Human body may have extra skin sensors
Doctors have been working for years trying to understand the reasons behind migraines and fibromyalgia but have not found reasons behind the pain. Doctors from the University of Liverpool may have accidently found that the human body has nerves at the end of blood vessels and sweat glands that can report touch and pain back to the brain. The find happened when doctors were trying to understand why two patients were having problems with feeling certain types of pain and touch. It turned out that these patients had no sensatory system in the skin that the rest of us did. In that case under what we knew about touch and nerves in the skin they should not have been able to feel anything, but they were able to do normal life tasks that required them to touch and understand hot and cold. Doctors were puzzled until one of them remembered research on nerve endings that are on sweat glands and blood vessels. Those nerve endings are able to take the place of regular nerve endings and report on the regular feeling and touch back to the brain that we all feel. It is not at the level that most of us are able to feel but it is enough to work through life without major issues. However it these nerves become inflamed or are attacked by bacteria or viruses then they could report pain over a large area that would not be reported by the regular touch and pain receptors of the skin. More research needs to be done to understand exactly how these nerves work and how they report this information to the brain. However this could be used as a basis for new treatment of fibromyalgia and to determine which drugs will work best on these receptors. (Source: The Tech Generation)
Research points people in new and strange directions, and it is great to see that work has moved forward in helping people suffering from fibromyalgia. There are probably other areas of the body where receptors are found by not well understood. Pain and how the brain receives and processes that data is an area that needs more research. Certain classes of pain drugs are known to work on pain receptors or areas of the brain that receive that information, but exactly how the interaction works is a mystery. That needs to be cleared up if we are to get better pain medications that only work on the receptors we want and not on muscle receptors like we have now with drugs like Oxycontin. While this drug is a strong pain killer it also dramatically slows down the bowel forcing the patient to take addition drugs to keep their lower intestines working properly. There are other contraindications for these drugs that patients need to work with that would be nice if the pain drugs were better aimed at where the damage is.
There are devices that can be implanted near the spine with either electrodes or needles that are implanted in the damaged area of the spine. Electrical stimulation or drugs are sent to the location at regular intervals and can be adjusted by either the doctor or the patient. In this way the drugs are sent to only the place that they are needed and the patient can stay relatively clear minded from the drugs and since a smaller dose is used the bowel is now as effected. While these are very effective the patient must go through an operation and recovery, both of which can have issues of infection that require more drugs and therapy. Many people find these implants to be very effective and work better than the drugs they were taking and do a better job of handling pain spike because the patient can control extra doses if a problem crops up. Normally addition drugs are taken by mouth and can take anywhere from 10 minutes to over an hour to become effective which is a long time to wait for pain relief.
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User Comments
We have had problems with pain doctors for many years. After kissing way too many frogs we found a good pain group in Atlanta. There are several doctors (two have worked on me) at the Interventional Spine and Management Center. The doctors are very goold at making sure your pain meds are working well for you and use both pain blocks and ketamine therapy for those with very bad pain issues (sounds like you may be a candidate for this). If you are interested in contacting this group either look them up online or drop us an email at webmaster@spinalcordresources.com and we can send you the contact info. Dr. Fowler is my doctor and he has dramatically dropped the pain I was dealing with and can now work for several hours at a time before I get tired out.
Massive pain can destroy your life and make everything miserable. We know real time how bad this can be because we deal wit CRPS. I can attack you at any time and the pain is crushing, where only injected pain killers have any effect on reducing the pain. Pain meds have been working well with us so I have not looked at spinal cord simulators or pain pumps that inject baclofen directly into the damaged area. A friend that had uncontrollable back pain had a stimulator implanted and it has changed her life dramatically. She was unable to work most of the day and there were many flareups that sent her to the hospital. The doctors first implant electrodes and tape the device outside the body to make sure it works well for the patient. Once the settings are dialed in and the patient is happy with the results the stimulator is then implanted and the patient is given a controller that can increase or decrease the power sent to the electrodes.
Hopefully that will give you something to think about so you can decide the best course of pain control. This is something that is very personal and must be customized for each patient. Good luck and we hope to hear from you soon.
Greg
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hi are you talking about the spinal cord stimulator and pain pump that have been around for years or something newer and more exciting for pain. I am desperate for help. Above knee amputee.2 catastrophic accidents,68 operations,23 broken bones,1400+ days in the hospital, 4 months in the U of MI burn unit from a complete degloving injury from mid thigh to toes, pelvis was completely separated in 6 places. Too much to explain. My leg was saved in 1981 and amputated in 1996. Having one leg is the easy part. Living with the excruciating,gnawing,never ending phantom pain is driving me crazy. So difficult and with all I have been through this pain is the worst. I’m desperate. I have a good pain team but they need to be more aggressive. Any input would be welcomed. Also the constipation from opiates gets to me. I want to get the relistor shots. Blocks opiate from effecting internal organs but not analgesia