How Does Pain Reduce When We Place Our Hands Where It Hurts?

We frequently hit our own places. Sometimes our head is on a closet, sometimes our arm is on the door, sometimes our little toe is in a corner… No matter where or where we hit, our action is always the same. Taking our hand to that area and rubbing it.

It has become an instinct that we do to relieve pain, and when we do it, it really happens. a slight decrease in the pain or soreness of the area we feel.

There are receptors on our skin.

Receptors on our skin that detect different sensations; warnings on the skin It is sent to the brain through the nervous system. For example, when we hit our elbow somewhere, the receptors in that area are stimulated and transmit the pain to the brain.

When we touch that area after feeling pain, the receptors transmit this warning to the brain. The touch nerve pathway, which is thicker than the pain nerve pathway, creates a new input. We can also say, It leaves behind the nerve pathways that cause pain. This even has a place in science as the “Gate Control Theory of Pain”.

Signals compete among each other.

As we just mentioned, when different signals try to reach the brain, some are left behind because the gate mechanism Only one signal reaches the brain at a time it allows. Thus, stimuli such as touch, vibration and pressure outcompete pain signals.

However, there is an exception that is still unresolved. When we get hit somewhere and get hurt, we probably We don’t want anyone else to touch it. Isn’t it so contradictory?

Our other content that may interest you: