How philosophy can change the understanding of pain. Dr. Sabrina Coninx from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Dr. Peter Stilwell from McGill University, Canada, have investigated how philosophical approaches can be used to think in new ways about pain and its management. They advocate not merely reducing chronic pain management to searching and treating underlying physical changes but instead adopting an approach that focuses on the person as a whole. They suggest three things, firstly, addressing pain should involve more than just looking for and treating underlying physiological changes. Secondly, chronic pain should be understood as a dynamic process in which many different factors interact in a non-linear way. Thirdly, patients should be encouraged to interact with their environment and identify possibilities for action. Pain treatment could therefore involve helping the patient to increasingly notice positively associated and personally meaningful options for action and view themselves as capable of taking action again. There is then less focus on the body as an obstacle, and instead, the patients pay more attention to how they can overcome limitations.
Salad or cheeseburger at workplace?
As per a large two-year study of hospital employees, the foods people buy at a workplace cafeteria may not always be chosen to satisfy an individual craving or taste for a particular food. Employees’ cafeteria purchases – both healthy and unhealthy foods – were influenced by their co-workers’ food choices. Based on cross-sectional and longitudinal assessments of three million encounters between pairs of employees making cafeteria purchases together, the researchers found that food purchases by people who were connected to each other were consistently more alike than they were different. The study made innovative use of cash register data to gain insights into how individuals’ social networks shape their health behaviour. The research suggests we might structure future efforts aimed at improving population health by capitalising on how one person’s behaviour influences another.
Newly discovered immune cell function vital to healing
Cardiovascular disease, the most common cause of death, is the result of oxygen deprivation as blood perfusion to affected tissue is prevented. To halt the development of the disease and to promote healing, the re-establishment of blood flow is crucial. Researchers at Uppsala University have discovered macrophages, the most common immune cells in the body which specialises in killing and consuming microorganisms play an important role in re-establishing and controlling blood flow, something that can be used to develop new drugs. This discovery led the research group to investigate whether their findings could be developed into a new treatment to increase blood flow to damaged leg muscles, thus stimulating healing and improving function. By increasing the local concentration of certain signal substances that bind to macrophages in the damaged muscle, the research group was able to demonstrate that more macrophages accumulated around the blood vessels, improving their ability to regulate blood flow.
