Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that will? So I know we
Speaker 1: regularly hear these stories about the downsides of texting, you know,
Speaker 1: the dangers of texting while driving, or all these stories
Speaker 1: about how we're no longer present because we're looking at
Speaker 1: our phones when we're around family and friends. But it
Speaker 1: was actually a study I was reading recently, and it
Speaker 1: was from the journal Pain Medicine, and it showed the
Speaker 1: benefits of texting during surgery. So I'm guessing we're not
Speaker 1: talking about major surgeries here. Well, yeah, I mean we're
Speaker 1: talking about surgeries where the patient is still awake and
Speaker 1: and often feeling some kind of discomfort or pain during
Speaker 1: that surgery. So the study involved a hundred patients and
Speaker 1: they were having these minor surgeries, and they had them
Speaker 1: do three different things. So some of the patients were
Speaker 1: asked to text, some were playing angry birds, and some
Speaker 1: were doing nothing. And they found that of the three groups,
Speaker 1: those who were texting actually had the least need for
Speaker 1: additional narcotics, and they also experienced the greatest relief from
Speaker 1: that pain. But here's what's most weird about it. The
Speaker 1: effect was most profound when they were texting with a
Speaker 1: complete stranger really not not like someone you know and
Speaker 1: someone who cares about you. Well, actually, I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: some benefit to that as well, but the greatest benefit
Speaker 1: 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 stranger,
Speaker 1: you kind of have to put on a happy face
Speaker 1: and be a little bit more positive and your interaction
Speaker 1: you want to make a good impression, and that somewhat
Speaker 1: forced the 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 there 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 on 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 man Gesh Ticketer and on
Speaker 1: the other side of the soundproof glass sorting his meds
Speaker 1: into 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 pills he
Speaker 1: actually takes with those lintstones chewable vitamins, which makes that
Speaker 1: giant phil 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 hyboprofin or taile
Speaker 1: and all. But despite that ubiquity, a few of us
Speaker 1: could tell you even the most basic facts about the
Speaker 1: pills that we so readily swallow. In fact, according to
Speaker 1: a two thousand one survey from the National Council on
Speaker 1: Patient Information and Education, only one third of the public
Speaker 1: is able to identify the active ingredient in their pain
Speaker 1: killer of choice, And with over the counter pain relievers
Speaker 1: accounting for over five billion in sales last year, that's
Speaker 1: a big chunk of the population that medicates with something
Speaker 1: they really don't know that much about. So for today's episode,
Speaker 1: we're actually gonna shine some light on the little known
Speaker 1: facts behind a few of the world's most commonly taken,
Speaker 1: at least understood medications. So we'll try to get an
Speaker 1: eye idea of where they come from and what they're
Speaker 1: best suited for, as well as what the future of
Speaker 1: pain management might look like, alright, ma, go, so where
Speaker 1: do you think we should start. So, I mean, this
Speaker 1: might sound a little basic, but I thought it'd be
Speaker 1: helpful to start with a quick refresher on what pain
Speaker 1: really is and how a non prescription painkiller actually works
Speaker 1: 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 that 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 approval, and then it finally gets to
Speaker 1: the big loss upstairs, you know, right, So it obviously
Speaker 1: takes more time to describe the experience of feeling the
Speaker 1: pain that actually does to feel it, which is pretty
Speaker 1: much instantaneous. But it's still helpful to know the ins
Speaker 1: and outs of the process because that's ultimately how pain
Speaker 1: killers work. Like, they interfere with the body's transmissions of
Speaker 1: pain signals. And this is where the difference between pain
Speaker 1: killers comes into because each kind targets a different point
Speaker 1: in the communication chain. So, for example, aspirin and ibuprofen
Speaker 1: 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 them. Why don't we
Speaker 1: stick to the end sets for now? So how does
Speaker 1: 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 and the injured cells to make
Speaker 1: sure we get the message others produce inflammation and swelling
Speaker 1: is a way to cushion the cells from further injury. Alright,
Speaker 1: so these chemicals must be what the end SAIDs are targeting,
Speaker 1: right 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 the pain killers don't actually heal injuries, and they
Speaker 1: don't even kill the pain really, they just kill your
Speaker 1: awareness 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, Well,
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 it
Speaker 1: will actually find pain related enzymes to bind with. Well,
Speaker 1: that makes sense. So so what about a sta menaphin
Speaker 1: Like it it doesn't reduce inflammation, that it must be
Speaker 1: doing 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 tilen al
Speaker 1: since I want to say, in the nineteen fifties, we
Speaker 1: still really don't know how it works. I mean, just
Speaker 1: listen to his physicians note that comes with toilen all
Speaker 1: bottles quote. Although the analgesic effects of a sida menaphin
Speaker 1: is well established, the site and mode of action have
Speaker 1: not been clearly elucidated. And that's stunning. Yeah, so they
Speaker 1: feel like it's saying this stuff works, but we have
Speaker 1: no idea how. Yeah, it's so weird. But you know,
Speaker 1: they do have some theories. So for example, it's possible
Speaker 1: that a seda menafin works the same way and SAIDs to,
Speaker 1: but it just isn't effective against the chemicals responsible for inflammation.
