Eliminating acute pain leads to chronic pain
In a recent study, researchers found that relieving acute pain using anti-inflammatory drugs can increase the chances of developing chronic pain. This is yet another example of a general principle that I highlighted in a previous essay on the crucial role of oxidative stress in our body. Stress is a signal that triggers a systemic healing response, and transient stress often improves steady-state outcomes. In this case, our body’s response to inflammation heals and protects against chronic pain.
Modern medicine protects us against many acute illnesses that our ancestors routinely succumbed to. However, it has been much less successful in eliminating the chronic diseases that are pervasive today. But what if the chronic illnesses are not the residual but the consequence of our conquest of the acute illnesses of the past?
This principle isn’t just relevant to our health. In his book ‘Why things bite back’, Edward Tenner made the same observation about the modern world and its technological fixes when he noted that “our control of the acute has indirectly promoted chronic problems”. Stagnation, chronic malaise, and even decadence may just be the price we need to pay to avoid collapse and catastrophe.