Pain is something that humans have always wanted to mitigate and prevent,
but it’s also an essential function of the body. Though unpleasant, it lets us know that something
we’re doing is harmful to us, or alerts us to an area that needs help and attention.
Nevertheless, getting rid of pain is still a goal for science…
and a goal that new research has gotten closer to reaching, in a surprising way.
This is Unveiled and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
did scientists just discover a way to cure all pain?
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With something as general, widespread and uncomfortable as pain, you might think that
scientists would have a pretty good idea about how it works and what causes it. But that’s
not necessarily the case. In reality, pain is still one of the biggest mysteries in medicine.
Humans have always felt pain, we know that… but the explanations as to why have been
varied over history. Many ancient cultures interpreted it as being divine in nature.
The word “pain” even derives from the Latin word Poena, which means punishment,
and is testament to the fact that many thought it was a process of atonement to God.
Even civilizations as vast and impressive as the ancient Egyptians and Romans
thought of pain as a wholly existential experience with no physical root.
Those beliefs have more recently been challenged by science,
although the approach to pain is still an ongoing discussion. Why do some seem to
feel it more intensely than others? Why is there variety to pain, and to how it feels?
And, though it usually has an identifiable cause, why does chronic pain sometimes
linger for seemingly no reason, defying medical knowledge? According to some classifications,
pain can even be considered a disease in and of itself, under certain conditions.
Still, in all cases, and at the root, we today know the experience of pain is activated by the
nervous system. While there’s no single center for pain, as such, the spinal cord is key.
Here, the body receives distress signals from all parts of itself,
and responds by emitting glial cells, which are thought to control the levels of the pain we feel.
In some cases, it’s by analyzing this process that we can get a better understanding as to
why pain “thresholds” differ from person to person. Overall, drugs are currently
the best option we have to try to manage that process further, and thereby manage
pain. But they have plenty of drawbacks to them; alternative treatment options are always being
sought. And one of the more creative routes for pain management actually involves sound.
This might seem crazy at first. How could sound have an effect on the physical experience of pain?
But there is seemingly a link, and a strong one, as different studies have shown that sound has
amazing potential. In research with plants, for example, it’s been shown that by playing music
you can stimulate a plant’s cells to promote faster and healthier growth.
And, what’s more, plants apparently have musical preferences, too.
Studies show that they seemingly love (and gain better results through) classical or jazz music,
but can actually be slowed down or damaged by heavy metal. We already know that sound has some
effect on some biological organisms, then, but now… it goes beyond that. It’s been found that
sound waves can create literal order out of chaos at the subatomic level. The vibrations
of different sound frequencies can cause particles to align in specific ways, in a phenomenon called
Cymatics. The simplest way to demonstrate this is with a stream of water or a handful
of sand on a vibrational plate. Ultrasonic waves can even cause objects to levitate,
and some have gone so far as to claim that some of our most impressive buildings and
structures - like the pyramids - may have been built by exploiting the same principles of sound.
That’s probably not the case in reality, but sound is still capable of more than we imagine.
A new study, then, led by the neurologist Yuanyuan Liu at the U.S. Institute of Dental
and Craniofacial Research wanted to specifically investigate how sound can affect pain in mice.
For the experiment, the team injected mice with a type of red dye into their auditory cortex,
the part of the brain that processes noise… the idea being that through this, they’d be
able to track any noise-related brain activity. And, if the auditory cortex were to connect to
another part of the brain, then they would see that region light up, too, thanks to the dye.
Next, they unfortunately injected the mice with a painful solution into their paws…
before watching to see whether they experienced discomfort, which they’d
most likely show by licking their paws. With the setup complete, the researchers introduced sound.
They played the mice a variety of music at different volumes and observed the effect,
finding that, surprisingly, only how loud the music was had an impact on pain tolerance.
As long as the music was played at around fifty decibels, just above background noise,
it seemingly numbed the pain that the mice felt, while the genre didn’t seem to matter.
The thalamus is an area of the brain associated with pain and the sensation of being hurt,
and there was less activity there - fewer signals being fired - whenever music was playing
compared to when it wasn’t. And even when the mices’ paws were poked at for a reaction,
they gave none… further suggesting that they actually weren’t feeling pain anymore.
The results shocked the team, with Doctor Liu reflecting; “We were really surprised that the
intensity of the sound, and not the category or perceived pleasantness of sound, would
matter”. They also noted that the pain-relieving effects of the music lasted for up to two days
after it had stopped playing, which suggests a lingering analgesic (pain relieving) effect.
The results suggest that music might essentially impede the ability of the thalamus to process
discomfort. With the mice, there had seemed to be an active pathway between the auditory cortex
and the thalamus, implying that sound could be involved in pain management in the brain.
One question that science is asking now, then, is whether the same links could be
triggered in humans? The same experiment could theoretically be run on human subjects...
and there is already some precedent to suggest that sound can lessen our pain, too.
In the 1960s, dentists in the US ran a famous series of tests where they played music while
operating on more than 5,000 patients, and they found that it was an effective pain suppressant.
Similarly, more recent research into patients with fibromyalgia (rheumatic pain all over
the body) has shown that music can both decrease suffering and increase mobility.
Nevertheless, the “how” of all this still isn’t well understood. How does sound have
such an effect? One possible explanation is that we experience less discomfort whenever
the brain releases endorphins as a result of the music. Another is that patients possibly
become distracted by memories that music can bring up, taking our minds away from the pain.
But, then again, in the experiment with mice, it was shown that even white noise at the
right levels could have a soothing effect… and there’s nothing nostalgic about that!
Regardless, there’s big potential here, and there are hopes that these results could one day lead to
the development of safer pain relief treatments, rather than opioids. With pills replaced by
precisely managed music. We know that music is capable of activating parts of our bodies that
we normally wouldn’t think of. It’s one reason why it has had such a role to play in more spiritual
rituals and meditative practices for thousands of years. Some people can even have such intense
reactions to music that they experience the polar opposite to pain upon hearing it;
waves of pleasure throughout the body that’ve been described before as “skin orgasms”.
If this is developed into a workable pain remedy in the future, then, we could soon
have pain relief with zero side effects. Perhaps we’ll see specialized musical rooms designed as
pain relief stations; curated playlists that are clinically proven to soothe what ails you;
and rock concerts being prescribed as valid treatment for injuries.
Although these results might seem shocking or unbelievable, at the heart of it we know that
sound is energy. Sound also travels well through water, and since the human body is more water
than anything else… perhaps it’s not so shocking after all that sound could affect us so deeply.
There’s a way to go before the true extent of this research is known,
but that’s how scientists may have just discovered a way to cure all pain.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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