More Than a Cruel Enemy

UNRELENTING pain can devastate people’s lives. It steals their peace, joy, and livelihood, making life so miserable that some seek relief through suicide. Medical missionary Albert Schweitzer concluded: “Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself.”

Literally hundreds of millions suffer horribly. ‘If we could be suspended in timeless space over an abyss from which the sounds of revolving earth rose to our ears,’ a French surgeon said, ‘we would hear an elemental roar of pain uttered as with one voice by suffering mankind.’

Indeed, what the Christian apostle Paul wrote over 1,900 years ago has even more force today: “All creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain together until now.”​—Romans 8:22.

Major Health Problem

One in 8 Americans experiences the terrible pain of osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. Even more people have racking back pain. Others must endure the painful effects of cancer and heart disease.

Millions more suffer from excruciating headaches, toothaches, earaches, hemorrhoids, and a multitude of other illnesses and injuries. No wonder that in a recent year, Americans spent $2.1 billion on nonprescription pain relievers alone, or that pain is called “America’s hidden epidemic.”

John J. Bonica, perhaps the foremost authority on pain, said: “From the dollars and cents point of view, and from the point of view of human misery, chronic pain is more important than virtually all other health-​care problems put together.”

A Life Without Pain?

In the face of such stark reality, it may appear rash to suggest the possibility of life without pain. Therefore, what the Bible says may seem farfetched, namely: “[God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes . . . neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.”​—Revelation 21:4.

Yet, the possibility of life without pain is not farfetched. But think a moment. What does that scripture really mean? There are people today who have no sense of pain. They are born without it. Are they to be envied? Anatomist Allan Basbaum said: “Not to have pain at all is a disaster.”

If you were unable to feel pain, you would probably not notice that you had developed a blister until it became a badly ulcerated sore. According to a news report, the parents of one little girl who felt no pain “would sometimes smell burning flesh and find her casually leaning against the stove.” Thus, pain is more than a cruel enemy. It can also be a blessing.

What, then, about the Bible’s promise: “Neither will . . . pain be anymore”? Is this a promise we should really want fulfilled?

A Life Without Tears?

Note that the context of this verse also says: “[God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 21:4) This is significant, since tears are vital. They serve to protect us, as does the sense of pain.

Tears keep our eyes moist and prevent friction between the eye and the lid. They also wash foreign substances from our eyes. In addition, they contain an antiseptic called lysozyme, which disinfects the eyes and prevents infection. The ability to shed tears is thus a remarkable feature of our wonderfully designed bodies, as is our sense of pain.​—Psalm 139:14.

However, tears are also closely associated with sorrow, grief, and vexation. “All night long I make my couch swim,” lamented King David of Bible times. “With my tears I make my own divan overflow.” (Psalm 6:6) Even Jesus “gave way to tears” at the death of a friend. (John 11:35) God did not originally purpose for people to shed such tears of sorrow. The sin of the first man, Adam, is responsible for the imperfect, dying condition of the human family. (Romans 5:12) Thus, it is the tears that result from our imperfect, dying condition that will be no more.

Since the Bible refers to a certain kind of tears that will be eliminated, how will the promise that pain will be no more be fulfilled? Will not people, at least on occasion, suffer pain that causes sorrow and crying?

The Pain That Will Be No More

THE pain that will be eliminated in fulfillment of the Bible’s promise will be the pain that is experienced as a result of the first man’s imperfection. This pain includes what can be described as chronic pain.

Rather than being a warning system for disease or injury, chronic pain has been likened to a “false alarm” that just won’t turn off. It is this pain that causes sufferers to spend billions of dollars annually in a quest for relief, and it ruins the lives of millions.

Pain expert Dr. Richard A. Sternbach wrote: “Unlike acute pain, chronic pain is not a symptom; chronic pain is not a warning signal.” Emergency Medicine emphasized: “There’s no purpose at all to chronic pain.”

Thus, many doctors in recent years have come to view such pain as a genuine affliction in itself. “In acute pain the pain is a symptom of disease or injury,” explains Dr. John J. Bonica in The Management of Pain, today’s standard text on pain. “In chronic pain the pain itself is the disease.”

Efforts to Understand Pain

Pain is still not fully understood. “The eternal allure of trying to puzzle out what pain is,” said American Health magazine, “has scientists working intensely.” A few decades ago, they assumed that pain was a form of sensation, like sight, hearing, and touch, that is felt by special nerve endings in the skin and is transmitted through particular nerve fibers to the brain. But this simplistic concept of pain was found to be untrue. How?

