Fwd: Chronic Pain Shrinks People's Brains By Roy Britt

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Chronic Pain Shrinks People's Brains

By Roy BrittLiveScience Senior Writerposted: 22 November, 20045:00 p.m. ETPain causes an unexpected brain drain, according to a new study inwhich the brains of people with chronic backaches were up to 11percent smaller than those of non-sufferers.

People afflicted with other long-term pain and stress might facesimilar brain shrinkage, said study leader A. Vania Apkarian ofNorthwestern University.The results suggest those with constant pain lose gray matter equal toan oversized pea for each year of pain. Gray matter is an outer layerof the brain rich in nerve cells and crucial to information and memoryprocessing.The results don't reveal why the brain shrinks, but it might involvedegradation of neurons, which are the signal transmitters of the mindand body.It is possible it's just the stress of having to live with thecondition, Apkarian told LiveScience. The neurons become overactiveor tired of the activity.Another possibility is that people born with smaller numbers ofneurons are predisposed to suffering chronic pain. But some of thedifferences measured must be directly related to the condition,Apkarian said.The research involved a one-time brain scan of 26 people who'd hadunrelenting back pain for at least a year (and in one case for up to35 years), along with a pain-free control group. Pain sufferers hadlost 5 to 11 percent of gray matter over and above what normal agingwould take away.People who have had pain for longer times have had more brainatrophy, Apkarian said.No attempt was made to correlate brain size to brain function. It ispossible that some of the shrinkage involves relatively noncrucialtissue -- other than neurons -- and that some of the effects arereversible if the pain is eliminated, Apkarian and colleagues write inthe Nov. 23 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.Apkarian said other varieties of pain might cause a similar atrophy ofgray matter, and he plans to study that possibility in future studies.Suffering of pain is fundamentally an emotional condition, Apkariansaid. Different types of pain will have different types of emotionalparameters, which will probably result in different types of atrophy-- different amounts and in different brain regions.

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Ref: from above:

The neurons become overactive or tired of the activity.Another possibility is that people born with smaller numbers ofneurons are predisposed to suffering chronic pain

Comment: Since there is now under testing a new drug, Saproin, which is designed to kill neuron cells in order that they cannot carry sub P around in the body to detect the sense of feel which is interpreted as pain -- Therefore according to this -- in statement 1. he says they are just tired any way so no matter... in statement 2 he says if we dont have enough we are predisposed to suffering chronic pain.. Somehow this is not together or I have missed something...

Drug company and one statement in this agree we have too many neuron cells anyway and they are just tired of sending the pain message...

Or we havent enough neuron cells ---

One thing is for sure our "P" gland which makes sub P ( a pain enhancer chemical) is certainly working overtime.. and nothing here addresses that gland to diminish its over excitement...

But then I may be totally confused ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~