Tylenol and Social Pain

Acetaminophen For Mental Health Relief
By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 22, 2009 A provocative new research study investigates the possibility that over-the-counter pain relief drugs may be helpful for treatment of depression and anxiety.

Use of OTC medications for physical aches and pain has been commonplace for decades.

A research team led by psychologist C. Nathan DeWall of the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology has uncovered evidence indicating that acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) may blunt social pain.

“The idea that a drug designed to alleviate physical pain should reduce the pain of social rejection seemed simple and straightforward based on what we know about neural overlap between social and physical pain systems. To my surprise, I couldn’t find anyone who had ever tested this idea,” DeWall said.

According to a study due to be published in the journal Psychological Science, DeWall and colleagues were correct. Physical and social pain appear to overlap in the brain, relying on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms.

DeWall and colleagues investigated this connection through two experiments. In the first experiment, 62 healthy volunteers took 1,000 milligrams daily of either acetaminophen or a placebo. Each evening, participants reported how much they experienced social pain using a version of the “Hurt Feelings Scale” – a measurement tool widely accepted by psychologists as a valid measure of social pain.

Hurt feelings and social pain decreased over time in those taking acetaminophen, while no change was observed in subjects taking the placebo. Levels of positive emotions remained stable, with no significant changes observed in either group. These results indicate that acetaminophen use may decrease self-reported social pain over time, by impacting emotions linked to hurt feelings.

“We were very excited about these initial findings,” DeWall said.

“The next step was to identify the neural mechanisms underlying the findings.”

In the second experiment, 25 healthy volunteers took 2,000 milligrams daily of either acetaminophen or a placebo. After three weeks of taking the pills, subjects participated in a computer game rigged to create feelings of social rejection.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) employed during the game revealed that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions associated with the distress of social pain and the affective component of physical pain (the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula).

In other words, the parts of the brain associated with physical lit up in the placebo subjects when they were rejected, while the acetaminophen group displayed significantly less activity in these brain areas in response to rejection.

According to the academic paper detailing the experiments: “…findings suggest that at least temporary mitigation of social pain-related distress may be achieved by means of an over-the-counter painkiller that is normally used for physical aches and pains….

“Furthermore, many studies have shown that being rejected can trigger aggressive and antisocial behavior, which could lead to further complications in social life…. If acetaminophen reduces the distress of rejection, the antisocial behavioral consequences of rejection may be reduced as well.”

Researchers caution that readers should not immediately stock up on acetaminophen to ease social pain and anxiety, noting “[t]o be sure, our findings do not constitute a call for widespread use of acetaminophen to cope with all types of personal problems.

“Future research is needed to verify the potential benefits of acetaminophen on reducing emotional and antisocial responses to social rejection.”

Long-term use of acetaminophen has also been linked to serious liver damage, so it is important for patients to follow all package directions and consult their physicians if they are contemplating taking any medication for an off-label use.

“This research has the potential to change how scientists and laypersons understand physical and social pain.

“Social pain, such as chronic loneliness, damages health as much as smoking and obesity. We hope our findings can pave the way for interventions designed to reduce the pain of social rejection,” DeWall said
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The Chinese system views the liver as holding grief. The western view is use a pill to defeat the attempts to detoxify chemicals produced during stressors i.e. cortisols. It feels better until you die. I am glad someone is trying to find a use for a drug I no longer use die to its liver toxicity problems. The Dr I fired in 2006 was of the mind to add on to an already overloaded toxic load I had in my body. It works for some people it did not work for me. One more thought acetaminophen makes the pain of not only pain(sic) but also invisible pain of our social malaise. Brittany Spears ass used to do this for me. I am jaded.

