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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.
Weren't adenosine receptors blocked by caffeine?
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.
Enough about Microsoft! What about those suffering physical pain?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
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.
Really. You don't think fear makes humans dangerous?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
There is if course nothing more profitable that treating the symptoms rather than curing the affliction, yet they always cry the loudest when they succeed at treating the symptoms without curing the affliction, bless their greedy little hearts. Personally I would like to hear more about stem cell therapy to repair damaged nerves.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
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.
Here's the thing, there are some forms of nerve damage that we currently don't have a cure for, there are far more that we don't even understand well enough to have an idea for a cure, and there are some that are so poorly understood, even significant swaths of the medical community doubt that they are real and accuse patients of being drug seekers.
For example: Fibromyalgia. It isn't a disease in it's own right, it is a classification of a set of symptoms that have not been able to be attached to a source. There are lots of theories and progress is being made in the field. But when the causes could be genetic, dietary, environmental, psychological, or even sleep related, any step forward could be helpful for some subset of FM sufferers, but leave the rest without aid.
If this approach can be made to work, it would mean that virtually all of the FM sufferers in the world could lead a normal life, while at the same time research continues on the underlying causes of their conditions.
When you wake up every day and have to see your spouse, your child, or your friends in agony because for no meaningful reason their brain decides that they should feel like every joint is coated with sandpaper, that every muscle is strained and torn, that every tendon is inflamed, then any option, even one that profits some greedy ass in a suit, becomes a miracle.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
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.
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.