More gain, no pain: Walking for 4 hours each week ‘may improve your pain threshold’

Being more active might help you cope better with pain.

Even walking for four hours a week can improve your pain tolerance, a study suggests, which experts hope could mean less need for painkillers to deal with everyday health problems like headaches and back pain.

The researchers looked at more than 10,700 people, who were asked to select one of four categories for their average physical activity in the past year.

If they trained or competed in sports several times a week, they could select the vigorous activity category, or they could select the moderate activity category if they did things like tennis or vigorous gardening for at least four hours a week.

If they walked, biked or did similar exercise for at least four hours a week, they selected the light exercise category, and if they normally did seated activities, they fell into the sedentary group.

All of these people dunked their hands in cold water, for as long as they could stand it, to test their tolerance for pain.

The most active people, in the vigorous activity category, could keep their hand in the water for more than 16 seconds longer than people in the sedentary group.

But even those in the light activity category could endure pain for almost seven seconds longer than sedentary people.

It is well known that exercise reduces everyday aches and pains by keeping joints flexible.

But the results suggest that fitter people may feel any pain they experience less intensely.

Anders Arnes, who led the study from the University Hospital of Northern Norway, said: “Exercise may have an effect on the same pathways in the brain as pain relievers such as morphine, although to a much lesser degree.”

‘Our results suggest that regular physical activity can help improve pain tolerance, just as the so-called ‘runner’s high’ we get after jogging can make pain seem less painful.

“Studies suggest that people who are more active use pain relievers less often, and we wondered if these effects of being active might even make things like childbirth feel a little less painful, although much more research would be needed to establish that”.

Previous studies have suggested that athletes have a higher pain tolerance compared to other people.

The new study involved people ages 30 to 87 who were asked about their physical activity in two surveys seven to eight years apart.

Among those who took both surveys, those who reported at least four hours of moderate or vigorous activity, at both times, could hold their hand in cold water for 20 seconds longer than sedentary people.

When the averages of both surveys were taken, people who did vigorous activity could endure pain for 16.3 seconds longer than sedentary people, while those who did moderate exercise could endure it for 14.1 seconds longer, and people who they did light exercise like walking they could bear it. for 6.7 more seconds.

These results came even after the study authors took into account other factors that could affect pain tolerance, such as people’s age or health conditions.

The authors of the study, published in the journal PLOS One, conclude: ‘Getting or staying physically active over time can benefit your pain tolerance.

‘Whatever you do, the most important thing is that you do something.’