Polio Survivors Having a High Threshold for Pain
Original Post: My doctors have often told me I have a high tolerance to pain. What are your thoughts?
Dr. Bruno’s Response: Our 1984 study showed polio survivors are TWICE as sensitive to pain as non-polio survivors. You have to have a higher tolerance or you couldn't survive.
The problem for polio survivors is that the poliovirus killed off the neurons that produce the body's own morphine-like opiates - endorphins and enkephalins - in the brain and spinal cord. So polio survivors can't "medicate" themselves against pain no matter how many more opiate receptors they produce.
It's like having 10, one-dollar bills (i.e., endorphins and enkephalins) and 100 banks (i.e., anti-pain opiate receptors) that want them. The $10 only goes so far; 90 banks are going to go without. That's why polio survivors need more pain medication than non-polio survivors . . . to fill the empty opiate receptors.