Chronic pain had a devastating impact on my life. At 35, I was a highly skilled tradesman at the peak of my career, but my employers were unaware that every morning I struggled to get out of bed due to excruciating pain. Eventually, I reached a point where I could no longer continue. When I sought help from my doctor, I was completely taken aback when he assumed I was simply seeking morphine. This left me feeling distraught. After persistent requests, I was finally granted a scan, and the results revealed signs of Osteoarthritis in my spine. This whole experience taught me that pain is not only a physical sensation but can also be influenced by external factors and other people's perceptions. I hope that anyone going through a similar journey has better luck than I did.
That's some wisdom not far spread, not even in the medical world. Chronic pain really makes your life fall appart, and most doctors don't realize this at all, even call it "psychological issue". Not many people understand what it means to live with strong, chronic pain. It completely depletes you, disables you, but often you cannot see it. You can still walk, talk, even work and people are very sceptical, like "what do you have? you're not in a wheely, how are you disabled?" It's a nightmare and you get little to no support yet.
Chronic pain always has a cause, and our medical system should prioritize advancements in things that treat the root cause and not a band-aid solution to pain. Our bodies need to feel pain. It lets us know when something is wrong, and where the problem is.
@user-qu7qh7qj2t I think it’s great for temporary remedies. I also think that it will be abused by both medical practitioners and patients when the problem is not actually resolved, thus masking an issue that does need further medical intervention to solve.
It feels unreal how slow the progress is on these conditions. I went to a clinic the other day and had to explain to the neurologist what “central sensitization” was. She’d never heard of it. I’ve been dealing with chronic pain and sensitization issues for almost a decade now. Lost 30% muscle mass, struggle to perform daily basic activities. The only hope is gene editing, which is supposedly 10-15 years away…
As someone who's been in constant pain for 10+ years, can confirm that mindset makes a huge difference. On days where I am overall happy, it doesn't hurt as much.
@@avicohen2k Where are you going after you die? What happens next? Have you ever thought about that? Repent today and give your life to Jesus Christ to obtain eternal salvation. Tomorrow may be too late my brethen😢. Hebrews 9:27 says "And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after that the judgement
Yes, suffering from toothache the whole week, I realized this also. But finally I had to visit the dentist. Who can be happy all the time, only Sages I guess.
I want enough pain to alert me if I have injured some thing and need to take care of it. I would very much like for my body to not be in intractable pain while I'm trying to live my life.
I'm a chronic migraine sufferer and I've gotten so sick of people who say that pain isn't real, it can't be found, and it's just made up / in my head / my perception and nothing more. I love how this is showing that pain IS real AND psychosomatic. I know that my pain gets worse when I get in a bad headspace. But the pain IS real, nonetheless.
I think we should stop using the word 'psychosomatic' to describe pain where there is no identifiable tissue damage. It encourages people to think you can rid yourself of pain by lying on a couch and talking about the relationship with your father 😉
A mixed bag here. Stopping the pain at source would be a great thing for those whose pain is primarily nociceptive. For those whose pain is primarily brain-generated, the research is not so encouraging. We have known for decades that depression and anxiety make pain worse - this is not news. What isn't mentioned is just how hard it is to not be anxious and unhappy when you're in constant, severe pain. You can't make pain go away by 'thinking happy thoughts' or having a 'better attitude’. Even if you do manage to maintain an unwavering positive disposition (something even people without pain struggle to do), the difference this makes on pain levels and associated disability is not all that much. The young lady with CRPS, which is a nasty, cruel disease, maintains a positive outlook as far as she is able, and this does her credit. However, you will notice that she is still in excruciating pain (don’t let her smile fool you), unable to work in her former job, and reliant on carers and a wheelchair. This cannot in any way be viewed as an acceptable outcome for chronic pain patients. I don’t want to hear any more about anxiety, depression, Yoga, Acupuncture or Tai-Chi etc. Chronic pain needs research funding that is commensurate with the scale of the problem, so that we can come up with real, effective solutions.
Omg thank you so much for the validation your comment gives me. I think I'll skip the doco because it's just going to enrage me if it's message is just 'be happy you're in agony and maybe the agony will be slightly less agonising", sort of like "just be happy and you won't have depression"... Which would be a hilarious oxymoron if people, inc. heathcare providers, didn't actually think it and let their prejudice affect your life.
I've lived with chronic pain most of my adult life. Double spinal injuries during military service in the mid 80's. The only thing that's really helped was working with my psychologist. Learned a lot about how we process pain and how important it is to deal with trauma. Thankfully she also provides equine therapy with 2 amazing rescue horses. Horses are one of my fave animals and pain disapears when I'm working with them. Still haven't mastered calling that felling up as needed, but it'll get there with time. Way better than it was prior to starting therapy.
Shout out for covering Complex Regional Pain syndrome. I got it after a relatively minor foot injury, messed me up for awhile but compared to a lot of people I got off easy, for some people it’s crippling for life band it’s such a weird and poorly understood thing. Some doctors are very hesitant to diagnose it, I almost didn’t believe it could be a thing when my doctor told me about it bc it’s just so odd. It can be related to nerve damage but it can also be almost like your brain/nervous system just gets confused.. it can even spread to other parts of your body, like if you have it on your right hand, you can eventually get it on your left hand, or foot, etc. Thank you for bringing attention to it!
I’m happy the moments when my pain is well managed. When my pain is poorly managed, I’m rarely able to experience much happiness. Please stop shaming people who require opioids to treat their pain.
In this video Hannah isn't shaming anyone for taking opioids, she's reporting about research which tries to find new highly effective pain treatment. Imagine how life would change for everyone with chronic pain if there were a way to switch the pain completely off as is the experience of people who can't feel any pain. That would be even better then opioids! And about the happiness - no one in this video is suggesting to treat pain by happiness alone, they're just saying that e.g. opioids plus happiness is making the pain more bearable and depression less. You sure noticed that too.