Speaker 1: And then there's this other theory that a side BeneFin
Speaker 1: actually affects our sensation of pain by working on the
Speaker 1: endocannabinoid system, which you know, you might guess is the
Speaker 1: same system that responds to cannabis or marijuana. So you know,
Speaker 1: this is according to researchers at Lund Universe City in Sweden,
Speaker 1: and sentimental fin activates two ion channels in the brain
Speaker 1: and spinal cord, and these are the two channels that
Speaker 1: also respond to cannabinoids. And the weird thing though, is
Speaker 1: that these ion channels can actually trigger pain and its responses,
Speaker 1: so it's pretty strange that activating them would actually reduce
Speaker 1: the pain. But you know, like I said, nobody really
Speaker 1: knows for sure how these all work. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that a set of menifit has been around
Speaker 1: since the eighteen hundreds, So why don't we switch gears
Speaker 1: and talk a little bit more about the history behind
Speaker 1: a few of the common pain killers. Yeah, So, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm always tempted to start from the beginning and dig
Speaker 1: into the weird history beyond the topic, but with something
Speaker 1: like pain relievers, it feels like it might be a
Speaker 1: tad too ambitious. I mean, pain is something that humans
Speaker 1: have had to contend with on a daily basis, and
Speaker 1: at this point we've actually spent millennia like experimenting with
Speaker 1: different kinds of ways to manage it. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a lot to cover, you know. Actually, when I was
Speaker 1: studying abroaden Tibet, we went to the Kirang Valley, which
Speaker 1: hadn't had much contact with western civilization, and our professor
Speaker 1: told us that people used to manage their headaches by
Speaker 1: putting these pieces of tape on the sides of their heads.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you give them aspirin or a town
Speaker 1: all or whatever, it would actually really really affect them.
Speaker 1: And it was kind of funny because marijuana actually grew
Speaker 1: wild in the fields there everywhere, it was all over
Speaker 1: the place, but no one smoked as pain release. They
Speaker 1: just used these little strips of tape to manage their pain,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe it works. I didn't actually try
Speaker 1: didn't try some tape. We could easily devote a whole
Speaker 1: episode to bizarre pain management techniques that people have tried
Speaker 1: in the past. You look at everything from like boring
Speaker 1: holes and people's skulls, the banging gongs, to scare away
Speaker 1: painful spirits, which I know you still do sometimes. But
Speaker 1: you know what, those ancient remedies that have the most
Speaker 1: bearing on pain killers of today, they're actually the botanical ones.
Speaker 1: So for instance, you know, you look at the ancient Greeks,
Speaker 1: they they chewed bark and the leaves of willow trees
Speaker 1: in order to help produce things like fever or relief
Speaker 1: pain during childbirth. Ancient Egyptians did something pretty similar with
Speaker 1: the leaves from myrtle bushes. You look at the Native
Speaker 1: Americans to actually chewed birch bark as their pain relieving
Speaker 1: plan of choice, and those all turned out to be
Speaker 1: pretty great ideas because actually all three of those plants
Speaker 1: contain high levels of salas like acid, which is the
Speaker 1: active ingredient, and aspirin, which is awesome, but I always
Speaker 1: thought the active ingredient aspirin was aspirin, like, it's not
Speaker 1: its own thing. If you want to get technical, the
Speaker 1: active ingredient and aspirin is called a setal salacelic acid
Speaker 1: or a s A. You know, see that the pain
Speaker 1: relieving chemical that's most common to all these plants I
Speaker 1: mentioned also had the unfortunate side effect of wreaking havoc
Speaker 1: on our digestive systems. So it was a big deal
Speaker 1: in when this German scientist who was working for Bear Pharmaceutical,
Speaker 1: he was able to synthesize a less harmful and easier
Speaker 1: to digest chemical and that was this A S A
Speaker 1: that we're talking about. So the Bear company named this
Speaker 1: new drug aspirin, and it was the first mass produced
Speaker 1: over the counter pain reliever to come to the market.
