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Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
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Bootknife-Jackson
11/20/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
without fuzzyness OR addiction!? no thank-you!
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JojiMyers
11/20/09

@Bootknife-Jackson: Torture? What torture? It's all in your mind...
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Bootknife-Jackson
11/20/09

@JojiMyers: all school children should strive to methodically develop a strict drug and alcohol regiment, and stick to it.

#calendar
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Hahaue
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
What wonderful news. As a chronic pain sufferer, I greatly look forward to what this research might mean for pain killers in future.
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Starwatcher
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
Great. So the gov't can finally make low-grade narcotics completely illegal, as they've always wanted to do anyway. Gawd, how I hate the United States of Buzzkill.
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BadUncle
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
But I want the brain-fuzzy part.
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the_amazing_doug
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
i wonder if this would help for something like fibromyalga...
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LittleDragon
11/19/09

@the_amazing_doug: My thoughts exactly.
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twophrasebark
11/19/09

@the_amazing_doug:

I thought the same thing.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
11/19/09

@the_amazing_doug: I totally hope so. It would be a much bigger boon to chronic pain sufferers than to acute ones (where the fuzzy-brain stuff is the fun short-time reward after the injury).
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SJ_Edwards
11/19/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: Yep, the first time I was prescribed an opiate, I was all "Wow, so this is what it's like to be without pain! No wonder other people are so frigging cheerful all the frigging time!".

Four hours later, when the pain receptors opened up and started screaming (ten times louder than before) "Feeed Meeee! Seymour!" and after the side effects had already kicked in (with a vengeance!). Not so much.

Last time I ever took them, last time I ever will.
I'd rather do the 'boiling frog thing' and get gradually used to it as it escalates, until a better more liveable long term solution appears.

Then, "I'm in like Flynn".
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EdificeComplex
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
In principle it sounds similar to implanted neurostimulators. But if they could achieve the same results with medication it would obviously save anyone from having to have surgery to implant the devices.
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palmsix000
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
is this what modern medicine is about?, NOT HEALING but preventing discomfort so we keep coming back for more meds?, nature has refined and perfected pain for millions of years now all we want to do is just ignore it.
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SJ_Edwards
11/19/09

@palmsix000: Evolution doesn't give a damn about us, after we've served our purpose of selecting a mate with 'good' genes and combining with their genes to create a new gene exemplar.

If you're a man, you are then surplus to requirements (other than to do this again as many times as possible, 'The Ghenghis Khan Effect'), if you are a woman you're needed a bit longer to raise the offspring til they can protect themselves (that's why, all things being equal, women live longer than men).

If you plan on living longer than a 'generation' (and who doesn't?) [en.wikipedia.org] [25.2 years in the US, from the mother's first child to the daughter's first child] you are going to pick up injuries as you go along (and get older and slower and more vulnerable to their causes) and are just going to get 'old' (which is, as my mother once told me "Just one damn thing after another").

You could of course just volunteer for 'The Carousel' from Logan's Run at 30, but most won't.

But you're right, modern medicine (and pharmacology) at the moment, is designed to mitigate, relieve and control, not cure. Because 'curing' is not yet possible (that may change with time) or 'economic', for many remaining diseases and people will pay (almost) anything to live longer without pain.

May you live long enough, for your biology not to be your destiny :)

*Vulcan salute*
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Rasselas
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
The moment when I broke my leg was far and away the most painful, but about a month later, the pain of the almost-healed bones kept me from sleeping for a week.
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ManchuCandidate
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
I don't think this is the best way to go. As a runner, I've seen many people get reinjured or get worse is in large part because they assume their parts are fine when the body is still in the healing process.
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Edited by ManchuCandidate at 11/19/09 3:04 PM ManchuCandidate was starred ManchuCandidate was unstarred

Chip Overclock
11/19/09

@ManchuCandidate: This stuff will be the next sports drug to be abused. "Play _through_ the pain."
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Kitradu
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
I'm no scientist but I always assumed "pain" was the body and its hurt parts saying "sit down and shut up" and "don't touch that!" But I guess that makes me sound like a dick, I hate pain and load up on ibuprofen on a regular basis. :P
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SJ_Edwards
11/19/09

@Kitradu: The first time you get intermittent Tinnitus or any other symptom of peripheral neuropathy ..... STOP taking ibuprofen! (and don't risk it turning permanent by resuming use after the side-effects dissipate)
There's only a very short window, where the side-effects from long term NSAID use, manifest themselves before they become irreversible.
Have said that, the beneficial effects of ibuprofen use [not just pain relief (hugely important to your long term health itself), but damage prevention from inhibiting the runaway inflammatory cycle (which can permanently disable)] far outweigh the risks for most people, for a long, long time of very heavy use.
Read up on it. Ask other people. Ask a doctor. Ask a pharmacist.
Pain free is good, damage free is good :)
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Makidian
11/19/09

In reply to Get Ready for the Next Generation of Painkillers
I will test it right now and not even ask a lot of questions. Of course I experience non-injury related chronic pain but pain killers suck and I get tired of taking them despite how much they and my other medicines help.
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mikecap
10/22/09

In reply to An Input/Output Device for the Brain - Made of Light, Algae, and Bacteria
What they may also not have mentioned was that, prior to the mice being injected with the retrovirus that used blue light sensitive genes to alter their eyes, they were previously blind (as is genetically common with lab mice). So it's also basically a potential cure for blindness, or potentially a way to allow humans to see other forms of light if genes are discovered that are sensitive to say, infrared or ultraviolet spectra. #neuroscience
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mikecap
10/22/09

In reply to An Input/Output Device for the Brain - Made of Light, Algae, and Bacteria
This was discussed at the Singularity Summit a few weeks back... you guys should have had someone covering it! #neuroscience
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SkippyTheMarine
10/21/09

In reply to Barack Obama Lowered Republicans' Testosterone
This reminds me of a study I heard on NPR about studying in Community College. They said, the kids who studied more did better, while the kids who had to work while going to school did worse. Weird. I mean, if you focus solely on school, you did better than if you had a job?

How much did this study cost, about a million dollars? #neuroscience
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Bootknife-Jackson
10/21/09

@SkippyTheMarine: go science! #neuroscience
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
10/21/09

In reply to Barack Obama Lowered Republicans' Testosterone
Why do they think they have to move on to studying sports teams? I know I've read at least 2 reports of the same thing happening to sports fans when their teams lose, from different countries.

So, DUH... they're repeating old studies with bad methodology. I guess this is what passes for intellectual at Duke? #neuroscience
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Klebert L. Hall
10/22/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.:

I'm going to go with: for the money.
-Kle. #neuroscience
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