@@luciedvorakova2167 : I can appreciate where you’re coming from, but having been on the receiving end of implicit bias against opioid therapy from people across the field of medicine, I interpret some of the things said in this video differently. I will say that it would absolutely be great if opioids weren’t necessary to treat pain, but in the meantime it’s exhausting beyond measure just to live with pain. Adding the overwhelming anti-opioid bias across medicine and media adds a crippling additional level of stress and hopelessness to an already unbearable situation: the clear message from everyone is if we’re not "strong enough" to cope with the pain without opioids, that’s a character defect, not a health issue. Chronic pain patients have been utterly robbed of meaningful wellbeing bc of recent opioid policies in the U.S., and the lack of compassion is baffling and cruel.
If Opioids help you, you should be entitled to them. I don't take Opioids, but if I did, I would in no way be ashamed about it. The issue for many people with chronic pain, is that they just don't work.
@@davidkessler6878 : Debilitating chronic pain is one of the most ubiquitous diseases, but you’re right that opioids don’t work for a lot of people, or the side effects create more problems than that which they’re meant to solve. Unfortunately, there aren’t ANY treatments for chronic pain which help most people. That’s why people who live with chronic pain often spend months or years going from specialist to specialist trying every available treatment. Chronic pain is an incredibly complex and dynamic health issue, and even when one treatment works for a while, it often stops working eventually leading to ongoing struggles to find another treatment that works. However, when a treatment is effective, it’s cruel to deny that treatment to people who have already suffered so much (as you did acknowledge). I know that the majority of medical professionals are driven in part by a desire to help improve people’s wellbeing, and with opioids they want to protect people from addiction and overdose, but to that end they’ve sacrificed almost all nuance and instead implemented draconian one-size-fits-all policies which have made millions of peoples’ lives much worse. The pendulum has swung from indiscriminate prescribing of opioids to indiscriminate denial of effective treatment.
At 11:55, the video discusses the possibility of reducing the strength of pain signals within individual neurons, which seems beneficial on the surface. However, as Hannah Fry pointed out earlier, the brain's processing of pain isn't straightforward; it also considers factors like past experiences, emotions, and our current level of focus or distraction. Essentially, the brain already modulates pain signals, adjusting their intensity based on these psychological factors. This leads me to wonder: if we artificially lower the amplitude of pain signals, might the brain simply adapt to this new baseline? And perhaps more critically, could there be an increased sensation of pain when this intervention is absent? Perhaps I should continue watching the rest of the video, it's just that this question seemed crucial, and I wanted to note it down before forgetting (it would pain me to do so!)😅
While the topics covered in this video are all very interesting, I was disappointed that they didn't delve very deep into the theories you're presenting here. It switched over more to the mind-body connection and they didn't come back to the brain research earlier discussed. It sounds like we need a combination of both physiological and psychological treatment to get the ideal treatment for pain; researchers have to come together and combine their approaches.
@@YTStoleMyUsername it makes me go bonkers whenever they put forth the mind-body connection. The experience of pain can be amplified by psychological factors. The emergence of pain is due to genetic/molecular modifications in the neural system. The only way to change it back to “default” is gene editing. Which is at least 10-15 years away…
People love the top down approach we feel more autonomy but the placebo effect is mostly automatic or unconscious. Yes all systems adapt especially with drugs but the networks might also get "reset" and stop crying wolf
@@theorogas I'm glad it's not just me. I mean, I get it, it's just not very helpful in terms of developing effective treatments. Yoga, Tai-chi etc will only ever make the tiniest difference, if any.
@@davidkessler6878 it’s the best they’ve got unfortunately apart from opiods: “mindfullness”, CBT, “distractions”. You can’t sweep the floor as long as the sink is leaking. The most honest feedback I’ve gotten from a doctor was: “take the word recovery out of your dictionary.” Hard, but truthful. There’s nothing (at least commercially) available right now that can restore the pain threshold at molecular levels. We’ll have to wait for gene therapy for that. Expected in 5-15 years.
As someone who has lived with chronic pain since age 13, I really enjoy the "party trick" aspects. When friends who do martial arts want to demonstrate pain-based holds and pressure points, etc, I ALWAYS volunteer and then laugh at them when their holds just literally don't work on me. They're counting on pain to hamper your movements or cripple your reactions, but I live in constant pain, so why should I care about the new, little exogenous pain they're inflicting with whatever joint lock or pressure point trick they're trying? If anything, it's a distracting relief and I feel better! So they blink in consternation while I twist up in pretzels and get out of their holds/locks/whatever, and then I explain that I always hurt, so I don't care about hurting more, or differently. Same goes for doing manual labor tasks, including carrying heavy objects, while one joint or another is visibly dislocated. People really freak out! I just chuckle and carry on. Like, yep, it hurts, but you know, it always hurts, so why should I care whether the joint is in its socket or not, so long as I keep enough tendon tension and muscle tone to force the limb to operate anyway? Makes no difference to me, if it's going to hurt anyway. It's been that way for decades, so clearly it's not going to improve. I think a lot of people struggle with pain because they're in the mental headspace where pain is telling them not to do the things they enjoy. A certain level of cavalier "f- this" attitude can be really helpful, so long as we have to live with constant pain. That said, if they ever do release a way to turn off pain, I'm totally excited to try living without pain. I've no idea what that would be like but it sounds wonderful.
When the Queen of pain lady said about being happy, less anxious turning the pain response down she said it's calmer, but I heard "it's karma." ie if you're happy, peaceful, your mind creates a less suffering world of experience. So I replayed it with the subtitles on and the subtitles thought she said "it's karma" too ! 16:57
Yes, spot on. The sad bit is we all feel pain, some more than others. It seems to run in families too. The last point made here, seems like Nature vs nurture. Perhaps they both serve their purpose; thus, we need both.
