Migralex Blog

Stress, pain, Elie Wiesel, and marijuana

Stress is a well-known reliever of pain, which offers a survival advantage. You do not feel the pain of a burn while running out of a burning building or the pain of a splinter while running away from a wild animal. Elie Wiesel told me that the only time in his life he had no headaches was while he was in Auschwitz.

Acute stress suppresses pain by activating brain pathways that engage opioid or non-opioid mechanisms. Animal studies have shown that opioid mechanism can be reversed by giving naloxone (a drug given to drug addicts who overdose on heroin or people who took too much morphine).

Another form of stress-induced pain suppression in our brains is mediated by the release of endogenous marijuana-like (cannabinoid) compounds in the brain. Researchers are trying to develop a drug that would provide pain relief by acting on cannabinoid receptors in the brain, without causing addiction and other negative effects of marijuana.

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