What is pain threshold and how to increase it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Your gender, stress level, and even expectations can affect the severity of pain.

What is pain threshold

Pain threshold is the minimum level of irritation at which pain appears.

A classic example is the Pain Threshold temperature. Most people define heat exposure as painful when the temperature reaches 50 ° C. If you are like that, you can say that you have an average pain threshold. If you feel pain already at 40–45 ° C, then your pain threshold is lowered. And it is considered high if you do not experience discomfort until the temperature rises to 55-60 ° C.

But the pain threshold itself is not everything. Equally important is the How to Test and Increase Your Pain Tolerance to pain, that is, your ability to tolerate it. Someone copes with unpleasant sensations better and longer, for someone they become intolerable almost immediately.

Like the pain threshold, tolerance is a very individual thing. A particular person's relationship with pain is influenced by a number of factors, including the most unexpected.

What determines the pain threshold

Let's say right away: scientists are not sure if this is a complete list of factors. Perhaps there are others. But for now, we will confine ourselves to the main ones - those whose influence on the subjective sensation of pain has been unequivocally proven by Low Pain Theshold: here’s why.

1. Gender

Contrary to popular belief, the pain threshold for most women is still lower than that of men. That is, girls, on average, have more pain in Sex, Gender, and Pain: A Review of Recent Clinical and Experimental Findings.

It is assumed that this is due to the fact that the female body secretes less beta-endorphins - natural pain relievers that are released into the bloodstream when injured. However, there are curious nuances: for example, during childbirth, the pain threshold for expectant mothers rises sharply. Scientists have not yet fully figured out why this is happening.

2. Age

There is evidence that the pain threshold fluctuates depending on the period of life. The older a person becomes, the more tolerant he is of The Effect of Age and Gender on Pressure Pain Thresholds and Suprathreshold Stimuli to unpleasant sensations.

3. Heredity

Genetic contributions to pain: a review of findings in humans. Also, hereditary factors affect how your body perceives pain medications. If someone in your immediate family has barely responded to the anesthesia, your risk of not getting relief from the analgesics is also higher.

4. Stress

Traumatic life events - problems at work, death of a close friend or relative, serious loss - lower the pain threshold. When you are nervous, it hurts more.

5. Social isolation

Feelings of loneliness can also lower your pain threshold, as well as your pain tolerance.

6. Past experience

You can get used to the pain. So, people who are regularly exposed to high or low temperatures begin to react less to them. For example, they walk barefoot on hot sand without any problems.

On the other hand, if once your encounter with pain was unbearable, the pain threshold in response to a similar stimulus can seriously decrease. A classic example is people who have seen bad dentists. Subsequently, even minor dental procedures can cause severe pain in such patients.

7. Expectations

If you are preparing to experience pain, you will feel it in full. If, on the contrary, you believe that the procedure is easy and painless, the discomfort will decrease significantly.

How to increase your pain threshold

Here are some simple methods.

1. Shout or swear

In general, vocalize your feelings.

In the 2015 study On the Importance of Being Vocal: Saying “Ow” Improves Pain Tolerance, volunteers were asked to dip their hand into a bucket of ice-cold water. Some of them scientists have suggested to say loudly at the same time "oh!". Others were asked to suffer in silence. Result: The screaming group was able to keep their hand in the water longer than the silent group. That is, the pain tolerance increased after the yelling.

In another study, Swearing as a response to pain, volunteers swore loudly as they plunged their hand into ice-cold water. And this also made the procedure less painful.

2. Do aerobic sports

To find out how pain tolerance changes after exercise, the scientists divided the volunteers into two groups. Participants for the first six weeks in a row regularly performed aerobic training - pedaling a bicycle. People in the second group were doing strength exercises or just walking.

After six weeks, the researchers measured the volunteers' pain tolerance again. It turned out that those who cycled became more tolerant of Aerobic Training Increases Pain Tolerance in Healthy Individuals: although the pain was felt, it caused them less discomfort.

3. Do yoga

It is a mix of physical activity, breathing exercises and meditation. In 2014, researchers discovered Insular Cortex Mediates Increased Pain Tolerance in Yoga Practitioners: Yoga practitioners tolerate pain, on average, twice as easy as others.

4. Connect your imagination

The next time you feel soreness again, be fantasized. Imagine that pain is such a throbbing scarlet ball. Large, voluminous. Focus on it in your mind, and then with an effort of will, make it shrink and change color to a cool blue. Alternatively, when something hurts, imagine yourself in a warm, comfortable bath. You feel comfortable and comfortable, you breathe deeply and calmly, your body relaxes.

These fantasies can help lower levels of adrenaline, a hormone that makes you more sensitive to pain.

Whichever anesthetic fantasy you use, be as detailed as possible. The more details you create in your looks, the stronger their pain-relieving effect.