Stunning. As our technological and ‘advanced’ world continues to evolve, there is an inevitable convergence with nature. The wisdom of ancient practices, traditional medicine, philosophy, and the raw power of human emotion will undoubtedly shape the future of healthcare, grounding innovation in deeper, timeless truths.
My unncle had the condition of not feeling pain- he was an air plane mechanic and he always joked he had to count his fingers every time he took his fingers out of a machine to make sure he did not cut one off- cause he would not feel it. Multiple broken bones over time, and his heart attack that killed him - apparently he had no idea and so it killed him. He just. had "heartburn" pressure.
I get this brave woman, I too have been in chronic pain in my feet, I got Sepsis 3.5 years that nearly killed me. Luckily I survived, but it damaged my nerves. It's extremely hard to live with, but the painkillers can make life even harder. I really hope this type of pain control comes soon. I am willing to be a ginniepig 😮😊
I have always considered myself to have a high tolerance for pain. As someone who enjoys DIY projects, I have endured significant cuts with minimal discomfort, occasionally self-administering stitches when required. Roughly five years ago, I suffered a fall from a barn roof extension I was constructing, landing on concrete. The impact caused some pain, but it seemed manageable, so I continued to work for another three days. Subsequently, I collapsed, unable to stand but experiencing very little pain. My son rushed me to the emergency department, where an X-ray disclosed a shattered vertebra in my lower back. Following several weeks of rest, I managed to walk using a cane. However, a few years later, intense leg pain emerged, hindering my ability to walk. Despite extensive hospital tests and potent painkillers that offer no relief, I now face persistent pain and am wheelchair-bound. It is baffling that the initial accident caused me little pain, yet now presently, the pain is unrelenting. Strangely, minor cuts from DIY activities still cause me little pain, and I can stitch a significant wound up myself if needed.
There are new bioelectronic medicines (think small nano sized devices that attach to nerves( that have been successfully trialled that reduce (modulate) and/ or eliminate chronic pain without the need for drugs … so there are solutions to “drugs” emerging.
I have chronic pain from several impact injuries (sports). I use all three methods. Nothing WUWU about it. I'm pretty sure the pain reduction/management is very closely related to what I see/hear referred to as a flow state. And I avoid pain meds. Although there are occasions where all the various pains gang up on me & drugs are a blessing during (what I call) a pain cascade.
Had an accident at age 20.Pain basically ended my youth and midlife in one moment and i live in constant fear of it rendering me unconscious within(and for) split seconds, depending on moves i make. But i still don't think, "eliminating pain" is the answer. It is after all a self-preservation mechanism. People will just behave reckless without it. (drugged up hooligans as example).
As someone with syringomyellia, there's too much misinformation towards the end here. Yes, mindset INFLUENCES our perception of pain, which does NOT mean that you can cure away the pain with mindset alone (I don't want to say, that it's unless you don't have "real" pain, but I have to here). No matter how happy and calm you are, getting constantly kicked in the balls will hurt.
@@amyepohl I was targeting more what Hanna says at the end, with the "spiritual" guru. I'm happy that mindset has such an analgesic effect on you, truly. I've always been a stoic, happy guy, and I still am, yet I couldn't live without opioids or ziconotide (internal intrathecal pump). I would be in constant screaming agony, as I've been before.
This is exactly what I think. I get frustrated when 'alternative' treatments are put forward as some sort of solution to chronic pain. They might help some people a little bit, but for many of us they are of very limited value.
Pain is natures way of flagging that a new approach is required. Some extreme pain might be useful to dull, but I uspect if no one felt pain they would never become conscious of or therefore able to meditate away their supressed otherwise unconscious emotion. Pain after all lies beneath all reactive sensation in this universe.
Imagine a future where pain-physical, emotional, and existential-becomes optional, no longer an inescapable force shaping our lives. Freed from its weight, humanity could unlock new realms of creativity, compassion, and growth, where we thrive not by overcoming suffering, but by choosing how and when to face it. Yet, in the absence of pain, would we lose the depth of experience that comes from struggle? Perhaps the key lies in balance: a world where pain is a tool we wield intentionally, enhancing our humanity without defining it. In such a future, we would not just be liberated from suffering, but invited to create, love, and live in ways that transcend the limitations we once thought inherent to our nature.
"Comes from within" well, you estimate and represent your chances of dying by being within a social circle and how much your body can handle it given your environment
Childhood trauma increases your risk of auto immune disorders by 1/3 and even fibromyalgia is a somatic response that is within the scope of practice of mental health professionals. Treating trauma, I think, is going to be as important as learning how to physically help our glial cells calm down.
I have chronic pain, and most people would envy my childhood. There does seem to be some correlation between childhood trauma and chronic pain, but this doesn't mean the pain can be removed by treating the trauma (to whatever extent that is even possible). There are a few people out there making lots of money from pushing this narrative, so it should be taken with a huge pinch of salt in my opinion.
@@davidkessler6878 right. My immune system is never gonna be the same. Healing my trauma has helped with a lot of other things but I still have to treat RA. I'm still in chronic pain.
Just an idea but try changing diet to keto, ketovore, or carnivore, i went carnivore 13 mths ago and my arthritic pain in all my joints went away after just 2 mths, diabetes went away , blood pressure normalised , plus other things. Diet is so important for reversing so many health problems. 🙂🙂
I wish i could get relief,I live in agony 24-7 due to nerve damage and two spinal surgeries made everything so much worse,I’ve suffered from insomnia for over 30 years because of pain,had sleep study done and with all the proof and every hoop I’ve been made to jump through I have done for many many years and still get treated like a drug addict,I take nothing because I’m so tired of being treated like a number and playing games with my life,I’m done believing in Any doctor to care!
