Originally distributed December 2004
NO PAIN NO BRAIN
For millennia, Chinese medicine has understood the connections among the body, mind, spirit and emotions.
A study conducted by a pain specialist at the Northwestern University School of Medicine indicates that the cumulative stress of dealing with chronic pain causes the brain to age and actually shrink as much as 11%. This is also associated with diminished cognitive functions.
One in four Americans suffers from chronic pain. Biomedical researchers had been aware that constant pain causes changes in the nervous system, but this study indicates that brain shrinkage brought on by chronic pain is irreversible.
The study compared the brain images of those with chronic back pain and a similar group of people of the same age and gender without chronic pain. The MRIs showed that those who suffered from chronic back pain had lost gray matter in the prefrontal cortex and thalamus – equivalent to 10-20 years worth of aging. The longer the person had been in pain, the more gray matter they had lost.
The study was published in the November 23, 2004, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
The lead investigator, A. Vania Apkarian, advised those in chronic pain: “You should try to seek ways to reduce the pain. The longer you live with the pain, the worse the impact on the brain. So one needs to actively find methods or therapies that would diminish the suffering as much as possible.”
If you're in pain, don't feel like you have to or should tough it out. Acupuncture can relieve chronic back pain, migraines, sciatica, athletic injuries, repetitive strain injury, and menstrual cramps. If you're curious about whether acupuncture can help you or someone you know, please feel free to contact me.
For more information about the research on pain, visit
Dr. Apkarian’s
Pain Lab.