A Poem

Those who are strangers to war
Should devote themselves with fervor
To Music
Those who are strangers to war
Should devote themselves with fervor
To Music

Put down the fences and arms
Raise up your hearts and your voices
Turn off the burglar alarms
The world is a refuge of choices

Those who have given up hate
Are free to be part of the oneness
Do not compete or debate
Fullness is emptiness wholeness

All my Relations
All the Directions
All of the deepness
Inside of me

My mitochondria pulsing with hydrogen
A mystical miracle called ATP
For without this stuff there would be no me
Even though Geshe-la says this can't be

All who are strangers to war
Should devote themslves with fervor to music.
a 13th century mystic maybe influenced by Rumi.

Generosity

One of the perfections is generosity. I know of one organization, The Salvation Army does many things for those who have fallen under the bus, as the last bus is pulling out of the station. Most of the people served, I found out, are women with children. Imagine that, helping homeless poor people. Some who have recently come to his country seeking a place to build a home and perhaps,if they are lucky, raise a family. We are not all born free. In fact this is all a lie. We go against the grain by being generous.Mr Greed is not a a character in a Dickens story.Greed is the emotion of fear the Tibetans call hungry ghosts. These emotions eat our minds of compassion and replace them with attachment, one of the things leading to suffering. Generosity, at the intial look, seems something for foundations and others who have enough abundance to practice. This is an incorrect view. The mind of poverty is the mind of fear. Capitalism creates the urges to only accumulate and not to give. The SA, as I was saying, is a refuge for those wrecked by the fallacy that all are created equal. They provide housing rehabilitation from alcohol drugs and abuse. They re-educate and provide literacy and ESL training for first generation immigrants. How they do this is a faith-based. But the root(mission statement) of the organization is charity aka generosity. I know we are all awash with requests for donations, this time of year even more. Generosity is built into religion as tithing in dining as tipping. It is engrained because it is going against the grain or nature of the hungry ghosts lurking on the fear circuit and going beyond these obligatory expressions of generosity is a way of saying to the universe," I have enough, Thank You Very Much."
I put my music tips in the Bellringer can yesterday as I left Walmart and I told the girl, "I am glad you are here." I recognized my blessings. I have enough if I accept it. It takes a little time but it is a choice as to accepting your grace or to feel envy at another's wealth or contempt for another's poverty, addiction, or illness.
Equanimity and generosity work hand in hand. Hand over your blessed currency.

Winter's first chill Fall's last offerings

I am in school again after a long summer of adjustment after 10 years in the Bay area. I have made new friends and renewed old friendships. I am singing more now after two years away from the gigs with Nikki and the girls culminating with our trio of me Jenny Lane and Nikki. In those two years I got the rare opportunity to play hard jazz with a very great man and artist, Vince Wallace. I am not sure if I will ever play with him again, though I wish to always be "ready for NYC" if the call comes to me.
Yesterday,I rode my bicycle out to the Umatilla River. There is a new park there built since my father died in 1995 which was the last time I spent much time here. On the edge of the river in the park there is a grove of nettles, yes, stinging nettles, the kind that makes welts if they get to sting you. I collected a large bag of leaves for tea and for cooking and a smaller bag of aerial parts for my daily tonic for rhinitis.
I also finally decanted a St John's Wort/olive oil tincture I started the summer with after gathering dancing and singing as I picked the herbs and the wild flowers halfway through a 20 miles bike ride. I would later put the wort in olive oil and leave in the sun to make a soothing ointment for the frigid months ahead.This summer I also gathered and prepared tinctures of yarrow, mullein, dandelion, nettles,cactus flowers, astragulus, and burdock.
The roses and all the flowers not under the eaves have started to wilt. I have one rose I have covered with 5 buds still not opened. The last rose to open was so beautiful. It's in the kitchen by the sink right now. Two cabbages I nursed all summer finally started growing in earnest in late August. I have them covered but I am not sure if there will be much more growing to be had as the sun gets lower on the horizon.
I am now playing in three musical groups, karaoke jazz with a brass guy, a variety band of 5 and a country rock band of 6, all with the same brass guy. Not Vinnie Wallace but at least its indoors and more than once a week. Having my family back for better or worse is fine. They know me,and so far, haven't filed papers on me. I have a place to practice and a place to play. What more could a guy like me ask for? Good medicine and good friends to listen. I am grateful for all these things.Did mention I wrote one new song? I had forgotten about it. It was on my trip to SF after the long summer.
Riding my bicycle through the Haight was enough to inspire "The Goddess is Here!"
I am getting beter. Not that there aren't some challenging days, but I have laughed again for the first time in a long time.
Someone wants me healthy. Their wish in mine also.
Namaste.