A metal part attached to the tooth and a clip attached at the tounge you can use a frequency and drown out the pain singnal and overvoice the wave that is the body`s nervous system.
Pain is essential to ensuring avoiding harm to the body. For example, Leprosy destroys neurons so people cannot feel pain, usually in their extremities. Without this feedback sufferers become disfigured because they can’t feel the harm being inflicted upon their bodies.
Almost all my life was pain, I thought it’s normal until I was diagnosed with AS at 30yo. It would be nice to be able to just turn it off, especially for sleep… No changes in the spine = no proper medications because insurance won’t cover…
Completely removing pain from life could have damaging consequences. Pain tells us there’s something wrong, warns us of danger and makes us take important actions. That said, severe and constant pain doesn’t have any benefit and peoples lives would be better if we could remove chronic pain.
Amy has hit the nail on the head, mindset, and mental toughness has a grate deal to do with the eventual outcome of many an illness and setbacks, that is not just a lesson in medicine, it is also a lesson in life as you personally know Hanna, and while science does not yet fully understand Amy's condition, by working with her they may open insides to treat her condition ,chronic pain can be so debilitating, but sometimes we need pain to stop us from injuring ourselves, pain is a warning, and often prevents us from overdoing it in the gym, or burn ing our hands on a cooker, and for many injuries it is actually part of the healing process.
Are people just totally completely separated from the fact that our bodies are an amazing technology and the pain is there to tell us that we're out of alignment so once we're in alignment the pain will stop. It's as simple as that. Now go get Rolfed!
None of this is new to us. I have a somatic pain disorder that is above the spinal cortex and any known analgesic drug is ineffective. I've attended a pain clinic and now control my pain through distraction,, exercise and a knowledge of my disorder. 13 years of constant pain but every year my life gets better
We have stuff that can turn pain off but few doctors know about it and the risk of injury is heightened because you can't feel pain anymore. They just never told the name of the medicine and I don't know the TH-cam video it was in.
Scientists have made invaluable contributions to humanity through their discoveries, shedding light on various aspects of our world. However, in their pursuit of knowledge, there are areas that have been overlooked, such as comprehending the multidimensional nature of human existence and exploring the profound connection between individuals and their spiritual beliefs.
18:02 and just before then, To me sounds like she's explaining Cognitive Behavior Therapy, in short, your brains response to pain can be "affected" by how/what you think or don't think about it. Goes into it in part later also.
In my experience, it's more how you act that matters. Thoughts/Beliefs don't affect the pain as such, but they can direct you towards taking more helpful action, such as exercising or getting on with some activity, despite the pain.
Hannah Fry showed me how to dissolve my bank card so now I can do party tricks with it, 😂 she’s the best and one of the few to do coverage on Lady Lovelace which makes her invaluable to me!
Stop fighting yourself and start fighting for yourself it's a great line
Stop fighting for yourself and start fighting yourself. That's called depression.
🙏🏼
This quote from 4:48 should be pinned to the top of the comments!! Wisdom way beyond her years!!
I wish I had heard this 20 years ago!
Easy to say. Nothing more than a Wall tattoo.
Chronic pain had a devastating impact on my life.
At 35, I was a highly skilled tradesman at the peak of my career, but my employers were unaware that every morning I struggled to get out of bed due to excruciating pain. Eventually, I reached a point where I could no longer continue. When I sought help from my doctor, I was completely taken aback when he assumed I was simply seeking morphine. This left me feeling distraught.
After persistent requests, I was finally granted a scan, and the results revealed signs of Osteoarthritis in my spine.
This whole experience taught me that pain is not only a physical sensation but can also be influenced by external factors and other people's perceptions.
I hope that anyone going through a similar journey has better luck than I did.
If its a autoimmune disease. Try earthing concept.
@@sunkojusurya2864 Thank you. I will.
Stop eating carbs.
maybe tell him also to smile more and think positive xd
@@johnnyrocket80085 stop giving destructive advice.
That's some wisdom not far spread, not even in the medical world. Chronic pain really makes your life fall appart, and most doctors don't realize this at all, even call it "psychological issue". Not many people understand what it means to live with strong, chronic pain. It completely depletes you, disables you, but often you cannot see it. You can still walk, talk, even work and people are very sceptical, like "what do you have? you're not in a wheely, how are you disabled?" It's a nightmare and you get little to no support yet.
The current fear of offering effective pain meds, is causing untold misery. It was too loose in the early 2000s but now it's far too restrictive
Chronic pain always has a cause, and our medical system should prioritize advancements in things that treat the root cause and not a band-aid solution to pain. Our bodies need to feel pain. It lets us know when something is wrong, and where the problem is.
@user-qu7qh7qj2t I think it’s great for temporary remedies. I also think that it will be abused by both medical practitioners and patients when the problem is not actually resolved, thus masking an issue that does need further medical intervention to solve.
It feels unreal how slow the progress is on these conditions. I went to a clinic the other day and had to explain to the neurologist what “central sensitization” was. She’d never heard of it.
I’ve been dealing with chronic pain and sensitization issues for almost a decade now. Lost 30% muscle mass, struggle to perform daily basic activities.
The only hope is gene editing, which is supposedly 10-15 years away…
There’s an old Italian proverb, “A well fed man does not believe in hunger. “
As someone who's been in constant pain for 10+ years, can confirm that mindset makes a huge difference. On days where I am overall happy, it doesn't hurt as much.
Ture, but life is hard, or at least challenging you can't be happy all the time. We need something for when things need to get done.
@@avicohen2k
Where are you going after you die?
What happens next? Have you ever thought about that?
Repent today and give your life to Jesus Christ to obtain eternal salvation. Tomorrow may be too late my brethen😢.
Hebrews 9:27 says "And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after that the judgement
Yes, suffering from toothache the whole week, I realized this also.
But finally I had to visit the dentist.
Who can be happy all the time, only Sages I guess.
