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Starvation can help relieve persistent pain
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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In recent studies, scientists from the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that the feeling of hunger helps suppress chronic pain. Incidentally, this mechanism does not apply to acute pain.
Neurobiologists have identified three hundred brain cells responsible for the fact that the brain pays dominant attention to the lack of food, and not to constant pain. The experts thought: if we carefully study these cellular structures, this could give impetus to the development of new ways to relieve chronic pain.
New experiments allowed scientists to understand what effect hunger has on various painful conditions. Observations were conducted on laboratory rodents that were in hunger for 24 hours. As a result, the specialists noted that the reaction of mice to acute pain during hunger did not decrease, which cannot be said about chronic pain - the rodents began to react to it much less.
The researchers point out that the mice felt as if they had been given an analgesic drug.
“We couldn’t even imagine that the feeling of hunger would change the animals’ attitude to pain so much. But we personally managed to see the results – and, in our opinion, such a phenomenon is not without logic. So, even if the animal is injured, it should still have the strength to actively search for food – after all, its life depends on it,” explains the author of the experiment, Amber Alhadeff.
In the next study, the scientists noticed that hungry rodents easily visited places where their pain was felt more acutely. At the same time, their well-fed relatives tried to avoid such places.
Then the specialists began to study the part of the brain where the “pain-hunger” balance was regulated. In order to find out the mechanism of this process, the scientists activated a certain neural group that was standardly triggered by the feeling of hunger. It was discovered that after this, chronic pain weakened, and acute pain remained unchanged.
Subsequent studies have scientifically determined the location of the neurotransmitter responsible for selectively blocking the response to chronic pain. If the receptors of this neurotransmitter are blocked, the feeling of hunger ceases, and the pain intensifies again.
Experts note that if the results of the study can be applied to the human body, it will be possible to develop a new type of treatment for chronic pain.
“We did not set ourselves the task of completely eliminating pain, because this can lead to dangerous consequences for a person. Our goal is to alleviate the condition of patients suffering from chronic pain,” Alhadeff shares his conclusions.
In detail, all the results of the research work can be seen on the pages of the scientific journal Cell, as well as on the website http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)30234-4