Best way to increase pain tolerance?

How does pain tolerance increase?

• I've heard them both ways. One is that the pain receptor nerves gets dull so to say, after continual stimulation and thus each stimulation feels less stimulating (for a lack of a better word. I'm quite sleepy right now haha) The other is that continual stimulation of the pain receptors cause the receptors to become more sensitive. (Which I think is crap since addictions develop because the euphoric feeling becomes less and less effective each time, thereby needing more or something strong) Thanks and I wouldn't mind a wordy, scientific, maybe even nerdy answer.

• Answer:

  Clinical studies by the journal of Psychosomatic Medicine found that "men had higher pain thresholds and tolerances and lower pain ratings than women" when exposed to cold pressor pain. The study asked participants to submerge their hands in ice water (the cold pressor pain procedure) and were compensated financially for keeping their hand submerged. Suggested explanations for this difference include that "men are more motivated to tolerate and suppress expressions of pain because of the masculine sex role, whereas the feminine sex role encourages pain expression and produces lower motivation to tolerate pain among women." A similar study published in the same journal focused on the effects of having individuals perform the ice water procedure while accompanied by another participant. Their results revealed that "Participants in the active support and passive support conditions reported less pain than participants in the alone and interaction conditions, regardless of whether they were paired with a friend or stranger. These data suggest that the presence of an individual who provides passive or active support reduces experimental pain." Effect of exposure to pain It is widely believed that regular exposure to painful stimuli will increase pain tolerance – i.e. increase the ability of the individual to handle pain by becoming more conditioned to it. However, this is not true – the greater exposure to pain will result in more painful future exposures. Repeated exposure bombards pain synapses with repetitive input, increasing their responsiveness to later stimuli, through a process similar to learning. Therefore, although the individual may learn cognitive methods of coping with pain, these methods may not be sufficient to cope with the boosted response to future painful stimuli. "An intense barrage of painful stimuli potentiates the cells responsive to pain so that they respond more vigorously to minor stimulation in the future." Because of this, trauma victims (or patients in pain) are given painkillers (such as morphine) as soon as possible – to prevent pain sensitization. Kalat suggests that morphine should be taken before surgery. "People who begin taking morphine before surgery need less of it afterward." Nerdy enough for you?