Speaker 1: In fact, the word itself was a trademark term, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like tile and all or some of these
Speaker 1: others for about twenty years. But after that aspirin became
Speaker 1: a generic word for the A S A based medicine
Speaker 1: in most markets. Actually still today, Bear holds the trademark
Speaker 1: in some countries. So what about another end said like ibuprofen.
Speaker 1: Is that the actual chemical ingredient or is it just
Speaker 1: another trademark term that died in went generic. No, Iybroprofen
Speaker 1: is its own active ingredient, which you'll find in branded
Speaker 1: versions like advil or motrin. And although the chemicals themselves
Speaker 1: are different, ibuprofen works pretty similarly to the A S
Speaker 1: A and aspirin. In fact, the man who discovered ibuprofen.
Speaker 1: His name was Dr Stewart Adams. He did so while
Speaker 1: he was looking into how aspirin worked. This was back
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen fifties. Adams was working in the
Speaker 1: research department at a place called Boots Pure Drug Company,
Speaker 1: and this was in England, and his goal at the
Speaker 1: time was to find the new way of treating rheumatoid
Speaker 1: arthritis that wasn't reliant on steroids and all the side
Speaker 1: effects that come along with those. So, I mean at
Speaker 1: this time aspirin was already in you. So we've already
Speaker 1: said it was non steroidal and and it was great
Speaker 1: for inflammation, Like why didn't Arthuris patients just use that?
Speaker 1: Well they did, but they were drawbacks to any pain
Speaker 1: killer that will be talking about. In the case of aspirin,
Speaker 1: it usually has to be given in fairly high doses
Speaker 1: and that of course greatly increases the risk of side
Speaker 1: effects like allergic reaction or indigestion or in some cases
Speaker 1: even internal bleeding. So Adams and his team were after
Speaker 1: an alternative that could be better tolerated if if they
Speaker 1: were going to be used regularly, and it didn't come easily,
Speaker 1: I mean, together with a chemist and a technician. Adams
Speaker 1: actually tested the potency of more than six hundred chemical
Speaker 1: compounds over the course of about a ten year period.
Speaker 1: And I mean you do hear about sort of like
Speaker 1: a tenure cycle for drugs coming to come about. But like,
Speaker 1: was it just like trial and error until they figured
Speaker 1: out this winning compound? Yeah, it was. And I mean
Speaker 1: a few of the most promising ones were actually tested
Speaker 1: by the team itself, like something you would never see
Speaker 1: happening today. And so was the team just knocking back
Speaker 1: these experimental pills and like they had no idea what
Speaker 1: sort of damage would cause. Well, I mean the handful
Speaker 1: of compounds they tested firsthand were ones that had already
Speaker 1: passed the toxicity test, but otherwise pretty much I mean.
Speaker 1: In fact, Dr Adams later revealed that his discovery of
Speaker 1: ibaprof and was due to him ingesting a promising compound
Speaker 1: as a way of dealing with a bad hangover. So apparently,
Speaker 1: sometime in the early sixties he was scheduled to give
Speaker 1: this important speech, but the night before he had spent
Speaker 1: some time at the bar wasn't really feeling up to
Speaker 1: the task. And here's how he described the event in
Speaker 1: an interview he said, I was first up to speak,
Speaker 1: and I had a bit of a headache after a
Speaker 1: night out with friends, so I took the six hundred
Speaker 1: milligram dose just to be sure and found it was
Speaker 1: very effective. I love that before he was giving this
Speaker 1: big speech, he was like, let me just try a
Speaker 1: little bit of this stuff. We've been mixing up one
Speaker 1: of the ten thousand different things or six hundred different
Speaker 1: chemical compounds. Yeah, and that the night before that he
Speaker 1: was just drinking aver Right. It's a good strategy. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it sounds insane, and it does also
Speaker 1: sound like a ringing endorsement for iban proof and as
Speaker 1: a hangover cure. But uh, what about some other common
Speaker 1: pain killers, Like we should probably talk about some of
Speaker 1: their striends and weaknesses as well. Yeah, I definitely want to,
Speaker 1: but before we do, let's take a quick break. You're
Speaker 1: listening to part Time Genius and we're talking about the
Speaker 1: science behind the world's most common pain killers. All right, Mango.