One factor that led to the new insight was the study of a young woman who had no sense of pain. Following her death in 1955, an examination of her brain and nervous system led to a whole new concept of the cause of pain. Doctors “looked for the nerve endings,” explained The Star Weekly Magazine, July 30, 1960. “If [she] didn’t have any, that would account for the girl’s insensitivity. But they were present and apparently perfect.

“Next, the doctors examined the nerve fibers supposed to connect the nerve endings with the brain. Here, surely, a defect would be found. But it wasn’t. The fibers were all perfect, as far as could be seen, aside from those degenerated due to injury.

“Finally, examinations were made of the girl’s brain and, once more, no defect of any kind could be established. According to all existing knowledge and theory, this girl should have felt pain normally, yet she couldn’t even feel tickling.” She was, however, sensitive to pressure when applied to the skin and could distinguish between the touch of a pin head and a pin point, although the pricking of the pin did not hurt.

Ronald Melzack, who in the 1960’s coauthored a popular new theory to explain pain, provides another example of its complexity. He explained: “Mrs. Hull kept pointing to her foot that wasn’t there [it had been amputated], and describing burning pains that felt like a red-​hot poker being pushed through her toes.” Melzack told Maclean’s magazine in 1989 that he was “still looking for explanations of what he calls ‘phantom’ pain.” In addition, there is what is called referred pain, in which a person may have a malfunction in one part of the body but feel the pain in another.

Both Mind and Body Involved

Pain is now identified as “an extremely complex interaction of the mind and the body.” In her 1992 book Pain in America, Mary S. Sheridan says that “the experience of pain is so heavily psychological that the mind can sometimes deny its existence and sometimes create and sustain it long after an acute injury is gone.”

One’s mood, concentration, personality, susceptibility to suggestion, and other factors are all important in how one responds to pain. “Fear and anxiety cause an exaggerated response,” noted pain authority Dr. Bonica. Thus, one may learn to sense pain. Dr. Wilbert Fordyce, a professor of psychology who specializes in problems of pain, explains:

“The question is not whether the pain is real. Of course it is real. The question is what are the crucial factors which influence it. If I talk with you just before dinner about a ham sandwich, you salivate. It is very real. But it occurs because of conditioning. There’s no ham sandwich there. Human beings are exquisitely sensitive to conditioning. It influences social behavior, salivating, blood pressure, the speed of digesting food, pain, all sorts of things.”

Just as your emotions and frame of mind can intensify pain, they can suppress or dull it. Consider an example: A neurosurgeon said that as a youth he was once so enamored of a girl while sitting with her on an icy wall that he felt no sensation of severe cold or pain in his rump. “I was almost frostbitten,” he explained. “We must have been sitting there for 45 minutes, and I didn’t feel a thing.”

Such examples are manifold. Football players involved deeply in the game or soldiers in the heat of battle may be badly injured and yet feel little or no pain at the time. The famous African explorer David Livingstone told of being attacked by a lion that shook him “as a terrier does a rat. The shock . . . caused a sort of dreaminess in which there was no sense of pain.”

It is noteworthy that servants of Jehovah God, who calmly look to him with complete confidence and reliance, have also at times had the experience of their pain being suppressed. “Strange as it might seem,” reported a Christian who was beaten, “after the first few blows, I really didn’t feel them anymore. Instead, it was as if I could only hear them, like the beating of a drum off in the distance.”​—February 22, 1994, Awake!, page 21.

How Pain Sensations Are Modified

In an attempt to explain some of the mystifying aspects of pain, in 1965 a professor of psychology, Ronald Melzack, and a professor of anatomy, Patrick Wall, devised the widely acclaimed gate-​control theory of pain. The 1990 edition of Dr. Bonica’s textbook on pain said that this theory was “among the most important developments in the field of pain research and therapy.”

According to the theory, the opening and closing of a theoretical gate in the spinal cord either permits or blocks passage of pain signals to the brain. If sensations other than pain crowd the gate, then pain signals reaching the brain may be diminished. Thus, for example, pain is lessened by rubbing or shaking a slightly burned finger, since signals other than those of pain are thereby sent to the spinal cord to interfere with the passage of pain signals.

The discovery in 1975 that our bodies produce their own morphinelike substances called endorphins further helped in the search to understand the mystifying aspects of pain. For instance, some people may have little or no sensation of pain because they produce endorphins in excess. Endorphins may also explain the mystery of why pain is minimized or even eliminated by acupuncture, a medical procedure in which hair-​thin needles are inserted into the body. According to eyewitness reports, open-​heart surgery has been performed while the patient was awake, alert, and relaxed by utilizing acupuncture as the only painkiller! Why was no pain felt?

