Does A Pain Management Doctor Treat Each Race Differently?

People that have a high tolerance for pain are highly regarded by others. Almost as if they have super powers. You’ll find a lengthy list of personalities in The Guinness Book of World Records that have defied various forms of pain. Such as pain from a bee or scorpion sting to snake bites or pain from auto accidents or fire accidents, everyone has a different tolerance for pain as any pain management doctor will testify to.

The definition of pain tolerance is how long the duration or how strong the intensity of pain a person is able and willing to endure. It has been observed that the tolerance for pain not only varies between people but fluctuates as well, depending on the severity.

There are many factors that are involved here like age, ethnicity, motivation, race, or sex. Other things that can factor into the level of pain endure are past experiences somebody has had with pain and their coping skills as well as their energy level. The point where a person feels pain is referred to as “pain threshold”.

Who Is The Strongest When It Comes To Pain?

Researchers have found that the male has more motivation to tolerate pain, most likely because of masculine stereotyping. Women, on the other hand, are stereotyped to express their pain at a lower tolerance.

In other studies done by pain management doctors and researchers, ethnic and racial differences in pain response and pain sensitivity found out that the African-American race has lower thresholds of pain tolerance as do Hispanics. Experiments also show that those who participated in pain-study from India and Nepal had higher pain tolerance than those in Western civilizations. This would suggest that there is something in the pain-killing and pain-processing part of the brain most likely varies by ethnicity and race.

There is No Uniform To Pain Tolerance

There isn’t any uniform to pain tolerance of people found throughout any research or study performed. Be it from identical stimuli, the  relationships have no uniform existing between pain and tissue damage. The duration and the intensity of pain, as well as other characteristics, are varied among patients that have had the same exact procedure.

It is thought by many that one’s past experience with pain will increase their tolerance of any future pain. This couldn’t be further from the truth according to experts and pain management doctors.

Repeated pain experience is more likely to make the awareness strong with how severe the pain can be and the challenges of finding relief of that pain. What research, studies, and any pain management doctor will tell you are that a person with a history of pain will have an anxiety level increased and their tolerance is lower.

Does Society Dictate Our Pain Tolerance

Men have always been expected to be tough when faced with danger, and indeed, they do have a higher tolerance when it comes to pain. Various studies have claimed that age is a factor in how one handles pain tolerance. One study suggested that as we get older, our pain tolerance decreases.

There was also a notation that for subjects with high incentive, there was a definite rise in blood pressure, which indicates being engaged and associated with higher pain tolerance.  A pain management doctor will watch their patients for any detrimental effects of pain that can be relieved like depressed immune function and decreased subcutaneous oxygenation which leads to infection. They have also seen patients with respiratory dysfunction.

It has been noticed that reassuring a patient can ease their distress and encouraging them to use pain relief medications and/or treatments will aid in reducing their pain, enabling them to have normal functioning.