Speaker 1: So obviously we love a bunch of different products under
Speaker 1: the same category of these non prescription pain relievers, and
Speaker 1: one of the biggest downside to this is that we
Speaker 1: tend to use them all interchangeably. So I know you
Speaker 1: were doing some digging into this so too, So tell
Speaker 1: me what kind of stuff should we consider when you
Speaker 1: know choosing which pill we need to pile. So, I
Speaker 1: mean a great place to start is whether or not
Speaker 1: you're pain involves any kind of swelling, and if it does,
Speaker 1: you should definitely go with an end set. And from
Speaker 1: there it really comes down to what kind of pain
Speaker 1: you have and if you're dealing with any other conditions.
Speaker 1: For example, aspirin works well for headaches and for reducing
Speaker 1: inflammation and joints, but like you mentioned earlier, it can
Speaker 1: be pretty rough on your stomach. Again, it's also an anticoagulant,
Speaker 1: which is why you can reduce the risk of heart
Speaker 1: attack or stro can some people, but anybody who's already
Speaker 1: on blood thinners should steer clear for the same reason.
Speaker 1: All right, So, so going back to iboprof and what's
Speaker 1: the deal with that one? So, just like Dr Adams intended,
Speaker 1: ibuprofen is less irritating to the stomach than aspirin is,
Speaker 1: but it still offers a lot of the same perks.
Speaker 1: And for someone with acid reflux or ulcers, hypoprofen is
Speaker 1: a good way to go. It's also particularly useful for
Speaker 1: dealing with pain, for menstrual cramps or arthritis, toothaches, even sprains.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes it has better results than aspirin. All right,
Speaker 1: So what about something like a leave that that's an
Speaker 1: inset too, right it is. Yeah, So the active ingredient
Speaker 1: in that one is called neoproxin, and it's available in
Speaker 1: doses that are much stronger and longer lasting than those
Speaker 1: of aspirin and hyperprofen, and that makes it great for
Speaker 1: treating inflammation based pain like arthritis or even something like sunburn. However,
Speaker 1: there are downsides and aproximate strength, and one of them
Speaker 1: is that it can cause gastro intestinal problems and it
Speaker 1: can also take a while to kick in, so because
Speaker 1: it's not fast acting, it's not actually a great choice
Speaker 1: for quick relief from something like a headache. All right.
Speaker 1: So there's some nuanced differences between the different end sets
Speaker 1: that might make you pick one over another in some cases,
Speaker 1: but it feels like for the most part, you know,
Speaker 1: any of them would do the trick for common pains
Speaker 1: or inflammation. But but that's not really the case with
Speaker 1: the seta menaphon though, right, Yeah, So a seta menafant
Speaker 1: is really the odd man out among these common pain killers.
Speaker 1: It lacks the anti inflammatory properties of its end said counterparts,
Speaker 1: but you know, for simple pain relief, a seeda menafin
Speaker 1: does have a few things going for it. For one thing,
Speaker 1: it's generally very easy on the stomach, so for people
Speaker 1: with stomach sensitivities, like a seta menaphin is probably the
Speaker 1: first thing they reach for when a headache pops up.
Speaker 1: It's also not an anticoagulant like aspirin is, so it's
Speaker 1: safer for hemophiliacs or people on bloodending medications as we
Speaker 1: talked about, or even for kids. It's interesting that the
Speaker 1: seeda menaphon is the safer choice in some cases because
Speaker 1: isn't that the one that's supposed to be really bad
Speaker 1: for your liver. Yeah, so, taken regularly or to access
Speaker 1: seta menafin can actually cause some serious damage to deliver.
