Speaker 1: I guess what, mango, what's that will? So I know
Speaker 1: we regularly hear these stories about the downsides of texting,
Speaker 1: you know, the dangers of texting while driving, or all
Speaker 1: these stories about how we're no longer present because we're
Speaker 1: looking at our phones when we're around family and friends.
Speaker 1: But there was actually a study I was reading recently,
Speaker 1: and it was from the journal Pain Medicine, and it
Speaker 1: showed the benefits of texting during surgery. So I'm guessing
Speaker 1: we're not talking about major surgeries here. Well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we're talking about surgeries where the patient is still
Speaker 1: awake and often feeling some kind of discomfort or pain
Speaker 1: during that surgery. So the study involved a hundred patients
Speaker 1: and they were having these minor surgeries, and they had
Speaker 1: them do three different things. So some of the patients
Speaker 1: were asked to text, some were playing angry birds, and
Speaker 1: some were doing nothing. And they found that of the
Speaker 1: three groups, those who were texting actually had the least
Speaker 1: need for additional narcotics, and they also experienced the greatest
Speaker 1: relief from that pain. But here's what's most weird about it.
Speaker 1: The effect was most profound when they were texting with
Speaker 1: a complete strange, really not not like someone you know
Speaker 1: and someone who cares about you. Well, actually, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's some benefit to that as well, but the greatest
Speaker 1: benefit was when they were texting with someone they didn't know.
Speaker 1: And they think it has to do with the type
Speaker 1: of conversation you'd have with the loved one versus you know,
Speaker 1: one with somebody that you don't know. So think about it.
Speaker 1: With a loved one, if you're in a lot more pain,
Speaker 1: you're you're likely to be talking about what's on your
Speaker 1: mind with that or what's bothering you. But with a
Speaker 1: stranger you kind of have to put on a happy
Speaker 1: face and be a little bit more positive and your
Speaker 1: interaction you want to make a good impression, and that
Speaker 1: somewhat forced positive attitude actually help them withstand a higher
Speaker 1: level of pain, and that's really fascinating. It's also kind
Speaker 1: of cool to think that your phone's best app is
Speaker 1: as a pain killer. That's right, right, And it's a
Speaker 1: reminder of that pain itself is such a strange thing,
Speaker 1: and while they are multiple ways to manage certain pain,
Speaker 1: it feels like most people aren't all that familiar with
Speaker 1: the differences among some of the major forms of pain relief.
Speaker 1: So in today's episode, we're going to focus on the
Speaker 1: science behind the things like ibuprofen, a seda, menafin, aspirin,
Speaker 1: as well as some others, and along the way we'll
Speaker 1: dive into some of the most surprising forms of pain relief.
Speaker 1: So let's get started. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
Speaker 1: joined by my good friend Manesh Ticketer and on the
Speaker 1: other side of the soundproof glass sorting his meds into
Speaker 1: a massive three hundred and sixty five day pill organizers. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1: That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: got to say the sheer level of micromanagement on display
Speaker 1: here is both kind of inspiring but also a little
Speaker 1: bit unnerving at the same time, So kudos to you, Tristan.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's especially interesting because the only films he
Speaker 1: actually takes with those flintstones chewable vitamins, which makes that
Speaker 1: giant feel caddy a little like overkill. Well, Tristan refuses
Speaker 1: to take shortcuts. You've gotta respect him for that. And
Speaker 1: speaking of shortcuts, today we're talking about common pain killers,
Speaker 1: you know, which have become many people's go to quick
Speaker 1: fix for everything from headaches to hangovers, and most of
Speaker 1: us keep at least one of these over the counter
Speaker 1: medications on standby and the medicine cabinet or next to us.
Speaker 1: But you know whether that's aspirin or I have a
Speaker 1: profin or tail and all. But despite that ubiquity, a
Speaker 1: few of us could tell you even the most basic
Speaker 1: facts about the pills that we so readily swallow. In fact,
Speaker 1: according to a two thousand one survey from the National
Speaker 1: Council and Patient Information and Education, only one third of
Speaker 1: the public is able to identify the active ingredient in
Speaker 1: their pain killer of choice, And with over the counter
Speaker 1: pain relievers accounting for over five billion in sales last year,
Speaker 1: that's a big chunk of the population that medicates with
Speaker 1: something they really don't know that much about. So for
Speaker 1: today's episode, we're actually gonna shine some light on the
Speaker 1: little known facts behind a few of the world's most
Speaker 1: commonly taken, at least nderstood medications. So we'll try to
Speaker 1: get an idea of where they come from and what
Speaker 1: they're best suited for, as well as what the future
Speaker 1: of pain management might look like, alright, ma, go, so
Speaker 1: where do you think we should start? So, I mean
Speaker 1: this might sound a little basic, but I thought it'd
Speaker 1: be helpful to start with a quick refresher on what
Speaker 1: pain really is and how a non prescription painkiller actually
Speaker 1: works to relieve it. So for the first part of that,
Speaker 1: pain is really just this early warning system. It's our
Speaker 1: body's way of letting us know that we're injured or
Speaker 1: even though we're doing something that we probably should stop doing. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if you put your hand on the hot stove,
Speaker 1: special nerve receptors in your skin will actually respond to
