Here’s an article from the site Medical News Today, discussing how stress affects chronic pain. The study attempted to show that individuals with a smaller than average hippocampus had higher stress levels, which in turn, increased their risk of suffering chronic pain. And according to WikiPedia, the hippocampus is a major part of the brain that “plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation”. Not sure how you’re going to measure the size of your hippocampus, but bottom line, those individuals with chronic pain have higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
The Role Stress Plays In Chronic Pain
For chronic pain sufferers, such as people who develop back pain after a car accident, avoiding the harmful effects of stress may be key to managing their condition. This is particularly important for people with a smaller-than-average hippocampus, as these individuals seem to be particularly vulnerable to stress. These are the findings of a study by Dr. Pierre Rainville, PhD in Neuropsychology, Researcher at the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire de geriatrie de Montreal (IUGM) and Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry at Universite de Montreal, along with Etienne Vachon-Presseau, a PhD student in Neuropsychology. The study appeared inBrain, a journal published by Oxford University Press.”
Click the link to continue reading the article ===>>> http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/256827.php
Learning to control and manage stress seems to an effective treatment for individuals experiencing chronic pain. The article recommended that you need to learn and implement relaxation techniques, and try out various stress management techniques, such as meditation or aromatherapy to combat chronic pain.