Speaker 1: It's the top cause of acute liver failure in the
Speaker 1: U S. I didn't realize this before this episode, but
Speaker 1: you know, a big reason for that is that it's
Speaker 1: all too easy to overdose on a seat A menafin
Speaker 1: and their recommended dosage for pain relief and the mountain
Speaker 1: needed to overdose aren't actually that far apart. So according
Speaker 1: to the CDC and FDA, between fifty thou to eighty
Speaker 1: thou people in the US head to the emergency room
Speaker 1: each year due to seed a 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. Well, we're talking about a seeda
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 mean,
Speaker 1: tons of people are probably popping a couple of tile
Speaker 1: al after a night of drinking in the hopes of
Speaker 1: wording off a hangover. But this is one of those
Speaker 1: mistakes that comes from using pain killers interchangeably, because taking
Speaker 1: a seedominafin with alcohol, even just a little bit, is
Speaker 1: 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 study 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 and twenty All right, well,
Speaker 1: so obviously common pain killers aren't as across the board
Speaker 1: safe as you know. They're over the counter status might
Speaker 1: make you think they are. We talked about insects, you know,
Speaker 1: their ability to recapoc on your stomach lining and the
Speaker 1: fact that the regular use of the scene menofin can
Speaker 1: cause permanent damage to your liver or even your kidneys.
Speaker 1: And with those risk in mind, I do think it's
Speaker 1: good to point out that these pain relievers they're not
Speaker 1: meant to be long term or daily treatments. In fact,
Speaker 1: people who regularly take these medications for headaches actually put
Speaker 1: themselves at risk for something called rebound headaches, which are
Speaker 1: caused by the drugs wearing off. Yeah, so I think
Speaker 1: it's a smart idea to occasionally take stock if you're
Speaker 1: over the counter drug use, Like if you're taking something
Speaker 1: that you use daily for the same reason, then you
Speaker 1: should probably consult your doctor about other treatment options, Like
Speaker 1: there could be an underlying issue that's just being masked
Speaker 1: by these pain killers. Yeah, that's good advice for sure.
Speaker 1: And all right, well, if you don't mind, I kind
Speaker 1: of want to switch gears a little bit. You know,
Speaker 1: we've talked a little bit about the medications that that
Speaker 1: are not helpful for drinking alcohol. But there's there's actually
Speaker 1: a recent study that suggests alcohol hall itself is a
Speaker 1: pretty good way to manage pain, you know, perhaps even
Speaker 1: better than some of the pain killers we've talked about. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you do sometimes hear about alcohol is a
Speaker 1: way to dullar numb pain, especially in country music. And
Speaker 1: since we've already established that's basically what pain killers do,
Speaker 1: I guess it does make sense. Of course, if you
Speaker 1: were to regularly use alcohol for pain management, you've run
Speaker 1: into similar long term problems as with n sets or
Speaker 1: a sid menafine. Absolutely, I mean, it's an interesting study
Speaker 1: and it might be good to know on a pinch,
Speaker 1: but I've not any medical professional would actually recommend drinking
Speaker 1: as a way to treat chronic pain. And I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that we should not go on the record is
Speaker 1: suggesting that, you know, we're not suggesting that. But tell
Speaker 1: me what the study said, all right, So, researchers at
Speaker 1: the University of Greenwich in London, they gathered volunteers for
Speaker 1: a study on pain and alcohol, and they found that
Speaker 1: the participants reported to reduce sensitivity to pain with every
Speaker 1: drink consumed. And this is actually the interesting part like,
Speaker 1: the effect was cumulative, So after three drinks for men
Speaker 1: and two for women, the participants pain thresholds rose from
Speaker 1: small to moderate lash large. According to the researchers, this
Speaker 1: pain relieving effect on alcohol on pain intensity is comparable
Speaker 1: to opioids and actually more powerful than a set of
Speaker 1: metaphing 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 alcohols 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 the leave to self
Speaker 1: medicated for pain, but they're not hitting up the bar
Speaker 1: to 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 Colobus 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. All 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: ate from are actually known to have armacological 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 partook were less likely to succumb
Speaker 1: to the grips of the fungus. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: it is pretty telling that only the sick ants drank
Speaker 1: the solution. But what about in the wild. It's pretty different.