Some believe the needles may activate the production of endorphins that temporarily wipe out the pain. Another possibility is that acupuncture kills pain because the needles stimulate nerve fibers that send signals other than pain. These signals crowd gates in the spinal cord, preventing the pain signals from squeezing through to reach the brain, where pain is sensed.

The gate-​control theory, and the fact that the body produces its own painkillers, may also explain why one’s mood, thoughts, and emotions affect the measure of pain felt. Thus, the shock of a sudden attack by a lion may have activated Livingstone’s production of endorphins, as well as flooded his spinal cord with signals other than those of pain. His feelings of pain, as a result, were lessened.

Yet, as noted before, one’s frame of mind and emotions can have an opposite effect. Too much of the everyday stress of typical modern life may increase a person’s sensation of pain by producing anxiety, tension, and muscle contractions.

Happily, though, pain sufferers have reason for optimism. This is because many patients are now benefiting from improved methods of treatment. Such improvements have resulted from a better understanding of this terrible affliction. Dr. Sridhar Vasudevan, president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, explained: “The idea that pain can sometimes be a disease in itself revolutionized treatment in the ’80s.”

How has the treatment of pain been revolutionized? What treatments are proving effective?

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How does acupuncture minimize or eliminate pain?

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H. Armstrong Roberts

Progress in Treating Pain

UNTIL recently few doctors knew very much about pain, and many still don’t. Dr. John Liebeskind, a former president of the International Pain Foundation, observed a few years ago: “I don’t think there is a medical school in the world where more than four hours out of four years are spent teaching students to diagnose and treat pain problems.”

Breakthroughs in understanding pain, however, have coincided with greater efforts in treating it. Thus, the outlook for pain sufferers has brightened. “We can all be grateful,” American Health magazine reported, “that medicine now recognizes that chronic pain is no mere symptom, but a treatable disease in itself.” This view has contributed to a tremendous increase in the number of clinics devoted to treating pain.

Where Pain Is Treated

Dr. John J. Bonica opened the first multidisciplinary pain clinic in the United States. “By 1969 there were only 10 such clinics in the world,” he reported. But the number of clinics devoted to treating pain has increased dramatically in the last 25 years. There are now over a thousand pain clinics, and a representative of a national chronic-​pain outreach association said that “new ones open nearly every day.”a

Think of what that means! “Now patients who used to have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to get relief from serious pain can find it close to home,” noted Dr. Gary Feldstein, an anesthesiologist in New York City. If you are the one suffering, what a blessing it can be to receive help from a team of specialists trained to treat pain!

Linda Parsons, the wife of a traveling overseer of Jehovah’s Witnesses, suffered from back pain for many years. She sought help from one physician after another, yet her pain continued unabated. One day in May last year, in near desperation, her husband picked up the phone book and looked under pain. Listed was the phone number of a pain clinic not far from where they were serving in southern California. An appointment was made, and a few days later Linda met with a doctor to receive her initial consultation and evaluation.

Arrangements were made to treat Linda as an outpatient. She began visiting the clinic three times a week for treatment and also followed a treatment program at home. In a few weeks, she began to feel marked improvement. Her husband explains: “I remember her saying almost in amazement one evening, ‘I can’t believe that I hardly feel any pain.’” Within months, regular visits to the clinic could be discontinued.

The help Linda received to manage her pain is similar to that provided by many multidisciplinary pain clinics. Such a clinic employs the expertise of a team of health professionals, which, according to Dr. Bonica, is “the best approach to dealing with chronic pain.” How, for example, was Linda treated for her pain?

How Pain May Be Treated

A clinic brochure describes the procedure on arrival: “Each individual is evaluated by a physician to assess the basis for the pain and then realistic goals and treatment programs are outlined. . . . Specialized techniques and approaches are used to aid the body in releasing ‘endorphins’ (naturally produced chemicals in the body) to diminish pain and anxiety and avoid drug dependence.”

Among the treatments Linda received were acupuncture and TENS, which stands for transcutaneous (across the skin) electrical nerve stimulation. She received electrical stimulation treatments at the clinic and was provided a small TENS unit to use at home. Biofeedback​—a procedure in which the patient is taught to monitor his body responses and modify them to reduce the impact of pain—​was also employed.

Physical therapy, including deep tissue massage, was a feature of the treatment regimen. In time, but only after Linda was ready for it, an exercise program in the clinic’s gymnasium was introduced, and it became an essential part of treatment. Exercise is vital, since it has been found to restore endorphins depleted by chronic pain. The challenge, however, is to help people in pain to manage a beneficial exercise program.

