Pain
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Are runners stoical? An examination of pain sensitivity in habitual runners and normally active controls.
Anecdotal and clinical reports suggest that athletes are stoical. However, there are few studies comparing persons who exercise regularly with those who do not. This study compared two independent samples of regular runners and normally active controls, both without recent exercise, on cold pressor, cutaneous heat, and tourniquet ischemic pain tests. ⋯ The cohorts also did not differ in their report of ischemic pain sensations. Thus, these data do not generally support the hypothesis of pain insensitivity or stoicism in habitual runners. Rather, insensitivity occurs only in their response to noxious cold, which is suggested to be an adaptation to regular training.
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Clinical Trial
A psychophysical study of secondary hyperalgesia: evidence for increased pain to input from nociceptors.
Substantial evidence suggests that the hyperalgesia to mechanical stimuli that occurs in an area of uninjured skin surrounding a site of injury (area of secondary hyperalgesia) arises from activity in low-threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMs). In this study, we have investigated if activity in mechanically sensitive nociceptors also contributes to this secondary hyperalgesia. It is known that all woollen fabrics excite LTMs, but that only the prickly ones activate mechanically sensitive nociceptors. ⋯ On the other hand, little if any pain was evoked by the fabrics when applied to normal skin, but substantial pain was produced by all fabrics when applied to hyperalgesic skin. The pain ratings were graded with the ratings of prickle so that fabrics that evoked the greatest prickle also evoked significantly more pain. The magnitude of pain increased linearly with prickle sensation; the slope of this regression function increased substantially in hyperalgesic skin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)