Speaker 1: the damage from the heat, and that sensation is then
Speaker 1: sent as a chemical message to the spinal cord and
Speaker 1: your brain stem, and from there the message travels to
Speaker 1: the brain, which is where the sensation is registered and
Speaker 1: processed and finally perceived as pain. And that's a helpful description,
Speaker 1: but it is kind of weird to take a step
Speaker 1: back and think about it, like it almost makes it
Speaker 1: sound kind of bureaucratic. Doesn't like this pain is this
Speaker 1: memo that's got to be passed around from office to office,
Speaker 1: gotta get everybody's a approval, and then it finally gets
Speaker 1: to the big boss upstairs, you know, right, So it
Speaker 1: obviously takes more time to describe the experience of feeling
Speaker 1: the pain that actually does to feel it, which is
Speaker 1: pretty much instantaneous. But it's still helpful to know the
Speaker 1: ins and outs of the process because that's ultimately how
Speaker 1: pain killers work. Like, they interfere with the body's transmissions
Speaker 1: of pain signals. And this is where the difference between
Speaker 1: pain killers comes into because each kind targets a different
Speaker 1: point in the communication chain. So, for example, aspirin and
Speaker 1: ibuprofen our end sets and that's n S a I D,
Speaker 1: which stands for a non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs. These
Speaker 1: medications cut off the pain signals at the side of
Speaker 1: the injury. But something like a set of menafin, which
Speaker 1: is a different kind of pain reliever, works much differently.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll obviously get to that, But why don't
Speaker 1: we stick to the end sets for now? So how
Speaker 1: does one of these run interference on these pain signals? Sure, so,
Speaker 1: when the nerve receptors in our cells are damaged, they
Speaker 1: produce chemicals that perform a variety of functions, right, some
Speaker 1: lower the pain threshold it in the injured cells, to
Speaker 1: make sure we get the message. Others produce inflammation and
Speaker 1: swelling is a way to cushion the cells from further injury. Alright,
Speaker 1: so these chemicals must be what the end SAIDs are targeting, right,
Speaker 1: since they're anti inflammatories. Right, So and and said, like,
Speaker 1: aspirin works by halting the production of the chemicals responsible
Speaker 1: for the pain and swelling, and the aspirin binds with
Speaker 1: the enzymes that produce these chemicals, which basically neutralizes the
Speaker 1: enzymes and prevents the chemicals from being made at all.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's interesting. All right, So the damage that
Speaker 1: prompted the pain is still there, but but we no
Speaker 1: longer perceive the pain. Is that what's going on exactly?
Speaker 1: So pain killers don't actually heal injuries, and they don't
Speaker 1: even kill the pain. Really, they just kill your awareness
Speaker 1: of pain by cutting off that signal out the source.
Speaker 1: That sounds pretty deep. So the pain is still there,
Speaker 1: we just don't feel the pain. But all right, we'll
Speaker 1: speaking of the pain awareness, how does an end said
Speaker 1: nowhere to go? Like, how's it able to pinpoint the
Speaker 1: part of the body that's injured? So it doesn't really
Speaker 1: like the aspirin dissolves in the stomach and it's carried
Speaker 1: to all parts of the body through the bloodstream. It's
Speaker 1: just that the damage part is the only place will
Speaker 1: actually find pain related enzymes to bind with. Well, that
Speaker 1: makes sense. So so what about a seta menaphin like
Speaker 1: it it doesn't reduce inflammation, that it must be doing
Speaker 1: something else, right, Yeah, so that's the amazing thing, right, Like,
Speaker 1: even though a sida menaphin was discovered in the eighteen
Speaker 1: hundreds and it served as the active ingredient tallen al
Speaker 1: since I want to say, the nineteen fifties, we still
Speaker 1: really don't know how it works. I mean, just listen
Speaker 1: to his physicians. Note that comes with toilen ail bottles quote.
Speaker 1: Although the analgesic effects of a sida menaphin is well established,
Speaker 1: the site and mode of action have not been clearly elucidated.
Speaker 1: And that's stunning. Yeah. So basically, like it's saying this
Speaker 1: stuff works, but we have no idea how. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so weird. But you know, they do have some theories.
Speaker 1: So for example, it's possible that a seda menafin works
Speaker 1: the same way and SAIDs to, but it just isn't
Speaker 1: effective against the chemicals responsible for inflammation. And then there's
Speaker 1: this other theory that a side BeneFin actually affects our
Speaker 1: sensation of pain by working on the endocannabinoid system, which
Speaker 1: you know, you might guess is the same system that
Speaker 1: responds to cannabis or marijuana. So you know, this is
Speaker 1: according to researchers at Lundon University in Sweden, and sentimental
Speaker 1: fin activates two ion channels in the brain and spinal cord,
Speaker 1: and these are the two channels that also respond to cannabinoids.
Speaker 1: And the weird thing though, is that these ion channels
Speaker 1: can actually trigger pain and its responses, so it's pretty
Speaker 1: strange that activating them would actually reduce the pain. But
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, nobody really knows for sure
Speaker 1: how these all work. Well, you know, you mentioned that
Speaker 1: a set of menifit has been around since the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: So why don't we switch gears and talk a little
Speaker 1: bit more about the history behind a few of the
Speaker 1: common pain killers. Yeah, So, you know, I'm always tempted
Speaker 1: to start from the beginning and dig into the weird
Speaker 1: history beyond the topic, but with something like pain relievers,
Speaker 1: it feels like it might be a tad too ambitious.
Speaker 1: I mean, pain is something that humans have had to
Speaker 1: contend with on a daily basis, and at this point
Speaker 1: we've actually spent millennia like experimenting with different kinds of
Speaker 1: ways to manage it. It's kind of a lot to cover,
Speaker 1: you know. Actually, when I was studying abroaden Tibet, we
Speaker 1: went to the Kirang Valley, which hadn't had much contact
Speaker 1: with Western realization, and our professor told us that people
Speaker 1: used to manage their headaches by putting these pieces of
Speaker 1: tape on the sides of their heads. In fact, if
Speaker 1: you give them aspirin or a town all or whatever,
Speaker 1: it would actually really really affect them. And it was
Speaker 1: kind of funny because marijuana actually grew wild in the
Speaker 1: fields there everywhere. It was all over the place, but
Speaker 1: no one smoked as pain release. They just used these
Speaker 1: little strips of tape to manage their pain. And you know,
Speaker 1: maybe it works. I didn't actually try didn't try some tape.
Speaker 1: We could easily devote a whole episode to bizarre pain
Speaker 1: management techniques that people have tried in the past. You
Speaker 1: look at everything from like boring holes and people's skulls,
Speaker 1: the banging gongs to scare away painful spirits, which I
Speaker 1: know you still do sometimes. But you know, but those
Speaker 1: ancient remedies that have the most bearing on pain killers
Speaker 1: of today, they're actually the botanical ones. So for instance,
Speaker 1: you know, you look at the ancient Greeks, they chewed
Speaker 1: bark and the leaves of willow trees in order to
Speaker 1: help produce things like fever or relief pain during childbirth.
Speaker 1: Ancient Egypsians did something pretty similar with the leaves from
Speaker 1: myrtle bushes. You look at the Native Americans to actually
Speaker 1: you birch bark as their pain relieving plan of choice,
Speaker 1: and those all turned out to be pretty great ideas
Speaker 1: because actually all three of those plants contain high levels
Speaker 1: of salasilic acid, which is the active ingredient, and aspirin,
Speaker 1: which is awesome, but I always thought the active ingredient
Speaker 1: aspirin was aspirin, Like, it's not its own thing. If
Speaker 1: you want to get technical, the active ingredient and aspirin
Speaker 1: is called a setal salasilic acid or a s A.
Speaker 1: You know, see that the pain relieving chemical that's most
Speaker 1: common to all these plants I mentioned also had the
Speaker 1: unfortunate side effect of wreaking havoc on our digestive systems.
Speaker 1: So it was a big deal in when this German
Speaker 1: scientist who was working for Bear Pharmaceutical, he was able
Speaker 1: to synthesize a less harmful and easier to digest chemical
Speaker 1: and that was this A S A that we're talking about.
Speaker 1: So the Bear company named this new drug aspirin, and
Speaker 1: it was the first mass produced over the counter pain
Speaker 1: reliever to come to the market. In fact, the word
Speaker 1: itself was a trademark term, you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: tile and all or some of these others for about
Speaker 1: twenty years. But after that aspirin became i a generic
Speaker 1: word for the A S A based medicine in most markets.
Speaker 1: Actually still today Bear holds the trademark in some countries.
Speaker 1: So what about another end said like ibuprofen. Is that
Speaker 1: the actual chemical ingredient or is it just another trademark
Speaker 1: term that died in went generic. No, Hyperprofen is its
Speaker 1: own active ingredient, which you'll find in branded versions like
Speaker 1: advil or motrin. And although the chemicals themselves are different,
Speaker 1: ibuprofen works pretty similarly to the A S A and aspirin.
Speaker 1: In fact, the man who discovered ibuprof and his name
Speaker 1: was Dr Stewart Adams. He did so while he was
Speaker 1: looking into how aspirin worked. This was back in the
Speaker 1: early nineteen fifties. Adams was working in the research department
Speaker 1: at a place called Boots Pure Drug Company, and this
Speaker 1: was in England, and his goal at the time was
Speaker 1: to find a new way of treating rheumatoid arthritis that
Speaker 1: wasn't reliant on steroids and all the side effects that
Speaker 1: come along with those. So, I mean at this time
Speaker 1: aspirin was already in you. So we've already said it
Speaker 1: was non steroidal and and it was great for inflammation,
Speaker 1: Like why didn't arthritis patients just use Well, they did,
Speaker 1: but there were drawbacks to any pain killer that we'll
Speaker 1: be talking about. In the case of aspirin, it usually
Speaker 1: has to be given in fairly high doses and that
Speaker 1: of course greatly increases the risk of side effects like
Speaker 1: allergic reaction or indigestion or in some cases even internal bleeding.
Speaker 1: So Adams and his team were after an alternative that
Speaker 1: could be better tolerated if if they were going to
Speaker 1: be used regularly, and it didn't come easily. I mean,
Speaker 1: together with a chemist and a technician, Adams actually tested
Speaker 1: the potency of more than six hundred chemical compounds over
Speaker 1: the course of about a ten year period. And I
Speaker 1: mean you do hear about sort of like a tenure
Speaker 1: cycle for drugs coming to come about, But like, was
Speaker 1: it just like trial and error until they figured out
Speaker 1: this winning compound? Yeah, it was, And I mean a
Speaker 1: few of the most promising ones were actually tested by
Speaker 1: the team itself, like something you would never see happening today.
Speaker 1: And so was the team just knocking back these experimental
Speaker 1: pills and like they had no idea what sort of
Speaker 1: damage would cause. Well, I mean the handful of compounds
Speaker 1: they tested firsthand were ones that had already passed the
Speaker 1: toxicity test, but otherwise pretty much I mean. In fact,
Speaker 1: Dr Adams later revealed that his discovery of ibaprof and
Speaker 1: was due to him ingesting a promising compound as a
Speaker 1: way of dealing with a bad hangover. So apparently, sometime
Speaker 1: in the early sixties he was scheduled to give this
Speaker 1: important speech, but the night before he has spent some
Speaker 1: time at the bar, wasn't really feeling up to the task.
Speaker 1: And here's how he described the event in an interview.
Speaker 1: He said, I was first up to speak, and I
Speaker 1: had a bit of a headache after a night out
Speaker 1: with friends, so I took the six hundred milligram dose
Speaker 1: just to be sure and found it was very effective.
Speaker 1: I love that before he was giving this big speech,
Speaker 1: he was like, let me just try a little bit
Speaker 1: of this stuff. We've been mixing up one of the
Speaker 1: ten thousand different things or six hundred different chemical compounds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that the night before that he was just drinking
Speaker 1: over right, It's a good strategy. So, I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: it sounds insane, and it does also sound like a
Speaker 1: ringing endorsement for ibanprofen as a hangover cure. But h
Speaker 1: what about some other common pain killers, Like we should
Speaker 1: probably talk about some of their striends and weaknesses as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely want to, But before we do, let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and
Speaker 1: we're talking about the science behind the world's most common
Speaker 1: pain killers, all right, Mango. So obviously we lump a
Speaker 1: bunch of different products into the same category of these
Speaker 1: non prescription pain relievers, and one of the biggest downside
Speaker 1: to this is that we tend to use them all interchangeably.
Speaker 1: So I know, you were doing some digging into this
Speaker 1: so too, So tell me what kind of stuff should
Speaker 1: we consider when you know choosing which pill we need
Speaker 1: to pop. So, I mean, a great place to start
Speaker 1: is whether or not your pain involves any kind of swelling,
Speaker 1: and if it does, you should definitely go with an
Speaker 1: end set. And from there it really comes down to
Speaker 1: what kind of pain you have and if you're dealing
Speaker 1: with any other conditions. For example, aspirin works well for
Speaker 1: headaches and for reducing inflammation in joints, but like you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, it can be pretty rough on your stomach. Again,
Speaker 1: it's also an anticoagulant, which is why you can reduce
Speaker 1: the risk of heart attack or stroke in some people.
Speaker 1: But anybody who's already on blood thinners should steer clear
Speaker 1: for the same reason. All right, So, so going back
Speaker 1: to iboprof and what's the deal with that one? So,
Speaker 1: just like Dr Adams intended, ibuprofen is less irritating to
Speaker 1: the stomach than aspirin is, but it still offers a
Speaker 1: lot of the same perks, and for someone with acid
Speaker 1: reflux or ulcers, hyperprofen is a good way to go.
Speaker 1: It's also particularly useful for dealing with pain from menstrual
Speaker 1: cramps or arthritis, toothaches, even sprains. You know, sometimes it
Speaker 1: has better results than aspirin. Alright, So what about something
Speaker 1: like a leave that that's an inset too, right it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So the active ingredient in that one is called anoproxin,
Speaker 1: and it's available in doses that are much stronger and
Speaker 1: longer lasting than those of aspirin and hyperprofen, and that
Speaker 1: makes it great for treating inflammation based pain like arthritis
Speaker 1: or even something like sunburn. However, there are downsides and
Speaker 1: aproxism strength, and one of them is that it can
Speaker 1: cause gastro intestinal problems and it can also take a
Speaker 1: while to kick in, so because it's not fast active,
Speaker 1: it's not actually a great choice for quick relief from
Speaker 1: something like a headache. All right. So there's some nuanced
Speaker 1: differences between the different end sets that might make you
Speaker 1: pick one over another in some cases, but it feels
Speaker 1: like for the most part, you know, any of them
Speaker 1: would do the trick for common pains or inflammation. But
Speaker 1: but that's not really the case with the seta menaphon though, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so a seta menfant is really the odd man out
Speaker 1: among these common pain killers. It lacks the anti inflammatory
Speaker 1: properties of its end said counterparts, but you know, for
Speaker 1: simple pain relief, a seta menafin does have a few
Speaker 1: things going for it. For one thing, it's generally very
Speaker 1: easy on the stomach, so for people with stomach sensitivities,
Speaker 1: like a seta menaphin is probably the first thing they
Speaker 1: reach for when a headache pops up. It's also not
Speaker 1: an anticoagulant like aspirin is, so it's safer for hemophiliacs
Speaker 1: or people on bloodening medications as we talked about, or
Speaker 1: even for kids. It's interesting that the Seeda menapin is
Speaker 1: the safer choice in some cases, because isn't that the
Speaker 1: one that's supposed to be really bad for your liver. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: taken regularly or to access seta menafin can actually cause
Speaker 1: some serious damage to ever. It's the top cause of
Speaker 1: acute liver failure in the US. I didn't realize this
Speaker 1: before this episode, but you know, a big reason for
Speaker 1: that is that it's all too easy to overdose on
Speaker 1: a seat a menafin and their recommended dosage for pain relief,
Speaker 1: and the mountain needed to overdose aren't actually that far apart. So,
Speaker 1: according to the CDC and FDA, between fifty thousand to
Speaker 1: eighty thou people in the US head to the emergency
Speaker 1: room each year due to seeda menafin overdose. Wow, so
Speaker 1: it's just super easy to take too much of it
Speaker 1: or what? Yeah, it's probably because the seeda menafin isn't
Speaker 1: confined to just tile at all, like it crops up
Speaker 1: in over the counter cold and flu remedies, and it's
Speaker 1: also in prescription pain killers like percocet, so people who
Speaker 1: don't pay close enough attention to the labels might unknowingly
Speaker 1: consume more than the recommended doses. And because the drug
Speaker 1: can accumulate in your liver and also your bloodstream, even
Speaker 1: taking slightly too much a seat a menafin over the
Speaker 1: course a few days can lead to an overdose. It's
Speaker 1: this phenomena called a staggered overdose, but it can be
Speaker 1: every bit as deadly. What we're talking about a seta
Speaker 1: menafin being hard on the liver. So so given that,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's not that helpful when you're trying to
Speaker 1: fight something like a hangover, right, Oh, definitely not. I
Speaker 1: mean tons of people are probably popping a couple of
Speaker 1: tile al after a night of drinking in the hopes
Speaker 1: of wording off a hangover. But this is one of
Speaker 1: those mistakes that comes from using pain killers interchangeably, because
Speaker 1: taking a seedominafin with alcohol, even just a little bit,
Speaker 1: is actually a terrible idea. Really so, so why is that? So?
Speaker 1: This is a little tricky and Gabe actually walked me
Speaker 1: through it. But basically, because the drug is mostly metabolized
Speaker 1: in the liver, where it's joined with something called glutoth ione,
Speaker 1: it's then turned into this non toxic compound that can
Speaker 1: be removed later through urination. However, alcohol is actually known
Speaker 1: to reduce the livers glutothione levels, and when a seeda
Speaker 1: menafin is metabolized without it, the drugs turns into this
Speaker 1: far more toxic substance, and this is actually bad news
Speaker 1: for your kidney. So once studies showed that taking the
Speaker 1: recommended dose of a seeda menapin with a small to
Speaker 1: moderate amount of alcohol can actually increase the risk of
Speaker 1: kidney disease by a hundred All right, well, so obviously
Speaker 1: common pain killers aren't as across the board safe as
Speaker 1: you know. They're over the counter status might make you
Speaker 1: think they are. We talked about insects, you know, their
Speaker 1: ability to recavoc on your stomach lining and the fact
Speaker 1: that the regular use of a sneamenefin can cause permanent
Speaker 1: damage to your liver or even your kidneys. And with
Speaker 1: those risk in mind, I do think it's good to
Speaker 1: point out that these pain relievers they're not meant to
Speaker 1: be long term or daily treatments. In fact, people who
Speaker 1: regularly take these medications for headaches actually put themselves at
Speaker 1: risk for something called rebound headaches, which are caused by
Speaker 1: the drugs wearing off. Yeah, so I think it's a
Speaker 1: smart idea to occasionally take stock if you're over the
Speaker 1: counter drug use, Like if you're taking something that you
Speaker 1: use daily for the same reason, then you should probably
Speaker 1: consult your doctor about other treatment options, Like there could
Speaker 1: be an underlying issue that's just being masked by these
Speaker 1: pain killers. Yeah, that's good advice for sure. And all right, well,
Speaker 1: if you don't mind, I kind of want to switch
Speaker 1: gears a little bit. You know, we've talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about the medications that that are not helpful for
Speaker 1: drinking alcohol, but there's actually a recent study that suggests
Speaker 1: alcohol itself is a pretty good way to manage pain,
Speaker 1: you know, perhaps even better than some of the pain
Speaker 1: killers we've talked about. Well, I mean you do sometimes
Speaker 1: hear about alcohol is a way to duller numb pain,
Speaker 1: especially in country music, and since we've already established that's
Speaker 1: basically what pain killers do, I guess it does make sense.
Speaker 1: Of course, if you were to regularly use alcohol for
Speaker 1: pain management, you've run into similar long term problems as
Speaker 1: with n sets or a sid menafin. Absolutely. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's an interesting study and it might be good to
Speaker 1: know in a pinch, but I'd not any medical professional
Speaker 1: would actually recommend drinking as a way to treat chronic pain.
Speaker 1: And I'm pretty sure that we should not go on
Speaker 1: the record is suggesting that, you know, we're not suggesting that.
Speaker 1: But tell me what the study said, all right, So
Speaker 1: researchers at the University of Greenwich in London, they gathered
Speaker 1: volunteers for a study on pain and alcohol, and they
Speaker 1: found that the participants reported to reduce sensitivity to pain
Speaker 1: with every drink consumed. And this is actually the interesting part,
Speaker 1: Like the effect was cumulative. So after three drinks for
Speaker 1: men and two for women, the participants pain thresholds rose
Speaker 1: from small to moderate slash large. According to the researchers,
Speaker 1: this pain relieving effect on alcohol on pain intensity is
Speaker 1: comparable to opioids and actually more powerful than a set
Speaker 1: of menaphon. Wow, So do we know why that's the case.
Speaker 1: They really don't know exactly why. I mean, the researchers
Speaker 1: suggested that the alcohol may block the transmission of pain signals,
Speaker 1: you know, to the spinal cord, but alcohol's anxiety relieving
Speaker 1: properties could also be a part of this as well.