Hotter Than July It is All Ready.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Hermiston&state=OR&site=PDT&textField1=45.8406&textField2=-119.288&e=0

Sitting and sweating almost like an Inipi experience. maybe my friend is right only the sick and the possessed should try too much heat. The corn is happy as a Bixby farmer in Tulsa.
Limeade sounds real good right now.
Now I know one reason the speaking in tongues phenomena persists. Its just a mild heat stroke.
Check out this week end's Bartcop.com blog, he's got the pulse of some of the nation no one seems to be right correct or moving easily. Take a break .

Questions for Senator Merkeley

This was what I asked about yesterday. Today, the Oregonian newspaper(sic), said the single payer "Oregon/Wyden Option" is "Too Radical ". I heard the losers complain about higher taxes and socialism Lions tigers and bears Oh My!
I heard Rep Walden this morning on the radio state that single payer health care is “off the table” yet a substantial majority over 90% of Democrats support some system to cover 45 million Americans with no access to a regular dr and preventive/wellness programs offered through HMOs.
We spend more by far per capita yet 18-20k people die prematurely due to poor medical access and/or no insurance.
At one point in our history medicine was a sacred practice, Now money trumps ethics and hence injustice results.
Senator Merkeley, can you tell me why Senator Baucus left no seats for anyone representing those 45 million people in the Senate ways and means committee meeting on health care finance? Anyone who did ask these questions was arrested. Senator Baucus and Grassley made a joking matter in fact, I watched the video. This is no laughing matter. Where is the shared sacrifice from the fats cats who sit on the boards of the medical and pharmaceutical corporations? Why can’t medi-care be extended to all Americans?
When will we have national parity laws for mental/nervous disorders?

Two Gigs One Day

Today I woke up early for the Farmer's market. My friend plays trumpet, trombone, and flugelhorn. He sings also but is not as serious as I am about it though he is a bit serious about most everything else.
We have had two gigs as a duo since I have moved back into this place. The video is up from this morning.We made money and now I have paid my saxophone repair bill.
The sight of an old neighbor and two classmates made my day.
Tonight with 6 people making music it became tense as we added another person to sing. I would rather just use a piano than try to use the rhythm attachment but I don't play much bass or treble for that matter so I have no point except that I had to check myself and keep myself grounded and as simple as things are I still can't do everything> It's a lot just to play in a bar after 2 years away from Beckett's.
I had many flashbacks. My own old ways only prevented by a good diet and the understnding which comes after asking for just that. I don't remember being angry or rude , it just was interpreted as such. and my nature was not as i seemed.
I felt the love. Others poisoned by fear ignorance and hunger saw their own story played out. My own has been one of dependence. It is not out of weakness but as a result of many compromises and sacrifices i have made to remain in my domain playing. Now I have to ask once more if the music goes on then i need help.It shall remain as there in Cali, here I also may need the help of others.

