Being Hungry Turns Off Perception of Chronic Pain

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When considering the evolutionary value of the experience of pain, it follows that there would be a natural hierarchy of sense stimuli which allows for an optimization of functioning. This article summarizes information from a study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania that established the neurons and neurotransmitters responsible for inflammatory chronic pain as well as the process through which the response can be naturally inhibited by the body. The researchers at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that mice exhibit an apparent reduced experience of inflammatory pain if they are hungry. In the study, researchers tested mice that have not eaten in twenty-four hours in order to differentiate their responses to acute pain compared to longer-lasting inflammatory pain, in differentiation to a control group of well-fed mice. The results showed that mice who were hungry were equally as responsive as the control group in regards to experiences of acute pain, however, they were significantly less responsive to inflammatory pain. Nicholas J Bentley, one of the professors associated with the project, states that the project attempts to analyze the complicated relationship between the stimuli of hunger and pain and the methods through which an animal is able to create the most appropriate response based on the sum of stimuli. According to Bentley, this research addresses one of the primary issues associated with lab studies. In studies conducted in laboratories, the goal is to isolate a variable in order to understand it's distinct impact, however, this creates an issue of external validity. In reality, there are multiple stimuli interacting to create an experience. The researchers also sought to describe the exact pain receptors and neurotransmitters associated with chronic pain response. The area of the brain which processes chronic pain was identified as the agouti-related protein (AgRP) neurons, which when stimulated produce a reduction in chronic pain response but do not impact acute pain response. Additionally, a neurotransmitter NPY was implicated in blocking the chronic pain receptors; if NPY was inhibited, the chronic pain response was restored. This article concludes with a description of future potential benefits resulting from continued research, including the replacement of opioids in chronic pain treatment. Through the research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers discovered the process through which competing stimuli can naturally produce an inhibitory pain response, which if established in humans could result in the development of new pain medication.

In the discussion of both pain and hunger responses from the previous section of this course, we briefly covered the differing types of pain, predominately focusing on acute types of pain. We covered the spinal reflex associated with a pain stimulus as part of the somatosenses. However, we didn't cover chronic pain, for the most part. In contrast, we discussed hunger at length including the methods through which the body experiences hunger as well as satiation. Before reading this article, I didn't think to conceptualize a relationship between the two. The theory of evolutionary psychology as applied to physiological psychology states that most physiological processes exist with the goal of optimizing the body for survival. Following this theory, the biological prioritization of hunger stimuli over chronic pain rather than acute pain makes logical sense. If the body were to fail to receive nutrients as a result of not eating, it would die. Additionally, ignoring an acute sense of pain is more likely to result in immediate death as opposed to chronic pain. Consider the example of ignoring the feeling of pain from fibromyalgia compared to ignoring the sensation of a puncture wound in the pursuit of food. Ultimately, the chronic pain stimulus will return and the situation can be addressed, but the body's experience of acute pain generally requires immediate attention. Also, considering our recent discussion of opioid related overdoses, the medical treatment potential of this discovery is interesting. If an alternative pain medication can be developed utilizing the NPY neurotranmitter to inhibit chronic pain responses while keeping acute pain responses intact, the replacement of opioids as pain treatment may be possible. With the opioid epidemic continuing to be a growing issue, the potential implications of alternative pain medicine are significant. As this article was a summary rather than the actual scientific evidence, I am interested to see what continued research will come from this study, as well as replications of inhibited pain response in the presence of a hunger stimulus.

http://neurosciencenews.com/hunger-pain-perception-8672/

Comments

  1. Saran HebronApril 26, 2018 at 10:42 PM

    This is a interesting topic, especially relating to fibromyalgia, because a family membe rof mine is currently dealing with this and she has lost alot of weight due to the fact that she cannot eat when under severe pain. However when she is starving it seems like the hunger takes over enough for her to grab a bite to eat. We learned that the body has to eat for energy , and body temperature, which is interesting,because my aunt is frequently called most times. In terms of pain their are all types in the types that are sever take up our full attention in order for us to survive. However, giving patients drugs in order to take away the pain hasn't always been a positive thing, because many people get hooked on these pain relievers such as oxycodone, and percocets. My article explained that these drugs change the wiring of our glial cells to carry out messages that could potentially tell the brain that these drugs are a good thing, thus needing them ends up to be a addiction.

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  2. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 12:11 AM

    Amber, great choice of article. I would have never knew hunger can reduce the responsiveness to inflammatory pain. When I was younger, I was taught that starving yourself or not eating enough is "bad". I was told that eating was necessary to provide energy to the body. Eating can prevent acute pain; however can be beneficial in chronic pain. Interesting. Thanks for sharing

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