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Physical Activity Increase Pain Tolerance?
Does physical activity increase pain tolerance? That sounds counterintuitive to me…But, yes, PA increases pain tolerance according to the study linked below.
I am a long-term survivor of a blood cancer called multiple myeloma. I underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation when I was first diagnosed. As a result, I developed many long-term side effects. Many of them cause chronic pain.
To make matters worse, I fell on my ass about a year ago. No broken bones, but I developed serious nerve pain down my right hamstring. Long story short, I live with nerve and joint pain.
Pain Habituation – Tolerance of Pain through movement
The solution? A combination of non-conventional pain therapies. I say non-conventional because I won’t take NSAIDS or opiates, or conventional pain therapies. Physical activity to increase pain tolerance is one of my non-conventional pain therapies.
My other non-conventional pain therapies are:
- Acupuncture twice a week-
- CBD ointment (CBD oil with menthol vaseline goop)
- Moderate daily exercise- (I count this as physical activity)
- I stretch a lot during the day-
As you can see, none of these therapies makes a huge difference in managing my chronic pain. I believe it is the combination of all the above that allows me to manage my pain.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with questions about your MM or managing your chronic pain.
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population
Abstract
Physical activity (PA) might influence the risk or progression of chronic pain through pain tolerance. Hence, we aimed to assess whether habitual leisure-time PA level and PA change affects pain tolerance longitudinally in the population.
Our sample (n = 10,732; 51% women) was gathered from the sixth (Tromsø6, 2007–08) and seventh (Tromsø7, 2015–16) waves of the prospective population-based Tromsø Study, Norway. Level of leisure-time PA (sedentary, light, moderate, or vigorous) was derived from questionnaires; experimental pain tolerance was measured by the cold-pressor test (CPT).
We used ordinary, and multiple-adjusted mixed, Tobit regression to assess:
- the effect of longitudinal PA change on CPT tolerance at follow-up, and
- whether a change in pain tolerance over time varied with level of LTPA.
We found that participants with high consistent PA levels over the two surveys (Tromsø6 and Tromsø7) had significantly higher tolerance than those staying sedentary (20.4 s. (95% CI: 13.7, 27.1)).
Repeated measurements show that
- light (6.7 s. (CI 3.4, 10.0)),
- moderate (CI 14.1 s. (9.9, 18.3)),
- and vigorous (16.3 s. (CI 6.0, 26.5))
PA groups had higher pain tolerance than sedentary, with non-significant interaction showed slightly falling effects of PA over time.
In conclusion, being physically active at either of two time points measured 7–8 years apart was associated with higher pain tolerance compared to being sedentary at both time-points. Pain tolerance increased with higher total activity levels, and more for those who increased their activity level during follow-up.
This indicates that not only total PA amount matters but also the direction of change. PA did not significantly moderate pain tolerance change over time, though estimates suggested a slightly falling effect possibly due to ageing.
These results support increased PA levels as a possible non-pharmacological pathway towards reducing or preventing chronic pain…
Conclusion
In this study of a general population sample, being physically active across two measurements was associated with higher pain tolerance at follow-up as compared to being sedentary at both time-points.
Furthermore, changing PA from lower to higher levels might be associated with a higher pain tolerance than an equally large change going from higher to lower PA. This might indicate that it is not only the total PA amount that matters but also the direction of change.
Repeated measurements of this association in the same individuals over two time points found a negative change in pain tolerance over time that was not significantly moderated by LTPA. This indicates a strong positive association between physical activity and pain tolerance which was independent of time passing.
Nevertheless, some findings indicated that LTPA might have a diminishing positive association over time, possibly due to ageing.
As pain tolerance has been suggested to impact risk, or severity, of chronic pain, these results might suggest increasing PA levels as a possible non-pharmacological pathway towards reducing or preventing chronic pain.
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