Speaker 1: It's not like hydrogen peroxide is growing on trees or anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's true, but the confound does grow inside
Speaker 1: some plants. So researchers theorized that wild dance infected by
Speaker 1: the fungus might actually be able to find relief by
Speaker 1: eating plants that release hydrogen peroxide in order to fight
Speaker 1: off aphids. That is pretty cool, But you know, actually
Speaker 1: the animal kingdom isn't just a place for us to
Speaker 1: watch to like learn how to manage our pain. It's
Speaker 1: actually a place to go as a source of pain
Speaker 1: relief in some cases. You know. For instance, I was
Speaker 1: reading about a new kind of pain killer that's derived
Speaker 1: from the toxic venom of a sea snail. So the
Speaker 1: drug is called and I don't know if I'm pronouncing
Speaker 1: this correctly. I think it's Zicona tide. But the really
Speaker 1: standout name belongs to the snail itself. It's called the
Speaker 1: Magician's comb. That is pretty screat And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: always curious about this. I know we mentioned it a
Speaker 1: little yesterday with that viper from Brazil. But how does
Speaker 1: toxic venom make for good medicine? Well, this one works
Speaker 1: actually by blocking calcium channels and the specific nerve cells
Speaker 1: and that prevents certain pain signals from reaching the brain.
Speaker 1: As this makes it super useful for treating patients with
Speaker 1: pain that isn't that easily managed by traditional methods. And
Speaker 1: we're talking about things people suffering from cancer or AIDS
Speaker 1: or you know, several types of neurological disorders that they've
Speaker 1: seen positive results with this c snail pain killer. But
Speaker 1: if scientists have their way, this won't be the only
Speaker 1: venom based pain reliever that's out there. Currently, research is
Speaker 1: underway to make use of tarantula venom too, and if
Speaker 1: it's successful, we could be looking at a whole new
Speaker 1: kind of pain killer no one that can treat severe
Speaker 1: pain without the risk of addiction, which is super exciting.
Speaker 1: And the animal kingdom isn't even the only place to
Speaker 1: find these kinds of breakthrough is because plants are actually
Speaker 1: doing their part as well. Both marijuana and salvia are
Speaker 1: promising candidates for non addictive pain relief, and even the
Speaker 1: pain delling chemical capsation that's found in chili peppers is
Speaker 1: on the table as a potential pain killer. Yeah, that's true,
Speaker 1: and and really there's a greater need for treatments with
Speaker 1: 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 apparently there over a hundred million
Speaker 1: Americans currently suffering from some form of chronic pain, which
Speaker 1: amounts to as much as six hundred billion dollars a
Speaker 1: year in medical bills and lost productivity. And obviously, when
Speaker 1: dealing with pain that's that severe, these over the counter
Speaker 1: drugs aren't always going to cut it, and that's why
Speaker 1: we're currently dealing with things like the opioid crisis in
Speaker 1: our country now. So when the best tool for managing
Speaker 1: high pain levels is highly addictive and debilitating in its
Speaker 1: own right, I mean, you know, it's time to find
Speaker 1: a better way. Absolutely, And one of the most promising
Speaker 1: alternatives I've actually heard about comes from this really unexpected place, Mango,
Speaker 1: even more unexpected than my magical cone sea snails. Yeah,
Speaker 1: even more than magical sea snails. But you know, there's
Speaker 1: a growing number of hospitals that are out there looking
Speaker 1: into how virtual reality could be used for pain management,
Speaker 1: like the clunky headsets like video games and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So clinical researchers have already had success using them to
Speaker 1: treat panic attacks and other psychosomatic disorders, and now they're
Speaker 1: actually starting to explore the text applications for eating pain
Speaker 1: brought on from everything from like joint injuries to even cancer,
Speaker 1: and so far trials with a pair of the three
Speaker 1: D goggles have been proven to produce patients experience of
Speaker 1: pain by a full twenty cent. Yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 1: also hope that the technology can be extended to chronic
Speaker 1: pain sufferers who would typically have to look to those
Speaker 1: addictive prescription pain killers for relief. That's pretty incredible. I mean,
Speaker 1: can you imagine if someone who had just had surgery
Speaker 1: or gotten a car accident, they could just be sent
Speaker 1: home with like a VR headset instead of you know,
Speaker 1: like a bottle of percoset or something. That might be
Speaker 1: a little bit hopeful. But it does sound like this
Speaker 1: could really flip the script on pain management definitely. And
Speaker 1: and VR treatment actually draws from techniques that have already
Speaker 1: proven medically effective, you know, things like mindfulness and meditation.
