Asked by: Mark Reiderman, Belgium
Your ability to withstand high levels of pain (pain tolerance) is quite different from the degree of physical stimulus required to generate the sensation of pain (pain threshold). Your pain threshold can be modified by drugs and other medical interventions, but no amount of mental preparation will reduce your threshold to pain.
Pain tolerance on the other hand is greatly affected by your mental state. Studies have shown that men have higher pain tolerance than women and that their tolerance is higher if they are in company than if they are alone. This might be to do with a desire to appear strong or invulnerable, which may have an evolutionary advantage.
Counterintuitively, regular exposure to pain actually reduces pain tolerance because the nerve endings become sensitised and generate more pain signals for a given degree of stimulus. So the bravest men are the ones who haven't been hurt before.
Read more:
- Are there any studies on the best over-the-counter painkillers?
- If the brain has no pain receptors, why do I get headaches?
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