2023-05-27 11:03:38
Exercise is good for a person in many ways. It is healthy for the heart and blood vessels and promotes mental health. But did you know that it also raises your pain threshold? Anyway, off to the gym.
From Norwegian research among more than 10,000 adults, it appears that those who exercise have a higher pain threshold than the bench-sitters among us. And the following applies: the more exercise, the better the tolerance for pain.
Hand in cold water
Previous research has already pointed in that direction: more physical activity could reduce or even prevent chronic pain by raising the pain threshold. But until now, studies on the topic have been small or focused on too narrow a group of people. That is why Anders Årnes and colleagues at the University Hospital in Tromsø decided to go bigger and use data from a long-term population study in their country. The 2007-2008 and 2015-2016 data included information on physical activity and pain tolerance, which were measured by having participants hold their hand in cold water for as long as possible.
The conclusion is clear: the participants who self-reported being physically active in both rounds of the study had a higher pain threshold than those who led a sedentary lifestyle. And those who exercised a lot in both study periods had an even higher pain threshold. “We found quite large effects,” says researcher Anders Årnes Scientias.nl. “The sedentary subjects were able to hold their hand in the water for about 60 seconds, while the most active participants exceeded 80 seconds.”
More is more
This is especially interesting for people with chronic pain. They could benefit enormously from more exercise. “Being and staying physically active for long periods of time can raise your pain threshold. Whatever you do about exercise, the most important thing is that you do something,” the researchers said.
“The rule of thumb is: more is more,” continues Anders Årnes. “More activity leads to a higher tolerance. A large number of small studies have looked at the direct effect of different forms of activity on pain sensitivity. There are indications that HIIT is somewhat more strongly related to higher pain tolerance than, say, moderate intensity endurance exercise, but what we observe most consistently is that it is better to be active than inactive. And that any increase in physical activity is positive. Perhaps the most important thing is to be active at a level that you can sustain and build into your daily life, since the most important thing is to keep doing something. Choose something that you like. Then you last longer and associate the discomfort you experience during exercise with something positive and enjoyable.”
Chronic pain
The researchers were surprised by the strong results. “We were surprised that chronic pain did not reduce the effect of physical activity on pain threshold. If that effect is indeed due to being active then you would expect chronic pain to interfere with this process, but it appears to be just as strong for those in pain as for those without pain.” What the researchers also found remarkable is that there was no difference between men and women. “In general, we see smaller effects in women when it comes to pain tolerance, but that wasn’t the case this time.” Women also benefited fully from the effect of physical activity on the pain threshold.
Disturbed pain processing
But more research is needed. For example, it may also be the case that active people can exercise so hard because they have a higher pain threshold. They can simply endure more physical misery – whether it’s high-intensity exercise or pain.
“But the reason we’re actually investigating this is that some theories suggest that chronic pain may be caused by an impaired ability to process pain signals, as these signals seem to work differently in people with and without chronic pain,” the scientist explains. “This study is a first look at how physical activity over time is related to pain threshold in an entire population. In a follow-up study, we have already looked at how this effect of physical activity on pain tolerance affects our risk of chronic pain. So the question is whether pain tolerance could be one of the mechanisms by which physical activity protects us from chronic pain?” it sounds in conclusion.
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