Speaker 1: But either way, it's a little dangerous that alcohol is
Speaker 1: as effective as it is in relieving pain. I mean,
Speaker 1: swapping chronic pain for alcohol abuse isn't exactly trading up,
Speaker 1: and that potential to create a whole new problem is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest dangers with self medicating. But you know, amazingly,
Speaker 1: we're not even the only animals to try this. I
Speaker 1: found a few examples of other species that take their
Speaker 1: health into their own paws. But before I tell you
Speaker 1: about that, why don't we take a quick break? Okay, So,
Speaker 1: what's the drink of choice for these self medicating animals
Speaker 1: that you talked about? That? Like, do they stick to
Speaker 1: beer and wine or do they go straight to the
Speaker 1: hard stuff or what's their strategy. So there is a
Speaker 1: species of monkeys in Uganda that's believed to self medicate
Speaker 1: for pain, but they're not hitting up the bar to
Speaker 1: do it. Instead, they consume massive amounts of tree bark,
Speaker 1: which is what humans used to do with willow bark. Right, So,
Speaker 1: a team of a collegists studied a troop of Colubus monkeys,
Speaker 1: some of which were infected with a parasite called whipworm,
Speaker 1: and the team noticed that the infected monkeys spent way
Speaker 1: less time moving and grooming and even mating than the
Speaker 1: other monkeys, but they also ate twice as much tree
Speaker 1: bark as them, even though all the monkeys stuck to
Speaker 1: the same feeding schedules. Al Right, so sick monkeys were
Speaker 1: purposefully eating more bark than usual, that's what you're saying.
Speaker 1: But I mean, couldn't the sickness have just made them hungrier? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it could be a coincidence, but it would
Speaker 1: have to be a pretty big one. Seven of the
Speaker 1: nine species of trees and shrubs that the sick monkeys
Speaker 1: eight from are actually known to have pharmacological properties and
Speaker 1: those are the same plants that local humans actually used
Speaker 1: to treat illnesses, including the whipworm illness. All right, so
Speaker 1: maybe not a complete coincident. It's just weird to think, though,
Speaker 1: that some animals might knowingly take medicine for their illnesses, though,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah, And I mean, self medicating monkeys are
Speaker 1: one thing, right, Like, they aren't that far removed from
Speaker 1: us in terms of evolution. But there's another team of
Speaker 1: researchers out at the University of Helsinki that claims to
Speaker 1: have found the first evidence of self medicating insects. So
Speaker 1: here's how an article in Scientific American broke down this discovery.
Speaker 1: When the biologists exposed to hundreds of for Mica fusca
Speaker 1: ants to a dangerous fungus, many of the infected insects
Speaker 1: chose to consume four to six percent hydrogen peroxide solution
Speaker 1: made available for the experiment. Healthy ants avoided the household chemical,
Speaker 1: which can quah infections and small doses, but it's otherwise deadly.
Speaker 1: The sick ants that part took were less likely to
Speaker 1: succumb to the grips of the fungus. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess it is pretty telling that only the sick ants
Speaker 1: an the solution, But what about in the wild, Like,
Speaker 1: it's pretty different. It's not like hydrogen peroxide is growing
Speaker 1: on trees or anything. Yeah, I mean that's true, but
Speaker 1: the confound does grow inside some plants. So researchers theorized
Speaker 1: that wild dance infected by the fungus might actually be
Speaker 1: able to find relief by eating plants that release hydrogen
Speaker 1: peroxide in order to fight off aphids. That is pretty cool,
Speaker 1: But you know, actually the animal kingdom isn't just a
Speaker 1: place for us to watch to like learn how to
Speaker 1: manage our pain. It's actually a place to go as
Speaker 1: a source of pain relief in some cases. You know.
Speaker 1: For instance, I was reading about a new kind of
Speaker 1: pain killer that's derived from the toxic venom of a
Speaker 1: sea snail. So the drug is called and I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'm pronouncing this correctly. I think it's Zicona tide.
Speaker 1: But the really standout name belongs to the snail itself.
Speaker 1: It's called the magician's comb. That is pretty sweet. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm always curious about this. I know we
Speaker 1: mentioned it a little yesterday with that viper from Brazil,
Speaker 1: But how does toxic venom make for good medicine. Well,
Speaker 1: this one works actually by blocking calcium channels and the
Speaker 1: specific nerve cells, and that prevents certain pain signals from
Speaker 1: reaching the brain. And so this makes it super useful
Speaker 1: for treating patients with pain that isn't that easily managed
Speaker 1: by traditional methods. And we're talking about things people suffering
Speaker 1: from cancer or AIDS or you know, several types of
Speaker 1: neurological disorders that they've seen positive results with this c
Speaker 1: snail pain killer. But if scientists have their way, this
Speaker 1: won't be the only venom based pain reliever that's out
Speaker 1: there currently. Research is underway to make use of tarantula
Speaker 1: venom too, and if it's successful, we could be looking
Speaker 1: at a whole new kind of pain killer, you know,
Speaker 1: one that can treat severe pain without the risk of addiction,
Speaker 1: which is super exciting. And the animal kingdom isn't even
Speaker 1: the only place to find these kinds of breakthrough is
Speaker 1: because plants are actually doing their part as well. Both
Speaker 1: marijuana and salvia are promising candidates for non addictive pain relief,
Speaker 1: and even the pain dulling chemical capsain that's found in
Speaker 1: chili peppers is on the table as a potential pain killer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true, and really there's a greater need for treatments
Speaker 1: with that kind of potential than there ever has been before.
