Got Pain? Fantasizing About Your Favorite Foods Might Make It Go Away.
August 4, 2008 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Food and Drink, Health, How To, Medicine, Morning News, Pain
Got Pain?
Then start fantasizing about all your favorite foods ’cause a new study has found that this seems to be a possible way of coping with chronic and acute pain.
The study had
“…60 healthy subjects to submerge their hand in icy water to determine their pain threshold and tolerance. During the second round, participants were instructed to imagine a favorite meal in detail, a neutral scene, such as people walking, or they were not instructed to fantasize about anything.”
The results, according to Dr. Hamid Hekmat, professor of psychology and lead author of the study, was that
‘…food fantasies such as imagining eating your favorite ice cream, chocolate cake or meal had a strong pain-attenuating effect. It enhanced mood, reduced anxiety, and helped coping with ice water pain.”
So what foods did the participants fantasize about…
Well, it’s probably no surprise that chocolate topped the list as the most common food fantasy, with 32% of the participants focusing in it’s mouthwatering qualities.
The next most common…
31% of the participants went for roast dinners, followed by pasta (14 percent), pizza (8 percent) and fruit (4 percent.)
So next time you’ve got a migrane or sore toe, why not try visualizing about that delicious roast dinner, chocolate bar, or banana split.
You never know, it might just do the trick…
Kelly Townsend
I think I’ll skip the fantasizing and proceed directly to the cupcake.
Oh, and take my hand out of the ice water. That might be a first step.
hey, one of the other blogs on this site has the same information. Do you guys copy each other?
Crabby, cupcakes sound like just the thing…
Tina, no copying. As health bloggers, we all probably read a lot of the same news reports and press releases, so there’s bound to be cross over at times…sad to think that you think we all copy each other!!!