pain mitigation

[Leslie Kay]

In article <18MAY94.11541955 at sienna.cc.utexas.edu>,
 <ljh at sienna.cc.utexas.edu> wrote:
>I don't know about stroking an injured area per se, but acupressure
>(to which I was introduced through martial arts) certainly can have
>an effect.
>          Lisa Harris

I remember from introductory neurobiology that pressing on an injured
area can deactivate the pain receptors.  That's why if you hit your 
thumb with a hammer the first response is to squeeze it.  I forget now
how this works or if it works later than right after the injury (I
think it does).  It has something to do with synapses in the spinal
cord being inhibited by the pressure receptors (?).

Leslie Kay
lmk2 at garnet.berkeley.edu