Speaker 1: I was looking at some of the statistics from the
Speaker 1: Institute of Medicine and then apparently there over a hundred
Speaker 1: million Americans currently suffering from some form of chronic pain,
Speaker 1: which amounts to as much as six hundred billion dollars
Speaker 1: a year in medical bills and lost productivity. And obviously,
Speaker 1: when dealing with pain that's that severe, these over the
Speaker 1: counter drugs aren't always going to cut it, and that's
Speaker 1: why we're currently dealing with things like the opioid crisis
Speaker 1: in our country now. So when the best tool for
Speaker 1: managing high pain levels is highly addictive and debilitating in
Speaker 1: its own right, I mean, you know, it's time to
Speaker 1: find a better way. Absolutely, And one of the most
Speaker 1: promising alternatives I've actually heard about comes from this really
Speaker 1: unexpected place, Mango, even more unexpected than my magical cone
Speaker 1: sea snails. Yeah, even more than magical sea snails. But
Speaker 1: you know, there's a growing number of hospitals that are
Speaker 1: out there looking into how virtual reality could be used
Speaker 1: for pain management, like the clunky headsets like videos and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So clinical researchers have already had success
Speaker 1: using them to treat panic attacks and other psychosomatic disorders,
Speaker 1: and now the actually starting to explore the text applications
Speaker 1: for treating pain brought on from everything from like joint
Speaker 1: injuries to even cancer, and so far trials with a
Speaker 1: pair of the three D coggles have been proven to
Speaker 1: reduce patients experience of pain by a full twenty per cent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's also hope that the technology can be
Speaker 1: extended to chronic pain sufferers who would typically have to
Speaker 1: look to those addictive prescription pain killers for relief. That's
Speaker 1: pretty incredible. I mean, can you imagine if someone who
Speaker 1: had just had surgery or gotten a car accident they
Speaker 1: could be sent home with like a VR headset instead
Speaker 1: of you know, like a bottle of percoset or somebody
Speaker 1: that might be a little bit hopeful, But it does
Speaker 1: sound like this could really flip the script on pain
Speaker 1: management definitely. And and VR treatment actually draws from techniques
Speaker 1: that have already proven medically effective, you know, things like
Speaker 1: mindfulness and meditation. But you know, most doctors wouldn't prescribe
Speaker 1: something like meditation because there's a good chance patients won't
Speaker 1: go home and follow through with that treatment, and by comparison,
Speaker 1: pain pills have been a more certain and also more
Speaker 1: lucrative way to go, but VR, with its promise of
Speaker 1: fun and apism, could actually do away with all that uncertainty,
Speaker 1: Like patients will be far more likely to actually go
Speaker 1: home and use it on their own. I mean that
Speaker 1: kind of makes sense, but I'm curious about, like, how
Speaker 1: exactly does VR relief pain? Is it just that it
Speaker 1: calms people down, because you know, if if that's the case,
Speaker 1: it seems like people could just sit there and watch
Speaker 1: a relaxing video or something like that. So a major
Speaker 1: reason why VR is so effective is that the games
Speaker 1: and environments that generates are actually a great way to
Speaker 1: distract your brain, and that level of immersion VR provides it.
Speaker 1: It actually gives this distinct advantage over I don't know,
Speaker 1: just watching a nature video on your smartphone, and that's
Speaker 1: because the experience actually shuts off the neural pathways that
Speaker 1: typically transfer pain signals from your peripheral nervous system. It
Speaker 1: occupies all the brain's attention so that the sensation of
Speaker 1: pain is lesson significantly. That's really interesting and I admit
Speaker 1: I was a little bit skeptical of this, but but
Speaker 1: it sounds pretty promising. And I do love the idea
Speaker 1: of overcoming pain, like not through just chemical trickery, but
Speaker 1: simply giving our brains the freedom to focus on something else.
Speaker 1: You know, for way too many people, the physical pain
Speaker 1: and they live with is just all consuming. You know,
Speaker 1: pain killers, whether they're over the counter or even prescription,
Speaker 1: they're they're pretty limited in their usefulness because of these
Speaker 1: side effects and the high risk of addiction that we
Speaker 1: talked about. So it is pretty hardening to hear about
Speaker 1: these new approaches like this that make the idea of
Speaker 1: a pain free future seem a little more attainable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more. And you know, learning
Speaker 1: is another great way to keep your mind off pain.