@@JesusPlsSaveMe please stop.
I want enough pain to alert me if I have injured some thing and need to take care of it. I would very much like for my body to not be in intractable pain while I'm trying to live my life.
I'm a chronic migraine sufferer and I've gotten so sick of people who say that pain isn't real, it can't be found, and it's just made up / in my head / my perception and nothing more.
I love how this is showing that pain IS real AND psychosomatic. I know that my pain gets worse when I get in a bad headspace. But the pain IS real, nonetheless.
I think we should stop using the word 'psychosomatic' to describe pain where there is no identifiable tissue damage. It encourages people to think you can rid yourself of pain by lying on a couch and talking about the relationship with your father 😉
Living with chronic pain is no joke. 😢
I need this in a huge way...
Keep going! Does this give you a little hope?
Hannah is such a wonderful guide to these fascinating new concepts!!
A mixed bag here. Stopping the pain at source would be a great thing for those whose pain is primarily nociceptive. For those whose pain is primarily brain-generated, the research is not so encouraging. We have known for decades that depression and anxiety make pain worse - this is not news. What isn't mentioned is just how hard it is to not be anxious and unhappy when you're in constant, severe pain. You can't make pain go away by 'thinking happy thoughts' or having a 'better attitude’. Even if you do manage to maintain an unwavering positive disposition (something even people without pain struggle to do), the difference this makes on pain levels and associated disability is not all that much.
The young lady with CRPS, which is a nasty, cruel disease, maintains a positive outlook as far as she is able, and this does her credit. However, you will notice that she is still in excruciating pain (don’t let her smile fool you), unable to work in her former job, and reliant on carers and a wheelchair. This cannot in any way be viewed as an acceptable outcome for chronic pain patients.
I don’t want to hear any more about anxiety, depression, Yoga, Acupuncture or Tai-Chi etc. Chronic pain needs research funding that is commensurate with the scale of the problem, so that we can come up with real, effective solutions.
Omg thank you so much for the validation your comment gives me. I think I'll skip the doco because it's just going to enrage me if it's message is just 'be happy you're in agony and maybe the agony will be slightly less agonising", sort of like "just be happy and you won't have depression"... Which would be a hilarious oxymoron if people, inc. heathcare providers, didn't actually think it and let their prejudice affect your life.
Hannah Fry is the best
She and Stephen Fry will collaborate in a new series called Fry-up.
I've lived with chronic pain most of my adult life. Double spinal injuries during military service in the mid 80's.
The only thing that's really helped was working with my psychologist. Learned a lot about how we process pain and how important it is to deal with trauma. Thankfully she also provides equine therapy with 2 amazing rescue horses. Horses are one of my fave animals and pain disapears when I'm working with them. Still haven't mastered calling that felling up as needed, but it'll get there with time. Way better than it was prior to starting therapy.
Shout out for covering Complex Regional Pain syndrome. I got it after a relatively minor foot injury, messed me up for awhile but compared to a lot of people I got off easy, for some people it’s crippling for life band it’s such a weird and poorly understood thing. Some doctors are very hesitant to diagnose it, I almost didn’t believe it could be a thing when my doctor told me about it bc it’s just so odd. It can be related to nerve damage but it can also be almost like your brain/nervous system just gets confused.. it can even spread to other parts of your body, like if you have it on your right hand, you can eventually get it on your left hand, or foot, etc.
Thank you for bringing attention to it!
I’m happy the moments when my pain is well managed. When my pain is poorly managed, I’m rarely able to experience much happiness. Please stop shaming people who require opioids to treat their pain.
In this video Hannah isn't shaming anyone for taking opioids, she's reporting about research which tries to find new highly effective pain treatment. Imagine how life would change for everyone with chronic pain if there were a way to switch the pain completely off as is the experience of people who can't feel any pain. That would be even better then opioids! And about the happiness - no one in this video is suggesting to treat pain by happiness alone, they're just saying that e.g. opioids plus happiness is making the pain more bearable and depression less. You sure noticed that too.
@@luciedvorakova2167 : I can appreciate where you’re coming from, but having been on the receiving end of implicit bias against opioid therapy from people across the field of medicine, I interpret some of the things said in this video differently. I will say that it would absolutely be great if opioids weren’t necessary to treat pain, but in the meantime it’s exhausting beyond measure just to live with pain. Adding the overwhelming anti-opioid bias across medicine and media adds a crippling additional level of stress and hopelessness to an already unbearable situation: the clear message from everyone is if we’re not "strong enough" to cope with the pain without opioids, that’s a character defect, not a health issue. Chronic pain patients have been utterly robbed of meaningful wellbeing bc of recent opioid policies in the U.S., and the lack of compassion is baffling and cruel.
If Opioids help you, you should be entitled to them. I don't take Opioids, but if I did, I would in no way be ashamed about it. The issue for many people with chronic pain, is that they just don't work.
@@davidkessler6878 : Debilitating chronic pain is one of the most ubiquitous diseases, but you’re right that opioids don’t work for a lot of people, or the side effects create more problems than that which they’re meant to solve. Unfortunately, there aren’t ANY treatments for chronic pain which help most people. That’s why people who live with chronic pain often spend months or years going from specialist to specialist trying every available treatment. Chronic pain is an incredibly complex and dynamic health issue, and even when one treatment works for a while, it often stops working eventually leading to ongoing struggles to find another treatment that works. However, when a treatment is effective, it’s cruel to deny that treatment to people who have already suffered so much (as you did acknowledge). I know that the majority of medical professionals are driven in part by a desire to help improve people’s wellbeing, and with opioids they want to protect people from addiction and overdose, but to that end they’ve sacrificed almost all nuance and instead implemented draconian one-size-fits-all policies which have made millions of peoples’ lives much worse. The pendulum has swung from indiscriminate prescribing of opioids to indiscriminate denial of effective treatment.
