Thanks to advances in brain imaging, researchers have learned that pain affects thought patterns and brain physiology. Pain can actually change grey matter. This research is revealing how many mind-body therapies help reduce pain and why your mind can be a very powerful tool in pain management.

Treating Pain

While pain often has a physical cause that can be treated with drugs or physical therapy, much of your battle with pain occurs in your mind. We’re not saying that pain is imagined or “all in your head.” Rather, that how much you think about pain affects how much pain you feel. And these thought patterns become ingrained in the mind and change brain structures.

These physical changes in brain matter affect cognitive function and emotional well-being. This is why those suffering from pain often find it difficult to  function in their daily lives or experience depression.

The goal of mind-body therapy then is to take control of your thoughts, not only to prevent pain in the moment, but to prevent the negative brain “rewiring.”

Mind-Body Approaches

The good news is that a wide variety of techniques have been found to work so there’s likely a method that will give you relief. Here are just a few mind-body approaches that are backed by scientific research.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – CBT involves identifying and changing negative thought patterns and behavior to improve coping skills and relaxation.
• Distraction – Concentrating on a complex task stimulates the cognitive cortical parts of the brain and reduces the amount of pain signals traveling from the spinal cord to the brain.
• Love – Feelings of intense love reduce pain by acting on the reward centers in the brain--similar to how opioid analgesics work.
• Playing Video Games – Researchers found that playing video games can act on both the cognitive and reward centers areas of the brain to reduce pain. Virtual reality headsets have been used with children during medical procedures.
• Laughter – A hearty belly laugh releases dopamine that reduces pain and cortisol, a hormone associated with stress. So laughter not only eases pain, it helps you relax.
• Hypnosis -- This trance-like state can be used to teach pain-reducing behavior and promote relaxation.
• Imagery – This technique uses imagined pictures, sounds or feelings to promote relaxation or ease pain. Examples include meditation, deep breathing, yoga and progressive muscle relaxation. Music is often incorporated as well.

A pain management plan may include one or several of these mind-body methods. But it doesn’t have to stop there. Social support and biomedical treatment, such as drugs or physical therapy, may also come into play.

In fact, experts say the best plans are highly individualized and employ multiple modalities. Fighting pain is a project of the mind and body—the whole person. For more on pain management, read Nine Strategies for Easing Pain Without Drugs.

Sources:

PubMed

The Journal of Neuroscience

PubMed

Health Finder

The Gaea Times

Science Daily

There’s a lot of truth in the adage, “laughter is the best medicine.” Just ask gelotologists—people who study laughter and its psychological and physiological effects on the body. (Yes, there really is a field of study devoted to laughter.) Their research has given us scientific proof that laughter can improve our health.

Many of the beneficial effects of laughter are due to its affect on different regions of the brain. Studies have shown that brain regions normally involved in emotion, cognition, vision, and movement all respond to laughter. For example, the midbrain and hypothalamus — regions where dopamine is released in response to pleasurable stimuli — are activated by laughter. Dopamine is the major component of “reward” mechanisms. It reinforces pleasure-seeking behavior and influences our happiness.

Laughter also stimulates the release of other feel-good substances, including endorphins, which are opiates (sedatives) that can relieve pain, and growth hormone, which plays a role in growth and metabolism. These substances, among others released in response to laughter, have broad physiological effects, such as lowering blood pressure and blood sugar levels and boosting immune function.

Many experts believe that laughter also improves alertness, creativity and memory and may even protect your sanity too, which is probably related to its ability to release stress and ease tension.

Taking Your Medicine

Even if we “scientifically” establish that laughter really is good medicine, what now? It seems silly to “prescribe” laughter—something that is usually thought of as spontaneous and fun. But, like exercise—or anything that is good for us—sometimes it just doesn’t happen without a little pre-planning. And there’s no better time than National Humor Month to flex your “funny” muscles.

Here are some practical tips to infuse your life (and health) with more laughter:

• Use laughter to manage stress by keeping a joke book, cartoons (or whatever makes you chuckle) handy. Then before a meeting or stressful situation, pull out your humor stash and enjoy a smile or laugh. Humor makes you feel good and allows you to think more clearly and quickly.
• Being able to laugh at yourself is healthy. Humor keeps you from taking yourself too seriously and makes dealing with others easier. Researchers found that the stress of “perfectionist thinking” is associated with coronary artery disease.
• Create a “funny file” for whatever tickles your individual sense of humor. Whenever you’re feeling down, bored or uninspired, pull out the file for comic relief.

Sources:

WebMD

University of Maryland Medical Center

Larry Wilde

Researchers studying the effects of our emotional states on cardiovascular function have found that negative states such as stress and anger can increase the number of cardiac events by as much as 57%. Conversely, laughter and cognitive therapy to promote a more positive outlook greatly improved heart healthy outcomes.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

One study examined the link between vascular function and emotions by subjected participants to stressful and humorous movies. Subjects were shown the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, an intense 15-minute segment that shows Allied forces storming the beach of Normandy. Researchers were also shown segments of There's Something about Mary, Shallow Hal, and Kingpin, all comedies.

After each movie, vascular function was measured. After watching the scene from Saving Private Ryan, blood vessels constricted by as much as 30% to 50%, whereas vasodilatation (widening of blood vessels) occurred in subjects watching comedies. They also observed that vascular changes can occur quickly, with the funny movies reversing blood-vessel contraction that occurred after watching the intense D-Day scene.

The vascular effects lasted for about an hour, although other researchers have seen the benefits of laughter on vascular function extended to 24 hours. The magnitude of change in the blood vessel is similar to the effects observed with statins and physical activity. So we may only need 10-15 minutes of laughter a day to have fairly long lasting benefits.

Manage Anger and Stress

Another study of 227 patients with myocardial infarction assessed the long-term effects of anger on recurrent cardiovascular outcomes. Over the course of 10 years 78.5% of patients without an angry-personality profile were free from a recurrent infarction compared with 57.4% of patients with angry personalities. Not only does anger directly increase heart rate and blood pressure that may trigger a heart attack, it may also lead to lifestyles that worsen cardiovascular health, such as stress induced overeating or alcoholism.

Even what many might consider “mild stress” such as working overtime can have ill effects. A Finnish researcher observed that public sector employees who worked more than three hours overtime per day were at an increased risk of coronary heart disease compared with those who worked no overtime.

Curb Anxiety and Depression

Similar to anger and stress, anxiety and depression are also associated with higher morbidity and mortality both before and after a cardiac event. Depressed cardiac patients tend not to do so well after an event. They don't take their medication, follow post-op therapy, engage in physical activity, and they often smoke and have poor lifestyle behaviors.

However researchers in Australia found that cognitive therapy was highly effective in reducing anxiety and depression as well as modifying unhealthy behaviors in post-op cardiac patients. Study participants who received four months of cognitive therapy had less depression as well as reduced waist girth, increased HDL cholesterol levels and physical activity. At one year, the reduction in depression was maintained, and there were significant improvements in self-rated health.

Source:

Medscape