Speaker 1: So what do you say we conduct our own clinical
Speaker 1: trial using the pain killing power of facts. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm gain for effect, but I do think we should
Speaker 1: be clear, like, the health benefits of trivia are not
Speaker 1: fully proven, So I think the last thing we need
Speaker 1: is another lawsuit here, Mango, that's right, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll kick us off. So we've talked about a few
Speaker 1: things that have these surprising abilities to reduce pain. And
Speaker 1: here's another one to add to the list. Now. I
Speaker 1: know it's common wisdom to say that money doesn't really
Speaker 1: lead to happiness, but you know, there's no denying that
Speaker 1: our brains love any In fact, one study out of
Speaker 1: China's show that just holding onto it pretty much works
Speaker 1: like a drug. In the study, participants were asked to
Speaker 1: put their hands into some really hot water, now not
Speaker 1: for long, but still very hot water. And just before
Speaker 1: doing this, some of them had been given a stack
Speaker 1: of money to handle and some were just given blank
Speaker 1: paper to shuffle through. And sure enough, those who had
Speaker 1: handled the money had a higher tolerance of pain. That's amazing. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, since you mentioned hot water, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: with the cold water test. And you know, I have
Speaker 1: always envious the scientists who get to conduct studies like
Speaker 1: the one we heard about earlier where they were testing
Speaker 1: to see if swearing actually reduces pain. And in this study,
Speaker 1: participants were asked to put their arm in a bucket
Speaker 1: of ice water and then given certain words say or
Speaker 1: shout out loud and see how long they could keep
Speaker 1: their arm in the ice water. And it turns out
Speaker 1: that those who were swearing were able to keep their
Speaker 1: arms in for longer. But you know, I was curious
Speaker 1: as to whether the specific curse words had different effects,
Speaker 1: and it turns out they do. Maybe. Not surprisingly, they
Speaker 1: found out that the F bomb was much more effective
Speaker 1: than using the word bum. The word bum. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I want to meet these people who scream out the
Speaker 1: word bum when they're all right. So we covered handling
Speaker 1: money and swearing. I think we're making parents really happy today,
Speaker 1: So why don't we do one that's a little bit different.
Speaker 1: And I think we should revisit the meditation thing. And
Speaker 1: I do know we talked a little bit about it earlier,
Speaker 1: but there's this study out of wake Forest that I
Speaker 1: think was pretty interesting. And if they found that after
Speaker 1: just a few days of meditation training, you know, where
Speaker 1: they help participants focus on something soothing instead of their pain,
Speaker 1: those in the study actually saw a fifty seven percent
Speaker 1: reduction in what they described as unpleasantness, and they reported
Speaker 1: that was roughly the equivalent to the effects of morphine.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. So here's a weird one, and I feel
Speaker 1: like you'd have to test this to believe it. But
Speaker 1: apparently if you feel a headache coming on, you can
Speaker 1: actually eat a bit of green apple or even just
Speaker 1: smell one to get some of the relief from a migraine.
Speaker 1: And this was a study from the Research Foundation in Chicago,
Speaker 1: and the researchers believed it's related to the finding that
Speaker 1: the green apple smell does in fact reduced muscle contractions
Speaker 1: in the head and neck, which would reduce that pain
Speaker 1: from the migraine. You know, I think we should do
Speaker 1: another study where we test what would happen if you
Speaker 1: hold a lot of cash, you scream the F bomb,
Speaker 1: and you sniff an apple at the same time, and
Speaker 1: see probably feel great. All right. Well, have you ever
Speaker 1: wondered why we tend to grab our injuries when we
Speaker 1: get hurt, like you know, imagine you have an ankle's brain,
Speaker 1: what's the first thing that you do? You sit down
Speaker 1: and you grab your ankle. But apparently there's a reason
Speaker 1: for this. So when we touch our injuries, it gives
Speaker 1: our brains a chance to map out these injuries and
Speaker 1: better pinpoint the location and then more effectively manage the pain.
Speaker 1: That's fascinating. Okay, Well, I say my most important fact
Speaker 1: for last, and that's the fact that Kenny Loggins and
Speaker 1: Dean Pitchford actually wrote the title track for Footloose while
Speaker 1: under the influence of pain curts. This is very important.
Speaker 1: So apparently Loggins had just recently broken a rib while performing,
Speaker 1: you know, because he likes to leave it all out
Speaker 1: on the stage. It doesn't and Pitchford was dealing with
Speaker 1: a pretty high fever and strep throat, and the two
Speaker 1: of them would meet up to record, and they only
Speaker 1: had a few days, so they couldn't let their ailments
Speaker 1: slow them down. And as Pitchford said, quote, I think
Speaker 1: it was two or three days. We kept up this
Speaker 1: garade of him showing up on his pain killers and
Speaker 1: me and my pain killers, and us getting the gist
Speaker 1: of the song. Wow. I mean, can you imagine the
Speaker 1: magic that may have never happened if they hadn't pushed
Speaker 1: through and worked on this world changing song Mango? I mean,
Speaker 1: I may have never had the opportunity to sing that
Speaker 1: song in my high school show choir. I'll pull out
Speaker 1: the tape some time to show you in Tristan, or
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just leave it at my parents house. But
Speaker 1: I'm honestly, I'm not sure i'd be the man I
Speaker 1: am today without that experience though, so for that, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to give you today's fact off trophy Mango
Speaker 1: and if there was ever a fact in my fact
Speaker 1: off windstreak, I'm glad that's the ones that congratulations. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, and thank you guys for listening. If
Speaker 1: we have forgotten any great facts that you'd like to
Speaker 1: share with us about pain killers or pain management, we'd
Speaker 1: love to hear those from. You can always email us
Speaker 1: part time Genius at how stuff Works dot com. You
Speaker 1: can always call our seven fact hotline that's one eight
Speaker 1: four four pt Genius, or hit us up on Facebook
Speaker 1: or Twitter. We've loved the great facts that you guys
Speaker 1: have been sending, the great ideas that you've been sending,
Speaker 1: so please keep them coming, and thanks again for listening,
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 1: of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several
Speaker 1: brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
Speaker 1: begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
Speaker 1: Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI mixy
Speaker 1: sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay
Speaker 1: Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army,
Speaker 1: including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve
Speaker 1: Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
Speaker 1: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Did we
Speaker 1: do we forget Jason? Jason who