This weekend I went on a two-day camping trip, which afforded me the opportunity to imagine the environment in which our species evolved. And to do a bunch of bitching and whining about all the minor discomforts I experienced in that environment. And that led me to some speculations about whether the extremely comfortable nature of our modern life can dysregulate a
I fully agree with your comparisons. Homo sapiens has adapted itself into a fake environment resulting in evolution drift and change as per Darwin's theories of evolution in different species. Man is today driven by consumerism and false realities of instant short-lived gratification. It is difficult to prove this objectively but I believe that homosapiens will eventually go full circle to auto distruction. Clinical experience of 25 years convinces me of your observations and the fact that we have forgotten how to move due to new comforts and technology our nervous system has maladapted to this pandemic of epic proportions with resultant chronic pain and illness.
Especially as we grow more aware of the propensity of certain pathogens to trigger prolonged immune derangement, it’s clear that more stressors ≠ more better. If a stressor seems to have a relieving effect, why?
For example, when people seek out “helminth therapy” (infection with helminths in hopes of therapeutic benefit) for immune derangements like atopy, they’re seeking out *helminth* therapy, not “any infection will do” therapy. Helminths have evolved tricks for downregulating their hosts’ immune system in order to survive in their hosts better. Attempting “COVID therapy” for immune downregulation seems more likely to backfire spectacularly than actually work.
While atopy and autoimmunity could be anthropomorphized as “bored immune system with nothing better to do starts attacking the wrong thing”, once those diseases are established, the immune system becomes quite busy — not bored at all! Moreover, such diseases cause considerable mundane discomfort, even with modern treatments. If these diseases could reduce chronic pain simply by being stressors, by introducing some (these days, often) manageable discomfort into people’s lives, then people with these diseases would have less chronic pain, but instead they have more.
Paul Ingraham at PainScience points out that the relieving effect of many therapies, including exercise, massage, and counter-irritation, may be due, not to irritant effects as such, but to sheer novel sensation. Sensation which, while it may not be entirely comfortable (“hurts so good” is a thing), is (ideally) not threatening.
It occurs to me that escaping our modern lives by living rough for a while bombards us with all sorts of novel sensation, only some of which is unpleasant, and whose net effect (for those of us who enjoy it enough to keep doing it) is pleasant.
It is, of course, also true that discomfort borne in pursuit of something desirable causes less suffering than discomfort that seems unrelated to or even opposed to achieving our goals.
The description of your experience camping reminded me of pain science researcher, Lorimer Mosley's lived experience where he explains his familiarity with being scratched as a child "outside in the bush" allowed his nervous system to dismiss what was a very dangerous and life threatening event of a snake bite, as simply a scratch from a twig.
I have the belief that the counter-irritant pain strategy has been an example of the brain switching it's attention to the most novel and again possibly most dangerous thing affecting the individual. A good self preservation strategy. I think TENS is a good example of this. An electrical stimulation is for most of us a very different experience that as children we have been advised to be careful of, and to avoid it. On a similar note I believe I was taught at some time or it was suggested which made a lot of sense that the brain will attend to the most intense stimulation while ignoring lesser stimuli. This serves us allowing by allowing us to not be overwhelmed by a multitude of simultaneous painful stimuli. This would allow one to cope in the face let's say multiple bee stings in various parts of our body should we have disturbed a nest. I imagine that it would be the stings that were on those parts of the body which had greater representation on the sensory homunculus that we would be burdened with experiencing as opposed to each one equally. Obviously each sting wouldn't be equal in reality but if they were is the premise. Just some rambling thoughts that came up for me after reading another of your interesting articles.
I fully agree with your comparisons. Homo sapiens has adapted itself into a fake environment resulting in evolution drift and change as per Darwin's theories of evolution in different species. Man is today driven by consumerism and false realities of instant short-lived gratification. It is difficult to prove this objectively but I believe that homosapiens will eventually go full circle to auto distruction. Clinical experience of 25 years convinces me of your observations and the fact that we have forgotten how to move due to new comforts and technology our nervous system has maladapted to this pandemic of epic proportions with resultant chronic pain and illness.
I’ve seen the hygiene hypothesis updated to the old friends hypothesis:
https://www.grahamrook.net/OldFriends/oldfriends.html
Especially as we grow more aware of the propensity of certain pathogens to trigger prolonged immune derangement, it’s clear that more stressors ≠ more better. If a stressor seems to have a relieving effect, why?
For example, when people seek out “helminth therapy” (infection with helminths in hopes of therapeutic benefit) for immune derangements like atopy, they’re seeking out *helminth* therapy, not “any infection will do” therapy. Helminths have evolved tricks for downregulating their hosts’ immune system in order to survive in their hosts better. Attempting “COVID therapy” for immune downregulation seems more likely to backfire spectacularly than actually work.
While atopy and autoimmunity could be anthropomorphized as “bored immune system with nothing better to do starts attacking the wrong thing”, once those diseases are established, the immune system becomes quite busy — not bored at all! Moreover, such diseases cause considerable mundane discomfort, even with modern treatments. If these diseases could reduce chronic pain simply by being stressors, by introducing some (these days, often) manageable discomfort into people’s lives, then people with these diseases would have less chronic pain, but instead they have more.
Paul Ingraham at PainScience points out that the relieving effect of many therapies, including exercise, massage, and counter-irritation, may be due, not to irritant effects as such, but to sheer novel sensation. Sensation which, while it may not be entirely comfortable (“hurts so good” is a thing), is (ideally) not threatening.
It occurs to me that escaping our modern lives by living rough for a while bombards us with all sorts of novel sensation, only some of which is unpleasant, and whose net effect (for those of us who enjoy it enough to keep doing it) is pleasant.
It is, of course, also true that discomfort borne in pursuit of something desirable causes less suffering than discomfort that seems unrelated to or even opposed to achieving our goals.
That's brilliant Todd! Also supports my grandkids getting hurt learning new bike tricks saying " oh Nana - this is nothing ! Just a flesh wound! 😂"
I'm no scientist, but this sure seems plausible. Thanks for reposting this.
The description of your experience camping reminded me of pain science researcher, Lorimer Mosley's lived experience where he explains his familiarity with being scratched as a child "outside in the bush" allowed his nervous system to dismiss what was a very dangerous and life threatening event of a snake bite, as simply a scratch from a twig.
I have the belief that the counter-irritant pain strategy has been an example of the brain switching it's attention to the most novel and again possibly most dangerous thing affecting the individual. A good self preservation strategy. I think TENS is a good example of this. An electrical stimulation is for most of us a very different experience that as children we have been advised to be careful of, and to avoid it. On a similar note I believe I was taught at some time or it was suggested which made a lot of sense that the brain will attend to the most intense stimulation while ignoring lesser stimuli. This serves us allowing by allowing us to not be overwhelmed by a multitude of simultaneous painful stimuli. This would allow one to cope in the face let's say multiple bee stings in various parts of our body should we have disturbed a nest. I imagine that it would be the stings that were on those parts of the body which had greater representation on the sensory homunculus that we would be burdened with experiencing as opposed to each one equally. Obviously each sting wouldn't be equal in reality but if they were is the premise. Just some rambling thoughts that came up for me after reading another of your interesting articles.
"Pain is mandatory, suffering is optional." : )