Speaker 1: But you know, most doctors wouldn't prescribe something like meditation
Speaker 1: because there's a good chance patience won't go home and
Speaker 1: follow through with that treatment. And by comparison, pain pills
Speaker 1: have been a more certain and also more lucrative way
Speaker 1: to go, but VR, with its promise of fun and escapism,
Speaker 1: could actually do away with all that certainty, Like patients
Speaker 1: will be far more likely to actually go home and
Speaker 1: use it on their own. I mean that kind of
Speaker 1: makes sense, but I'm curious, like, how exactly does VR
Speaker 1: relief pain? Is it just that it calms people down,
Speaker 1: because you know, if that's the case, it seems like
Speaker 1: people could just sit there and watch a relaxing video
Speaker 1: or something like that. So a major reason why VR
Speaker 1: is so effective is that the games and environments that
Speaker 1: generates are actually a great way to distract your brain,
Speaker 1: and that level of immersion VR provides it actually gives
Speaker 1: this distinct advantage over I don't know, just watching a
Speaker 1: nature video on your smartphone, and that's because the experience
Speaker 1: actually shuts off the neural pathways that typically transfer pain
Speaker 1: signals from your peripheral nervous system. It occupies all the
Speaker 1: brain's attention so that the sensation of pain is lesson significantly.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting, and I admit I was a little
Speaker 1: bit skeptical of this, but but it sounds pretty promising.
Speaker 1: And I do love the idea of overcoming pain, like
Speaker 1: not through just chemical trickery, but simply giving our brains
Speaker 1: the freedom to focus on something else. You know, for
Speaker 1: way too many people, the physical pain they live with
Speaker 1: is just all consuming. You know, pain killers, whether they're
Speaker 1: over the counter or even prescription, they're they're pretty limited
Speaker 1: in their usefulness because of these side effects and the
Speaker 1: high risk of addiction that we talked about. So it
Speaker 1: is pretty hardening to hear about these new approaches like
Speaker 1: this that make the idea of a pain free future
Speaker 1: seem a little more attainable. Yeah, I couldn't agree with
Speaker 1: you more. And you know, learning is another great way
Speaker 1: to keep your mind off pain. So what do you
Speaker 1: say we conduct our own clinical trial using the pain
Speaker 1: killing power of facts. I mean, I'm gaining for effect up,
Speaker 1: but I do think we should be clear, like, the
Speaker 1: health benefits of trivia are not fully proven, So I
Speaker 1: think the last thing we need is another lawsuit here, Mango,
Speaker 1: that's right, all right, Well I'll kick us off. So
Speaker 1: We've talked about a few things that have these surprising
Speaker 1: abilities to reduce pain, and here's another one to add
Speaker 1: to the list. Now. I know it's common wisdom to
Speaker 1: say that money doesn't really lead to happiness, but you know,
Speaker 1: there's no denying that our brains love money. In fact,
Speaker 1: one study out of China show the just holding onto
Speaker 1: it pretty much works like a drug. And the study
Speaker 1: participants were asked to put their hands into some really
Speaker 1: hot water, now not for long, but still very hot water.
Speaker 1: And just before doing this, some of them had been
Speaker 1: given a stack of money to handle, and some were
Speaker 1: just given blank paper to shuffle through. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: those who had handled the money had a higher tolerance
Speaker 1: of pain. That's amazing. Well, you know, since you mentioned
Speaker 1: hot water, I'm gonna go with the cold water test.
Speaker 1: And you know, I have always envious the scientists who
Speaker 1: get to conduct studies like the one we heard about
Speaker 1: earlier where they were testing to see if swearing actually
Speaker 1: reduces pain. And in this study, participants were asked to
Speaker 1: put their arm in a bucket of ice water and
Speaker 1: then given certain words say or shout out loud and
Speaker 1: see how long they could keep their arm in the
Speaker 1: ice water, and it turns out that those who were
Speaker 1: swearing were able to keep their arms in for longer.
Speaker 1: But you know, I was curious as to whether the
Speaker 1: specific curse words had different effects, and it turns out
Speaker 1: they do. Maybe not surprisingly, they found out that the
Speaker 1: F bomb was much more effective than using the word bum.
Speaker 1: The word bum. Yeah, I mean, I want to meet
Speaker 1: these people who scream out the word bum when they're there.
Speaker 1: All right, So we covered handling money and swearing. I
Speaker 1: think we're making parents really happy today, So why don't
Speaker 1: we do one that's a little bit different. And I
Speaker 1: think we should revisit the meditation thing. And I do
Speaker 1: know we talked a little bit about it earlier. But
Speaker 1: there's this study out of wake Forest that I think
Speaker 1: was pretty interesting. And if they found that after just
Speaker 1: a few days of meditation training, you know, where they
Speaker 1: 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 apples smell does in fact reduced muscle contractions
Speaker 1: in the head and neck, which would reduce that pain
Speaker 1: from migraine. You know, I think we should do another
Speaker 1: study where we test what would happen if you hold
Speaker 1: a lot of cash, you scream the F bomb, and
Speaker 1: you sniff an apple at the same time, and see
Speaker 1: probably feel great. All right? Well, have you ever wondered
Speaker 1: why we tend to grab our injuries when we get hurt, like,
Speaker 1: you know, imagine you have an ankle's brain, what's the
Speaker 1: first thing that you do? You sit down and you
Speaker 1: grab your ankle. But apparently there's a reason for this.
Speaker 1: So when we touch our injuries, it gives our brains
Speaker 1: a chance to map out these injuries and better pinpoint
Speaker 1: the location and then more effectively manage the pain. That's fascinating. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: I said my most important fact for last, and that's
Speaker 1: the fact that Kenny Loggins and Dean Pitchford actually wrote
Speaker 1: the title track for Footloose while under the influence of
Speaker 1: pain curs. This is very important. So apparently Loggins had
Speaker 1: just recently broken a rib while performing, you know, because
Speaker 1: he likes to leave it all out on the stage,
Speaker 1: doesn't And Pitchford was dealing with a pretty high fever
Speaker 1: and up throat, and the two of them would meet
Speaker 1: up to record, and they only had a few days,
Speaker 1: so they couldn't let their ailments slow them down. And
Speaker 1: as Pitchford said, quote, I think it was two or
Speaker 1: three days. We kept up this garade of him showing
Speaker 1: up on his pain killers and me and my pain killers,
Speaker 1: and us getting the gist of the song. Wow. I mean,
Speaker 1: can you imagine the magic that may have never happened
Speaker 1: if they hadn't pushed through and worked on this world
Speaker 1: changing song Mango. I mean, I may have never had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to sing that song in my high school
Speaker 1: show choir. I'll pull out the tape sometime to show
Speaker 1: you in Tristan, or maybe I'll just leave it at
Speaker 1: my parents house. But I'm honestly, I'm not sure I'd
Speaker 1: be the man I am today without that experience, though,
Speaker 1: So for that, I'm gonna have to give you today's
Speaker 1: fact off trophy Mango. And if there was ever a
Speaker 1: fact in my fact off windstreak, I'm glad that's the
Speaker 1: one of congratulations. Thank you so much, and thank you
Speaker 1: guys for listening. If we have forgotten any great facts
Speaker 1: that you'd like to share with us about pain killers
Speaker 1: or pain management, we'd love to hear those from. You
Speaker 1: can always email us part time Genius at how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. You can always call our seven fact
Speaker 1: hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius, or hit
Speaker 1: us up on Facebook or Twitter. We've loved the great
Speaker 1: facts that you guys have been sending, the great ideas
Speaker 1: that you've been sending, so please keep them coming, and
Speaker 1: thanks again for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't
Speaker 1: be possible without several brilliant people who do the important
Speaker 1: things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does
Speaker 1: the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and
Speaker 1: does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
Speaker 1: exact producer thing Gaveluesier is our lead researcher, with support
Speaker 1: from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and
Speaker 1: Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the show to
Speaker 1: your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard,
Speaker 1: we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like
Speaker 1: what you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review
Speaker 1: for us. Did we? Did we forget Jason? Jason who