Anyone who romanticizes pain and suffering has never had to live with it.
100%
I think Masochists would highly disagree with your statement.
@@thespaceplaneenthusiast3812😂
I don’t think so
I think even a masochist would beg to die after a few days of CRPS or adhesive arachnoiditis.@@thespaceplaneenthusiast3812
“Queen of pain” is the most badass scientific moniker ever 😅
On the surface, it sounds more like she's an expert at administering pain rather than working out treatments for it. 😅
At 11:55, the video discusses the possibility of reducing the strength of pain signals within individual neurons, which seems beneficial on the surface. However, as Hannah Fry pointed out earlier, the brain's processing of pain isn't straightforward; it also considers factors like past experiences, emotions, and our current level of focus or distraction. Essentially, the brain already modulates pain signals, adjusting their intensity based on these psychological factors. This leads me to wonder: if we artificially lower the amplitude of pain signals, might the brain simply adapt to this new baseline? And perhaps more critically, could there be an increased sensation of pain when this intervention is absent? Perhaps I should continue watching the rest of the video, it's just that this question seemed crucial, and I wanted to note it down before forgetting (it would pain me to do so!)😅
While the topics covered in this video are all very interesting, I was disappointed that they didn't delve very deep into the theories you're presenting here. It switched over more to the mind-body connection and they didn't come back to the brain research earlier discussed. It sounds like we need a combination of both physiological and psychological treatment to get the ideal treatment for pain; researchers have to come together and combine their approaches.
@@YTStoleMyUsername it makes me go bonkers whenever they put forth the mind-body connection.
The experience of pain can be amplified by psychological factors. The emergence of pain is due to genetic/molecular modifications in the neural system. The only way to change it back to “default” is gene editing. Which is at least 10-15 years away…
People love the top down approach we feel more autonomy but the placebo effect is mostly automatic or unconscious. Yes all systems adapt especially with drugs but the networks might also get "reset" and stop crying wolf
@@theorogas I'm glad it's not just me. I mean, I get it, it's just not very helpful in terms of developing effective treatments. Yoga, Tai-chi etc will only ever make the tiniest difference, if any.
@@davidkessler6878 it’s the best they’ve got unfortunately apart from opiods: “mindfullness”, CBT, “distractions”. You can’t sweep the floor as long as the sink is leaking. The most honest feedback I’ve gotten from a doctor was: “take the word recovery out of your dictionary.” Hard, but truthful.
There’s nothing (at least commercially) available right now that can restore the pain threshold at molecular levels. We’ll have to wait for gene therapy for that. Expected in 5-15 years.
As someone who has lived with chronic pain since age 13, I really enjoy the "party trick" aspects. When friends who do martial arts want to demonstrate pain-based holds and pressure points, etc, I ALWAYS volunteer and then laugh at them when their holds just literally don't work on me. They're counting on pain to hamper your movements or cripple your reactions, but I live in constant pain, so why should I care about the new, little exogenous pain they're inflicting with whatever joint lock or pressure point trick they're trying? If anything, it's a distracting relief and I feel better! So they blink in consternation while I twist up in pretzels and get out of their holds/locks/whatever, and then I explain that I always hurt, so I don't care about hurting more, or differently.
Same goes for doing manual labor tasks, including carrying heavy objects, while one joint or another is visibly dislocated. People really freak out! I just chuckle and carry on. Like, yep, it hurts, but you know, it always hurts, so why should I care whether the joint is in its socket or not, so long as I keep enough tendon tension and muscle tone to force the limb to operate anyway? Makes no difference to me, if it's going to hurt anyway. It's been that way for decades, so clearly it's not going to improve.
I think a lot of people struggle with pain because they're in the mental headspace where pain is telling them not to do the things they enjoy. A certain level of cavalier "f- this" attitude can be really helpful, so long as we have to live with constant pain. That said, if they ever do release a way to turn off pain, I'm totally excited to try living without pain. I've no idea what that would be like but it sounds wonderful.
Wowser, that IS indeed a shocking tale!x
This series is so great. The host, the editing, the filming, the stories, everything.
We love hannah fry❤
Would have been really useful for my mom's cancer pains. I hope we improve human life through this research
😢 I hope you're okay. Rest in peace Mom 🙏
Hannah Fry is my favorite scientific content creator, by far.
I like Hannah and the way she narrates.
this is really cool coverage of the cutting edge
thanks Hannah and Bloomberg for bringing us these documentaries :)
When the Queen of pain lady said about being happy, less anxious turning the pain response down she said it's calmer, but I heard "it's karma." ie if you're happy, peaceful, your mind creates a less suffering world of experience. So I replayed it with the subtitles on and the subtitles thought she said "it's karma" too ! 16:57
Yes, spot on. The sad bit is we all feel pain, some more than others. It seems to run in families too. The last point made here, seems like Nature vs nurture. Perhaps they both serve their purpose; thus, we need both.
Stunning. As our technological and ‘advanced’ world continues to evolve, there is an inevitable convergence with nature. The wisdom of ancient practices, traditional medicine, philosophy, and the raw power of human emotion will undoubtedly shape the future of healthcare, grounding innovation in deeper, timeless truths.
Keep these documentaries coming.
My unncle had the condition of not feeling pain- he was an air plane mechanic and he always joked he had to count his fingers every time he took his fingers out of a machine to make sure he did not cut one off- cause he would not feel it. Multiple broken bones over time, and his heart attack that killed him - apparently he had no idea and so it killed him. He just. had "heartburn" pressure.
I just love this episodes with Hanna!
I get this brave woman, I too have been in chronic pain in my feet, I got Sepsis 3.5 years that nearly killed me. Luckily I survived, but it damaged my nerves. It's extremely hard to live with, but the painkillers can make life even harder. I really hope this type of pain control comes soon. I am willing to be a ginniepig 😮😊
Nem tudo tem solução, mas dá pra seguir em frente...
