Love Takes Up Where Pain Leaves Off, Brain Study Shows

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2010) — Intense, passionate feelings of love can provide amazingly effective pain relief, similar to painkillers or such illicit drugs as cocaine, according to a new Stanford University School of Medicine study.

"When people are in this passionate, all-consuming phase of love, there are significant alterations in their mood that are impacting their experience of pain," said Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Pain Management, associate professor of anesthesia and senior author of the study, which will be published online Oct. 13 in PLoS ONE. "We're beginning to tease apart some of these reward systems in the brain and how they influence pain. These are very deep, old systems in our brain that involve dopamine -- a primary neurotransmitter that influences mood, reward and motivation."

Scientists aren't quite yet ready to tell patients with chronic pain to throw out the painkillers and replace them with a passionate love affair; rather, the hope is that a better understanding of these neural-rewards pathways that get triggered by love could lead to new methods for producing pain relief.

"It turns out that the areas of the brain activated by intense love are the same areas that drugs use to reduce pain," said Arthur Aron, PhD, a professor of psychology at State University of New York at Stony Brook and one of the study's authors. Aron has been studying love for 30 years. "When thinking about your beloved, there is intense activation in the reward area of the brain -- the same area that lights up when you take cocaine, the same area that lights up when you win a lot of money."


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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101013173843.htm

[Teaser]

1. Yeah but cocaine doesn't take up any room in my bed

.

[Sal Minella]

6. . . . and cocaine don't snore. n/t

[kimmerspixelated]

2. Makes sense.

All you need is love. Love is the strongest force in the universe. The color green(life) operates on a frequency of love 528mhz. Green is everywhere on the planet(well, except for wintertime and even then in the form of evergreens!

[silverweb]

3. Mind-body connection.

Taking this a step further, it is also possible to see how practices such as regular meditation can be very effective in alleviating pain, as well.

"Love" means so much more than "passionate love affairs" and I imagine that meditating on nature, the cosmos, or some happy "other" besides one's SO could be just as effective.

[Warpy]

5. I've done meditation for years due to chronic pain

but when I really need to get things done and don't have the hour or two it takes, I use drugs.

While meditation works, it takes a lot of concentration.

A passionate love affair might work, too, but it generally messes up your life in the meantime.

[silverweb]

7. Certainly agree on the opinion re love affairs!

:D

My life is deliciously uncomplicated these days and I'm very happy with it this way. There are plenty of other people/things and ways to focus on with love, and I think they work just as well as a "love affair."

I've been working on making meditation a daily habit rather than just an occasional "when I have the time and inclination" thing. So far I'm only doing short sessions and find concentration no real problem. The goal is to work up to longer periods and refine my practice.

The one thing I noticed within just a few days was that I started my day in a better mood and feeling better. My pain is relatively mild but constant and wearing -- enough to make just getting through the day difficult, some days more than others.

Based on my experience so far, setting aside that short period in the morning (right after I feed the cats) is working very well in both the physical and mental realms.

[Warpy]

9. Well, you certainly can't do it before you feed them

Nothing is as persistently annoying as a kitty who wants breakfast.

I'm not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. I prefer evenings when the pills have worn off and I'm winding things down to get to bed.

[silverweb]

12. Definitely -- x7.

It's a regular cacophony of hungry felines around here as soon as I open my eyes at around 10.

At least they don't try to wake me up early anymore. That didn't go over very well at all, since I work until at least midnight most nights. :D

[FLyellowdog]

4. But what if the person you love...

is a PAIN IN THE ASS? :shrug:

It's always something.

[silverweb]

8. LOL

:D

[Kennah]

10. Then ...

... you're married.

[Kennah]

11. My apparent dyslexia rears up

I read the subject as "Love Takes Up Where Palin Leaves Off, Brain Study Shows".

I opened the article and immediately searched for "mice" and "mouse".