According to recent research data, there is a prominent connection between not just dopamine and chronic back pain, but also chronic pain in general. Let’s delve a bit deeper in an attempt to understand the connection between dopamine and back pain a bit better.
Back Pain or Joint Pain Can Lead to Depression
When someone suffers continuously and indefinitely from a constant pain in their back, or in any other joint of the body, it can lead to depression.
The cause and effect are not that hard to understand, because in order for the mind to stay happy and enthusiastic, it must reside in a healthy and fit body. Waking up in the morning with a frozen shoulder, or a cramped back cannot possibly be expected to do anything but spoil the mood of course. If that becomes a daily occurrence, the ensuing depression, or the susceptibility to depressive episodes is also increased simultaneously.
As is often noticed in arthritic patients post treatment, the intensity of their depressive moods begins to fade away with time, provided the treatment was successful in relieving, or at least reducing, the pain significantly enough.
Interestingly, that is not the only connection between dopamine and back pain, since imbalanced dopamine production can also lead to back pain, while proper modulation of the hormone might even help in reversing chronic pain, as we will see next.
Can Dopamine Imbalances Lead to Back Pain?
Until recently, it was only thought to be the other way around, meaning that everyone thought constant back pain made way for dopamine-deficient depression. While that remains true, a more intricate and potentially life-changing connection has also been established between dopamine and chronic pain now.
Chronic Pain and Dopamine
According to the study by the University of Texas at Dallas published in 2015, removing certain dopaminergic cells from the brain of mice resulted in a reversal of back pain, as well as a number of other chronic pain disorders in them.
The dopaminergic A11 cells are also present in human beings and play a very crucial role in regulating and managing the pain sensation, not unlike their action in rodents. While the research is still in its nascency, it could hold the key to permanently removing chronic pain sensations from the human body, which would relieve not just back pain, but all chronic pain in general!
Of course, pain is an important sensation and vital to the survival of life, so it would not have been feasible under normal circumstances. Fortunately, the study has shown results that confirmed dopamine regulation via the A11 cells do not affect the acute pain sensations. Essentially, you would still be able to feel a pin prick, but that throbbing back pain will be gone forever.
Can You Increase Dopamine Levels Naturally to See Any Benefits?
Although the research still has a long way to go before anything can be considered applicable in real life, it is possible to take dopamine supplements and combine them with a series of other dopamine balancing activities such as regular exercise and a healthy diet to relieve depression and manage back pain simultaneously.
There is more information available online at Vitamonk if you want the ultimate guide regarding what dopamine is, the roles it plays within our body and how you can regulate the hormone to balance out imbalances, if and when they occur. The results of a systematic approach could be quite profound on both back pain and depression.
Dopamine affects the back and other joints because it also plays a crucial part in regulating movements, which is a fact that we often forget. It isn’t just the happiness hormone; a dopamine balance is also imperative to maintain physical fitness, balance, locomotion and reduce pain sensations.
*collaborative post
