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis a couple of years ago – which I did NOT see coming.  Ironically, breathtakingly painful arthritis symptoms (starting in my left knee and right hand at that time) felt far more debilitating to me than the daily chest pain of refractory angina I’d been living with since my 2008 heart attack.

This may seem counter-intuitive. We know that chest pain can be a dangerous and even deadly symptom. Knee and wrist pain is rarely if ever fatal! It occurred to me that maybe I was feeling extremely distressed by my new arthritis symptoms because I’d simply not yet become habituated to the new pain in the way I’d already become habituated to my longstanding cardiac pain. Continue reading “Habituation: “Give me a pain that I’m used to!”” →

How swearing during a heart attack can ease the pain

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

“Swearing can relieve pain – but only if you’re the kind of person who rarely resorts to cursing and swearing in normal life!” That’s the finding of a U.K. study presented at the British Psychological Society’s annual conference last May.

This may be particularly significant for females, a demographic that tends to swear less frequently than our male counterparts in everyday life anyway. Hubbies, in fact, are sometimes utterly shocked to hear their normally sweet-tongued wives let loose during the pain of prolongued childbirth. Ditto for heart attacks.  Continue reading “How swearing during a heart attack can ease the pain” →