INSIGHTS Where Pain Relief Begins

Your brain plays a crucial role in helping you feel better.

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Pain "is felt in the body, but it's an experience of the mind," says Darcy Mandell, Ph.D., a pain psychologist at Kaiser Permanente. Say you twist your ankle. Receptors in the joint shoot signals to your brain that say, "Hey, there's a threat down here!" If you were walking in the woods when you stumbled, your brain might immediately produce a sensation so sharp you'd have to limp home. But if you tripped because there was a poisonous snake in your path, your brain might determine that the reptile was the greater danger. You'd hightail it out of there, not giving your ankle much thought until you were safely home. Same injury, different brain response.