6-15-09

Mom left a Jackson on the dining room table. I picked it up and asked, "Is this for gas?" She said, "Yes, and while you're in Pendleton, Check at Safeway and see how much gas costs there." It's her way of making sure all the routes are covered.
I left for Pendleton, the county seat, the same one famous for woolen apparel rodeo and its fine Community College. I popped in a cassette I had "randomly" chosen frm the box of tapes I never edited or transferred to cd or mp3 or threw away. Now is their sterling moment as i revive the dialogues that formed some of my present philosophies. Jack Kornfeld and Michael Tom speaking of compassion.
I was on time as I hit the freeway interchange 3 miles from home. I saw and picked up a hitch-hiker, something I hadn't done for a long time, since I had given my car away to the City of San Francisco in May of 2000 the same week I graduated from college the last time around.The HHer looked and talked about mid to late forties, jobless, homeless, and in the last 16 months his four closest and most dependable friends had all died of natural causes if you drink and smoke too much naturally.
We talked about what had happened to him and to the nation we didn't really get around to the world it was only 20 minutes. He complained about his bad back and how he had an xray years ago and the intervertebral discs were already deteriorating aka bone on bone in lumbar land. He also said sleeping on the ground was hard and he woke up when he rolled over.
I talked about how we were robbed by the savings and loan scandal and then the stock market and then the war and then there was AIG all dogs all the time. He started to ask me for a hand out as I stopped to let him out by the exit. I had heard so many people asking for help in Golden Gate Park just two weeks ago. It didn't feel any different except he looked just like me.I slipped him a 10 and wished him peace. I am 800 miles away but the same dukka are here. A promise of a job in another state. It beats begging when everyone looks like you. At the gas station, a young man looking more the Haight hippie apparently out of his element with a sign "stupid and ugly fill me up". I hope he gets awayfrom here without any problems. A sense of humor can be a dangerous thing.
Up at Harvard on the Hill, Blue U, aka Blue Mountain CC I walked into Morrow Hall to be advised as to my predicament. My non-challenged course work is only 4 classes to finish my pre-requisites for nursing school. But here all the classes are full until next year. None of them is being offered except by one instructor who can choose whether or not to add another unit of Chem 104.Or microbiology.
Its my own deficits in Mathematics that hinder my entry into nursing school. But plan c may develop into plan d soon.

Oregon Grapes

My arrival in Oregon from Cali was a relief and then it hit me after 10 years south and 6 years in the relationship I have no gig, no partner, no stepchildren, and no place to spread out until I get all the former tenant(my brother) shite outta heya.
I am raw now with only a a daily ration of chores to take me away from my existential angst and general anger at being treated like a queer and a deadbeat. I found the bottom line was there is only a bottom line.
I needed to go away a long time ago. I was afraid of appearing lost or a failure but how could I succeed with someone who is so insensitive to my needs and desires as to want me to strive for their success as they ignore my life.
I am not sure if I will ever have a balanced relationship. I only know I could no longer bear the agony of a loveless isolated life in a "family" not my own and not of my choosing.
Nor could I bear the life of being a parent to someone who only wants me out and yet be blamed for leaving.
Its shame when things don't work out. Sadder still to pretend you're happy when you are miserable. I have been miserable for so long I forgot to ask for help. This time it was almost too late.I hope someone reads this. I have given up hope having anyone understand me.

Gratitude

I am up early today. My anatomy and physiology has a special field trip planned for this morning. To the morgue to winess an autopsy, that is if anyone died overnight. In Alameda County which is the Easy Bay area of CA. which takes in Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, Dublin, and Livermore.
I am grateful on this day of death awareness. For the living and the dead who have provided the resources to make my life easier and more creative.
Even the Mike Malloy Show which I have not heard in a couple weeks is a wonderful thing, if you want to hear the truth. The secret is not to dwell on the shadow and to see it as a whole.
a hole a funny assed hole in the universe, where I try to fit my versionof the NOW. Here and now
Thanks Aldous. one ancestor of many here and now. in that funny assed hole the white hole in time which is now over yet never leaves as the breath comes and flows.
The sun giver of life. the waters the universal wisdom of hydrogen.
Here and now I feel alive. Thank you Goddess.
Thank. you teachers. Even the ones i did not invite to the university.
Hold me now in eternal nowness.
here and now.
Gratitude flows intention ripens .

