Good Lifestyle

Let me be clear about one thing first—I am not recommending that anyone go out and contract COVID。 The virus is unpredictable, and still producessevere outcomes in many people—not to mention the fact that having it means potentially spreading it to others, thereby prolonging the pandemic. There was, however, one positive aspect of my infection, beyond the temporary immunity it gave me: COVID cured my chronic back pain. The results weren't permanent, sadly, but they were undeniable. As it turns out, I'm not the only one, and scientists are now looking into why a virus that causes pain in some people seems to relieve it in others. Read on for my story, and to learn about the research being done on COVID and chronic pain.

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I've had intermittent back pain for much of my adult life, but things took a turn for the worse on Thanksgiving 2020. (It may have had something to do with spending eight months living, working, and sleeping in my cramped studio apartment.) Suddenly, I had the kind of pain that interferes with daily activities and keeps you up at night. A series of doctors, tests, and medications did little to alleviate the problem. Like many people with chronic pain, I wasn't offered much in terms of an explanation or treatment.

Thankfully, weeks of physical therapy helped, though it never made the pain go away entirely. I still had bad days—sometimes bad weeks—where my back pain had me canceling plans and spending hours in a recumbent position because that was the only thing that seemed to help. Because there was no easily identifiable cause of my pain, there were limited options beyond PT, and no guarantees of long-term relief.

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In January I contracted Omicron, along with a staggering number of my fellow Americans. Thankfully, because I was triple vaccinated, I had a relatively minor case. Aside from a nasty cough, a painful sore throat, and one excruciating headache, I got off pretty easy. There were symptoms I had been concerned about, from loss of smell and taste to shortness of breath, but I luckily didn't experience any of them. I didn't even have to deal with far more common Omicron symptoms like fatigue and body aches. In fact—and much to my surprise—beyond the aforementioned sore throat and headache, my body didn't really hurt at all.

I was surprised that I didn't experience any of the standard COVID aches and pains, but I was even more surprised that the ache I'd sadly gotten used to in my lower back was nowhere to be found. I thought maybe it was my regular regimen of ibuprofen and acetaminophen—used to keep my headache at bay and stave off a fever—that was keeping my back in check, but I'd taken plenty of OTC medication before with little success. As I started to recover from COVID and feel a bit more normal, I realized that my back pain remained MIA.

I didn't want to get my hopes up: I've had periods of relief from back pain before, only to have it come roaring back. But as days without back pain became weeks and finally months, I had to admit that something had changed. I wasn't just experiencing a reduction in the number of bad days or less painful flareups—I had no back pain at all. Not even a twinge of discomfort. Now, nearly three months after the fact, my back is beginning to hurt again, but I'm certainly grateful for that impressive run of 100 percent pain-free days.

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The association between COVID and my lack of back pain seemed both obvious and confusing. Why would a virus known to 原因 pain have treated mine? But as it turns out, I'm not alone—and researchers are looking into why. According to an Oct. 2020 article from Canada's CBC, COVID's spike protein blocks pain signals to the brain. The virus' reason for doing that is not exactly altruistic: By reducing your body's ability to feel pain, COVID can keep you from realizing you're sick, thereby helping you infect others. (It's not doing this consciously, of course. This is just how viruses evolve.) But yes, the virus really can make you feel less pain—or in my case, at least for a period of time, no pain at all.

“这是一个真正精彩而且非常奇怪的发现，因为它是非常违反直觉的，”痛苦的研究员rajesh khanna，博士，告诉鲍勃麦克唐纳 在CBC系列上怪癖和夸克。 “为什么病毒会提供疼痛缓解？但是如果你觉得回来并真正看，这是一种非常巧妙的方式，使这个病毒成功。”

当时，Khanna表示，他的研究人员尚未确定病毒如何消除疼痛并同时导致它。 “这里有一些东西我们还没有想过，”他告诉CBC。该团队的初步研究covid和疼痛缓解 发表于杂志痛 2021年1月。

研究人员尚未确定的其他事情？在清除Covid感染后，为什么像我这样的人很久就会疼痛缓解。这使得病毒希望阻止疼痛，而你将其传播给其他人，但我的痛苦消失了几个月。再次，我不是唯一一个。 “它真的介意对我令我难以置信的是，因为我们的论文出版，我收到了几十封电子邮件，以及慢性疼痛患者的人。他们有一些受伤或疾病的长期慢性疼痛，”Khanna告诉CBC。 “所以令人惊叹的是当他们收缩Covid时，他们的痛苦已经消失了。”AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

他补充道，“在某些情况下，在某些情况下，当他们的covid解决时，他们的痛苦仍然存在。如此明显，我们不知道痛苦和科迪德的东西。”

当我觉得背痛慢慢回归时，我希望我们有更多的答案。正如我之前所说的那样，我没有倡导任何人出去获得Covid，也没有想到任何想法，这样做有多可能会对慢性痛苦的人提供任何持久的救济。与此同时，我在痛苦中经历了深刻的转变，使我的生活更美好，至少有一段时间。如果有一种孤立Covid的镇痛权的方法，它可能对这些慢性疼痛的人产生重大影响，并且是这种毁灭性大流行的少数白银衬里之一。

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