Chris and I have left the TwInstitute to continue our quest for a pill free
pain treatment I actually couldn't find a scientist willing to do something
painful enough to both of us to really test the two method really yeah
so instead I've brought us here we're getting inked to science really yeah
tattoos are ideal for our swearing versus meditation experiment because
they combine the symptoms of acute and chronic pain
the only plus side from my point of view is that the needle won't contain any ink
so I'm getting nothing permanent nothing will I be able to see anything
at the end of it yeah I think so you'll probably be able to see like the design
in blood I did not feel in the zone at all for this let me just get let me just
get comfy here the plan is simple drive 30 seconds you can have 30 seconds Chris
and I will employ our pain relieving regimes shall we do this and see whether
we can withstand not one but three different foot tattoos make that noise
first up is the dorsal surface despite my obvious discomfort swearing is
dulling my pain and helping me cope
meanwhile Chris's mind-over-matter meditation is also significantly
lowering his pain perception the whole thing is just to try and relax you can't
make the pain go away but you can you can mind
next and supposedly more painful is a tattoo on the toes
again both of us can tolerate the pain something that without our techniques
would have been agonizing but there's no clear winner yet for tattoo number three
it's the sole of the foot so by all means if you feel like you need to tap
out tap out
reach with nerve endings this is so painful force armed that he goes
off-script extreme swearing like this can supposedly trigger a bigger
adrenaline release but in spite of that Tsar muster throw in the towel just two
minutes in okay okay how far have you got surely it's like twin state no it's
twit but deep in my meditative zone is strong so I'm just focusing on the on my
breathing I'm able to filter out the pain and get the full sole of the foot
to - meaning that for this experiment it's my pill free panacea that wins out
that was that that was the most painful things ever happened to me that was
painful but it was really interesting that the more I swore I could almost
feel the pain just getting down to being tolerable like it was a good coping
strategy so how was the meditation it was really good it was hard to do but it
supported what dozens of studies show which is that your mood your emotional
state dramatically affects the way you experience pain if you can have some
practice that is meditative whether it's prayer or a martial art or yoga you may
be able to reduce or improve the pain you experience