Many chronic-​pain sufferers coming to clinics are taking large amounts of pain medication, and Linda was no exception. But soon she had been weaned from her medication, which is an important goal of pain clinics. Linda experienced no withdrawal symptoms, yet that is not unusual. Pain expert Dr. Ronald Melzack noted that in “a survey of more than 10,000 burn victims . . . , not a single case of later addiction could be attributed to the narcotics given for pain relief during the hospital stay.”

Since there is often a major psychological aspect to chronic pain, clinics try to help patients, in effect, to unlearn their pain. “What you think about,” explained Dr. Arthur Barsky, a professor at Harvard Medical School, “what you expect, how much attention you pay to feelings​—all these things have a tremendous influence on what you in fact feel.” So patients are helped to concentrate on matters other than their pain.

Prospects for Cure

Are these new pain clinics the answer to mankind’s pain problems? Though the pain-​treatment methods described here can be helpful, one must use care in choosing a competent clinic or pain specialist. Even then, expectations must be realistic.

To illustrate with a typical success story: Stephen Kaufman, a former Olympic weight lifter, was left almost an invalid because of chronic pain suffered when a mugger shot him in the neck. After eight months in a pain-​treatment program, he was able to return to work full-​time and eventually even to competitive weight lifting. Yet he said: “Half the time, my toes burn like they’re in boiling water.”

So despite all the exciting progress, it is obviously beyond human capability to fulfill the Bible’s promise: ‘Pain will be no more.’ (Revelation 21:4) How, then, can that goal be achieved?

[Footnotes]

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Methods of treating pain, including electrical nerve stimulation

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Courtesy of Pain Treatment Centers of San Diego

Life Without Pain At Hand!

THE body’s complex mechanisms that protect us from harm are certainly a marvel. A study of them should move us to praise the Creator, as did the Bible psalmist who wrote: “I shall laud you because in a fear-​inspiring way I am wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14) Truly, only God can make possible life without pain! But how will this be accomplished?

Note that just prior to the promise about pain and tears being eliminated, the Bible tells of “a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away.” (Revelation 21:1, 4) Of course, the Bible is not speaking of our literal heaven and earth passing away. Rather, it is saying, in short, that a completely new system of things will replace this present one. Yes, a new, superhuman government will make it possible to enjoy a painless life right here on earth.

In describing this government, the Bible says that “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom [or, government] that will . . . crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.” (Daniel 2:44) When Jesus Christ was on earth, he taught us to pray for this Kingdom government when he said: “Pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”​—Matthew 6:9, 10, King James Version.

How, though, can the fulfillment of that prayer mean a life without pain for you?

A Ruler With Superhuman Power

The key lies in the wisdom and power of the one whom God has chosen to head His government. That one is Jesus Christ himself. Of him, a Bible prophecy says: “The government shall be upon his shoulder . . . Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.”​—Isaiah 9:6, 7, KJ.

The wisdom of Jesus, now in heaven, is far greater than that of all earthly physicians. He fully understands the workings of our physical body, including its systems for protecting itself from injury. When he was a man on earth over 1,900 years ago, there was not a disease or affliction that he could not cure. He thus demonstrated what he will do on a larger scale as Ruler of God’s Kingdom. Of one instance, the Bible says:

“Then great crowds approached him, having along with them people that were lame, maimed, blind, dumb, and many otherwise, and they fairly threw them at his feet, and he cured them; so that the crowd felt amazement as they saw the dumb speaking and the lame walking and the blind seeing.” (Matthew 15:30, 31) Among the afflictions that Jesus will cure during his Kingdom rule is that dreadful one, chronic pain.

Indeed, what a marvelous blessing that will be! And it will not be accomplished in behalf of just a few. The Creator’s promise is: “No resident will say: ‘I am sick.’” (Isaiah 33:24) Then, under the rule of God’s Kingdom, the promise will be fulfilled, “neither will . . . pain be anymore.”​—Revelation. 21:4.

Under Christ’s glorious Kingdom rule, our many body mechanisms, including those that protect us from harm, will function perfectly because inherited sin will have been removed. Our body’s alarm system will never again turn into a tormentor. Happily, according to Bible prophecies now undergoing fulfillment, we are at the very threshold of that new world, in which pain will never cause suffering.​—Matthew 24:3-14, 36-39; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 2 Peter 3:11-13.

You can enjoy life under God’s Kingdom when the kind of pain that now plagues millions of people no longer exists. But you need to do something. Jesus Christ pointed to a fundamental requirement when he said in prayer to God: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”​—John 17:3.

Jehovah’s Witnesses will be happy to assist you in acquiring this vital knowledge. Just ask one of them in your area, or write to the publishers of this magazine, expressing your wish to have a Bible study in your home or at any other convenient location. Arrangements will then be made for you to learn more about God’s purposes for humans to enjoy a life without pain.