The body, in the face of #physical and emotional pain, releases on its own a burst of opioids to reduce the neurochemical impact implied by discomfort in the first moments of perception. That is to say that in the minimum sense of discomfort, the body is able to master the sensation by expanding neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. Although the pharmaceutical industry has been in charge of promoting products that fulfill the function of the body, at present it is known that natural methods exist - and even much more economical.
According to the research team at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in the USA, Mindfulness or #Mindfulness meditation is one of these analgesic methods. Fadel Zeidan, professor of neurobiology and anatomy as well as research leader, explains that unlike pharmaceutical alternatives, mindfulness "does not employ the endogenous opioid system to reduce pain"; therefore, it is a therapeutic alternative that acts quickly to relieve chronic pain and without the need for opioids.
The interesting thing about the results is that, according to the researchers, the #meditation during a saline infusion helps to significantly reduce the intensity of the pain and the levels of discomfort; however, the infusion of naloxen without meditative activity did not make a significant difference in the perception of pain intensity or physical discomfort. What did surprise the researchers is that mindfulness meditation during a naloxen infusion made great reductions in the intensity of pain and discomfort. Now we need to discover if the causes or origins of the analgesic effect related to mindfulness meditation.
The main objective of this research, according to Zeidan, is to find a solution to chronic #pain while reducing "the growing number of individuals addicted to opiate substances, from prescription drugs to heroin." Therefore, the next step in the research is "to determine in which conditions mindfulness meditation can be useful to mitigate a little chronic pain and in such a case how it is achieved", and thus be used as a support tool in traditional therapies with drugs "To increase pain relief without the side effects of addiction or other consequences that could arise from the use of opiate substances."