Absolutely love your documentaries Hanna, keep them coming. 😊😊
This brings to mind the old saying "laughter is the best medicine"
I have always considered myself to have a high tolerance for pain. As someone who enjoys DIY projects, I have endured significant cuts with minimal discomfort, occasionally self-administering stitches when required. Roughly five years ago, I suffered a fall from a barn roof extension I was constructing, landing on concrete.
The impact caused some pain, but it seemed manageable, so I continued to work for another three days. Subsequently, I collapsed, unable to stand but experiencing very little pain.
My son rushed me to the emergency department, where an X-ray disclosed a shattered vertebra in my lower back.
Following several weeks of rest, I managed to walk using a cane. However, a few years later, intense leg pain emerged, hindering my ability to walk. Despite extensive hospital tests and potent painkillers that offer no relief, I now face persistent pain and am wheelchair-bound.
It is baffling that the initial accident caused me little pain, yet now presently, the pain is unrelenting.
Strangely, minor cuts from DIY activities still cause me little pain, and I can stitch a significant wound up myself if needed.
Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉 for the beginning of the better method for healing (and happiness) and thank you❤ fir questioning and searching for why....😊
My brother-in-law has a pain condition where any touch, even a handshake, is very painful. He had a device installed that regulates it.
If pain is optional, then most people would not fear getting into a car crash, accidentally burn themselves at the kitchen stove, etc
Amazing demonstration of the result in electrical pulses !
Thank you - for a little bit of hope!
Withdrawal isn't being physically sick, that bits easy. Your soul is in critical condition during withdrawal, no one can describe how awful it is.
And people always assume it’s hard core drugs when people say withdrawals however common antidepressants can cause severe soul debilitating issues
There are new bioelectronic medicines (think small nano sized devices that attach to nerves( that have been successfully trialled that reduce (modulate) and/ or eliminate chronic pain without the need for drugs … so there are solutions to “drugs” emerging.
Ever since a singular day in 2019 I've wanted to turn off pain in my life. So far, no dice. But it is true, when I drop my guard the pain worsens.
Nice work ,, Ms Hannah
Madam Prof. Dr. Hannah, actually
I have chronic pain from several impact injuries (sports). I use all three methods. Nothing WUWU about it. I'm pretty sure the pain reduction/management is very closely related to what I see/hear referred to as a flow state. And I avoid pain meds. Although there are occasions where all the various pains gang up on me & drugs are a blessing during (what I call) a pain cascade.
Hannah is like the real-life version of Murph from Interstellar :)
Love you Hanna
Creating a Universal soldier . Ultimate weapon, no fear no pain .
Yes!
Excellent content
I can see this being used by our military for enhanced interrogation so the subject can feel more pain with less effort to produce, said Pain.
Ouch...your brain took it to a dark place!!!😂
It'll be ready in 10 years
Along with nuclear fusion ...
In love with Hannah ❤⚘️😍📚⚘️✨️
Removing helpful pain can be very dangerous, like "burning" nerves w rf or whatever. Nerves control organs.
Hannah Hannah ✊
Hannah fry rocks
Had an accident at age 20.Pain basically ended my youth and midlife in one moment and i live in constant fear of it rendering me unconscious within(and for) split seconds, depending on moves i make. But i still don't think, "eliminating pain" is the answer. It is after all a self-preservation mechanism. People will just behave reckless without it. (drugged up hooligans as example).
As someone with syringomyellia, there's too much misinformation towards the end here. Yes, mindset INFLUENCES our perception of pain, which does NOT mean that you can cure away the pain with mindset alone (I don't want to say, that it's unless you don't have "real" pain, but I have to here). No matter how happy and calm you are, getting constantly kicked in the balls will hurt.
Also I’m referring to chronic pain not acute pain here
@@amyepohl I was targeting more what Hanna says at the end, with the "spiritual" guru. I'm happy that mindset has such an analgesic effect on you, truly. I've always been a stoic, happy guy, and I still am, yet I couldn't live without opioids or ziconotide (internal intrathecal pump). I would be in constant screaming agony, as I've been before.
@@neithanm Okay. But have you actually tried the specific mind-training techniques?
@@kwanarchive Which ones?
This is exactly what I think. I get frustrated when 'alternative' treatments are put forward as some sort of solution to chronic pain. They might help some people a little bit, but for many of us they are of very limited value.
I have CRPS too following a wrist fusion. It’s devastating. I have been in pain and have muscle spasms for over 10 years now.
Pain is natures way of flagging that a new approach is required. Some extreme pain might be useful to dull, but I uspect if no one felt pain they would never become conscious of or therefore able to meditate away their supressed otherwise unconscious emotion. Pain after all lies beneath all reactive sensation in this universe.
Imagine a future where pain-physical, emotional, and existential-becomes optional, no longer an inescapable force shaping our lives. Freed from its weight, humanity could unlock new realms of creativity, compassion, and growth, where we thrive not by overcoming suffering, but by choosing how and when to face it. Yet, in the absence of pain, would we lose the depth of experience that comes from struggle? Perhaps the key lies in balance: a world where pain is a tool we wield intentionally, enhancing our humanity without defining it. In such a future, we would not just be liberated from suffering, but invited to create, love, and live in ways that transcend the limitations we once thought inherent to our nature.
If you don't have chronic pain - Be grateful every second of every day
Pain is a gift. Without the capacity for pain, we can’t feel the hurt we inflict. - The Doctor:
You can’t control what happens to you. You can only control how you choose to react to what happens to you.
"Comes from within" well, you estimate and represent your chances of dying by being within a social circle and how much your body can handle it given your environment
Childhood trauma increases your risk of auto immune disorders by 1/3 and even fibromyalgia is a somatic response that is within the scope of practice of mental health professionals.
