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Researchers Discover an "Off Switch" For Pain In the Brain
concertina226 writes Scientists working together from several international universities have discovered that it is possible to block a pathway in the brain of animals suffering from neuropathic pain, which could have a huge impact on improving pain relief in humans. So far, the most successful ways to treat chronic pain from a pharmacological point of view are to create drugs that that interact or interfere with various channels in the brain to decrease pain, including adrenergic, opioid and calcium receptors. However, there is another way – a chemical stimulator called adenosine that binds to brain receptors to trigger a biological response. Adenosine has shown potential for killing pain in humans, but so far, no one has managed to harness this pain pathway successfully without causing a myriad of side effects. Led by Dr Daniela Salvemini of SLU, the researchers discovered that by activating the A3 adenosine receptor in the rodents' brains and spinal cords, the receptor was able to prevent or reverse pain from nerve damage (the cause of chronic pain).
I'm curious if this'll be an all-or-nothing thing, or if there are degrees of gradation. Pain itself serves good in that it prevents one from doing things that cause it, so we don't injure ourselves.
Also makes me wonder if pain caused by emotion or stress would be affected, and to what degree. It's been said that emotional pain is a physical response, the body literally making itself ill or hurt, so I wonder.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
So when another mainstream media prints Anita Sarkesian's smelly bullshit, I can press that off switch.
Still awesome.
Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
Weren't adenosine receptors blocked by caffeine?
Anytime now.
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As someone who suffers from multiple radicuopathies ( bad spelling, but root nerve inpinchment) this would be great news. Too bad it will be another 10 years before it is available even if it does work. And another 5 years before it is yanked from the market for causing some fatal illness.
As for the three types methods to treat pain, it's a bit of stretch. Opiates are really the only direct method that works well, Sure, the usage of anti-depressants might work but I find that my mind is a total sieve and the feeling is so bad that I'd rather have massive pain then to be a drooling idiot. As for calcium receptors, i've never heard of these for severe pain. Something I'll have to look into, but since my pain management doctors have never mentioned it I doubt that they work for chronic pain.
http://slashcott.org/
Wow, the introduction already goes into the money aspect. They write, "Chronic pain is an enormous unmet medical need with a multi-billion dollar impact on society"
http://stephan.sugarmotor.org
Vulcan Science Academy has been studying this going back to the time of Surak.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
Evil, animal torturing scum. No video of the 'subjects' being 'experimented' on, I presume. I wonder why that is.
We already have anaesthetics. We already have opium too.
This is one of the big frontiers of humanity.
There is little a person won't do to stop pain. A simple way to stop it with no consequences for the person nor society would solve a huge lot of other problems.
There's part of brain to feel fear of anything. switch that part off too, and you make humans dangerous species.
I bet that it'll be made highly illegal for anyone to self-medicate under the auspices of 'caring'. No one should have to go on the black market for self-medication...
But, as someone who switches between opiates and kratom (SSRIs suck), I'd happily live on another pain killer/anti-depressant if it's better, assuming that this kills emotional pain and keeps me functional like they do.
(Also I'm not asking for and don't want any /.er's medical advice. Please don't bother.)
I am the last to say chronic pains are not real, but I do know that chronic pains are most of the time a symptom of something else, and way too many people are diagnosed with chronic pains. Doctors say they can't treat something and you have to live with it, though many times that is simply wrong. My wife was diagnosed with 'chronic pain' by 6 independent doctors. Number 7 said she should stop drinking milk. Pain is almost completely gone. I myself have been walking around with Irritable Bowel Syndrome for years. Stopped eating Gluten and the Syndrome is gone.
We have way too many "diseases" which are nothing but a name for clueless doctors and a failing medical system. My basic rule is: If you broke something: Go see a doctor. If you have something that's a bit more vague: See someone who understands how the human body works. And yes, I now refer to for example good acupuncture, chiropractic or homeopathic doctors. Unfortunately you also have a lot of crap there.
Have only been meditating for a year now and amazed at the ability to accept that pain is all in the mind. Two simple questions I mentally ask myself when encountering pain immediately reduce the severity. "What shape is this pain?" and "What colour is this pain?". Studies have proven that experienced meditators have the highest pain threshold ever recorded, it's a shame my western education made me discount the power of meditation and promoted the use of medication. I'm not completely against medication, but do see our overuse of it is a problem.
Does it work for a pain in the ass?
How many 'on' switches did they hit before finding it?
Coffeine blocks adenosine receptors, and in turn their numbers multiply, reaching an equilibrium after just 2 weeks of regular coffeine intake. Stop taking coffeine, and you're going to feel pain (mostly headaches and rheumatic pain) 18 to 22 hours after your last dosage. Not to mention being sleepy, depressed and so on. The adenosine builds up as usual in your body after you wake up as a by product of normal neuronal activity, but it just keeps on binding to all those extra receptors. Ouch!
Depending on how heavy your coffein addiction was it takes weeks to months to feel like a normal human being again. If they want to mess with that system, good luck. Finding a drug that causes no withdrawal symptons, good luck.
I figured out how to disable beta months ago.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
"Someday, they'll be a Cure For Pain.
That's the day I throw my drugs away." RIP, Mark Sandman
Don't you see? We don't actually WANT a replacement for marijuana. Why can't you just let us smoke our weed in peace?
Full disclosure:I don't smoke or take drugs, but I think cigarettes are WAAAAAAAYYYY more dangerous than weed, considering the normal usage patterns.
ABT-702 (4-amino-5-(3-bromophenyl)-7-(6-morpholinopyridin-3-yl)pyrido[2, 3-d]pyrimidine), a novel orally effective adenosine kinase inhibitor with analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties: I. In vitro characterization and acute antinociceptive effects in the mouse.
Jarvis MF, Yu H, Kohlhaas K, Alexander K, Lee CH, Jiang M, Bhagwat SS, Williams M, Kowaluk EA.
J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2000 Dec; 295(3):1156-64.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11082454
Maybe, if they increase the amount of aluminum being sprayed into the atmosphere to shield electronics and digital avionics from radiation of the sun and maybe, if they increase the amount of sodium fluorosilicate, which is a poisonous by-product of the aluminum manufacturing process, being dumped into the water supplies around the world, we will all just forget we are in pain from the scientifically proven effect aluminum has on brain function, blocking electical firing of the neuropses. Now, what were we talking about?