“From Mice to Men… and Women”
Writing for the Harvard Medical School, Robert Shmerling reveals why coffee could be a useful substitute for painkillers. Check out my observations below.
- A recent study in mice has discovered that being sleep-deprived intensifies a mice’s sensitivity to pain
- Restoring regular sleep counteracts the exaggerated response to pain, but more importantly, so did administering caffeine to the mice; reducing the pain sensitivity
- While it’s not clear yet if the same applies to humans as for mice, it’s certainly an interesting idea drawing a link between pain and sleep-deprivation, especially if coffee is the answer