Researchers find that people can control their perception of pain by changing their thinking habits.

19 November 2008

BOPPARD, GERMANY - "Pain is an emotional reaction to an evaluation in one's head," said Ruediger Fabian, president of German Pain Aid, an organisation based in the town of Gruenendeich. Anyone can control this evaluation, he said.

The sensation of pain is subjective. As explained by Professor Rolf-Detlef Treede, president of the Boppard-based German Society for the Study of Pain (DGSS), sensory receptors send the signal to the spinal cord. The central nervous system then passes it on to the brain, which processes it in various ways.

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In extreme situations, the body itself provides the strongest pain killers. Marathon runners can switch off their pain. Their brains release endorphins and adrenalin, Zieglgaensberger said. These chemicals, called neurotransmitters, produce a "runner's high" in trained runners and make them insensitive to pain.

The body reacts to serious injuries in a similar way. "After a traffic accident, for example, endorphins enable a person to move a broken leg to get out of the car," Zieglgaensberger noted.

But neurotransmitters are not only released in extreme situations. Taking a placebo, which has no pharmaceutical effect, can also alter a patient's perception of pain. "Then it's a matter of the affected person's conviction," he said.

http://www.expatica.com/fr/articles/news/Mind-power-can-help-control-pain-.html