Treating trauma, I think, is going to be as important as learning how to physically help our glial cells calm down.
I have chronic pain, and most people would envy my childhood. There does seem to be some correlation between childhood trauma and chronic pain, but this doesn't mean the pain can be removed by treating the trauma (to whatever extent that is even possible). There are a few people out there making lots of money from pushing this narrative, so it should be taken with a huge pinch of salt in my opinion.
@@davidkessler6878 right. My immune system is never gonna be the same. Healing my trauma has helped with a lot of other things but I still have to treat RA. I'm still in chronic pain.
Just an idea but try changing diet to keto, ketovore, or carnivore, i went carnivore 13 mths ago and my arthritic pain in all my joints went away after just 2 mths, diabetes went away , blood pressure normalised , plus other things. Diet is so important for reversing so many health problems. 🙂🙂
I wish i could get relief,I live in agony 24-7 due to nerve damage and two spinal surgeries made everything so much worse,I’ve suffered from insomnia for over 30 years because of pain,had sleep study done and with all the proof and every hoop I’ve been made to jump through I have done for many many years and still get treated like a drug addict,I take nothing because I’m so tired of being treated like a number and playing games with my life,I’m done believing in Any doctor to care!
But just do Tai-Chi - everything will be fine 🤦♂️
very interesting. I would add a look into hypnotherapy and pain
I've thought this recently about lucid dreaming, the real differencer is feeling weight on the body
A metal part attached to the tooth and a clip attached at the tounge you can use a frequency and drown out the pain singnal and overvoice the wave that is the body`s nervous system.
Pain is essential to ensuring avoiding harm to the body. For example, Leprosy destroys neurons so people cannot feel pain, usually in their extremities. Without this feedback sufferers become disfigured because they can’t feel the harm being inflicted upon their bodies.
I hope the subjects in this test understand there is no such thing as a zero-harm scenario. Subjecting yourself to pain is a recipe for disaster.
Almost all my life was pain, I thought it’s normal until I was diagnosed with AS at 30yo. It would be nice to be able to just turn it off, especially for sleep… No changes in the spine = no proper medications because insurance won’t cover…
Completely removing pain from life could have damaging consequences. Pain tells us there’s something wrong, warns us of danger and makes us take important actions. That said, severe and constant pain doesn’t have any benefit and peoples lives would be better if we could remove chronic pain.
Amy has hit the nail on the head, mindset, and mental toughness has a grate deal to do with the eventual outcome of many an illness and setbacks, that is not just a lesson in medicine, it is also a lesson in life as you personally know Hanna, and while science does not yet fully understand Amy's condition, by working with her they may open insides to treat her condition ,chronic pain can be so debilitating, but sometimes we need pain to stop us from injuring ourselves, pain is a warning, and often prevents us from overdoing it in the gym, or burn ing our hands on a cooker, and for many injuries it is actually part of the healing process.
when you are at the dentist, keep telling yourself that you will forget this later.
also don't look when getting a needle.
Are people just totally completely separated from the fact that our bodies are an amazing technology and the pain is there to tell us that we're out of alignment so once we're in alignment the pain will stop. It's as simple as that. Now go get Rolfed!
This is just complete rubbish.
What about the pain of my broken heart when Hannah Fry’s videos end?
😔😔
Then you listen to Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry.
Que interesante ❤
I wanted to end it because of how bad my rheumatoid arthritis pain is now. I just can’t handle it
I hear you.
None of this is new to us. I have a somatic pain disorder that is above the spinal cortex and any known analgesic drug is ineffective. I've attended a pain clinic and now control my pain through distraction,, exercise and a knowledge of my disorder. 13 years of constant pain but every year my life gets better
Chronic pain makes you not want to live anymore.
We have stuff that can turn pain off but few doctors know about it and the risk of injury is heightened because you can't feel pain anymore.
They just never told the name of the medicine and I don't know the TH-cam video it was in.
Scientists have made invaluable contributions to humanity through their discoveries, shedding light on various aspects of our world. However, in their pursuit of knowledge, there are areas that have been overlooked, such as comprehending the multidimensional nature of human existence and exploring the profound connection between individuals and their spiritual beliefs.
11:01 So nice to see Post Malone (A.K.A "Steve") doing his Day-Job.
I've been in pain for 73 years. It would be nice if they could actually detect pain.
If you accidentally hit something or get hit by something.....the pain isn't as bad. Take the same scenario and you KNOW its coming.....10x the pain!
I wonder what would happen to test phantom pain. It might set off the same signals but might be psychological. Would be interesting
Thanks nokia for the weekly dose of hannah fry
Pain and even death will be optional in the next 20 years. Exciting times.
If we’re not all dead by then.
If they could help my phantom pain, I'd be a happy boy, so if I'm a happy boy it helps my pain.
No
If you can find a way to master withdrawal pains like they do in Star Trek the world will be saved
Will power
Sign me up!
What is the role of the initial cascade of pain
In the devellopement of chronic pain
18:02 and just before then, To me sounds like she's explaining Cognitive Behavior Therapy, in short, your brains response to pain can be "affected" by how/what you think or don't think about it. Goes into it in part later also.
In my experience, it's more how you act that matters. Thoughts/Beliefs don't affect the pain as such, but they can direct you towards taking more helpful action, such as exercising or getting on with some activity, despite the pain.
Hello can I maintain my blood pressure with pain management: how would you
I have chronic pain, tendon injure. What's your condition?
To get rid of pain completely would be a mistake...
Of course, if the option is no pain or too much, then none is better. However, yes, ideally not.
L take tbh
Hannah Fry showed me how to dissolve my bank card so now I can do party tricks with it, 😂 she’s the best and one of the few to do coverage on Lady Lovelace which makes her invaluable to me!
Which protein is it , and can alpha fold be used in mitigation ?