Rats Reject Wall Street Journal

My pet rats(Stella and Hyphy) get a newspaper strip confetti shower after I clean their cage periodically. I usually use the local free daily or weekly edition for the stuff they use to feather their nests. I found a copy of the "special business edition" of the WSJ on the BART and brought it home. After three days, they have left it alone. I have two theories why: one is basic the inks are different and the smell is foreign to them, the second more akin to a conspiracy, that the rats know when something is so evil and comes from another rat so offensive racist and specieist that they even have the moral character to resist associating their household with thieves and liars such as Rupert Murdoch and the vast right wing media empire. Maybe its not rat shit I smell but the "new world odor". Smells like swine poo to me...

I feel Your Pain

When I hear all the whining I know how the right wing felt after GW Bush stole the 2000 election after hearing us whine. Except I see a distinct difference, though the pain is similar and the frustration of not being fairly represented. But really, all this about Barak Obama not really a citizen because he hasn't shown his birth cerificate to skeptical GOP members who are not accustomed to having their ass handed to them by a Negro.
My best friend calls me things i won't put in this blog but lets just say it has to do with genitalia and a non-missionary use of said genitalia. All because I voted for the winner and Nancy Pelosi ended up running the show after 6 years of GOP putsch. He says she should get tried for war crimes as she surely had all the information while Tom DeLay was running the house. But no trials are needed since some Arabs beheaded hostages and therefore we needn't follow the law anymore and all this left wing witch hunt about war crimes and torture is reason to take up arms and kill some Mexicans who are to blame for all the flu that may kill someone like him who has a compromised immune system.
Is it really who is right and who is wrong?
I think its a matter of values; do we value war and prestige based on fear or do we value peace and cooperation?
Is this a sexual dichotomy? Feminism vs fascism

Were you there?

Were you there when they teabagged Harry Reid
Were you there when they hung their bag way down
Sometimes when I think about it I tremble
Were you there when they teabagged Harry Reid

Bardo

The place in between a transitory phase referred to in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I am in a sort of bardo. I will have no hair to catch on fire (sic) since it is mostly gone from my head anyway. One more thing I don't have to ask for. A haircut.
It has been almost two years since I last had a scheduled occupation. I am now a temp at everything. Music, teaching, school, writing/blogging, videomaking, composing, and lobbying.
The fine line between nihilism and giving up is so fine that I can no longer tell if I have lost my way or have been left for the deluded idealist I seem to have become.
The street is probably where I belong as I am not responsible for my own welfare and should not burden others to do so for me.
I am in the way of progress.
The only wrong is not to change.

54-7=now

I am at the library. Richard needed to play his video game and I needed to get out of the house. I am short rent again. Probably because i am lazy, at least too lazy to take work that I am feeling like I might get hurt doing. This week with all the rain i have felt the not too unfamiliar feelings of "brain flu" which is the best way to describe depression to someone lucky enough to only get it for a while and not for decades.
I have a midterm monday. it seems too easy for me or that I am not going deep enough and will get caught without enough knowledge to be sucessful whtver that means.
Without blaming anyone, I am feeling like I need a big change.
There is a fear inside of the future.My death i can accept as a part of this but who and how i die around is another. I cannot trust it seems anyone or I am so untrustworthy that the projection blinds me as to my own weaknesses.
I don't want to quit quite yet, still i am reluctant to go through more of this cycling through life alone and loveless in a relationship which one of necessity and not of passion.
Who am i to judge her as I have made poor decisions in the past.
My mind is clouded by my depression. She wants things to live for. I want a life and believe things come after life and not the other way around.This is a sad factoid regarding our relationship. We see the world with different eyes. We hear a different drummer. We dance to a different drummer.
So it's alienation poverty and depression I feel after almost 6 years. I will miss that.
happiness is a state i seldom visit but know exists. What makes world go around?

Waltz Inside

A waltz, one that only happens on Saturday night in Fargo ND
Plays incessantly in my head like a broken juke box in Hell, Montana
Stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger

Pulling me into the vortex my inner black hole somewhere as vast as the whole universe
Inside just to the left of the Milky Way and Jupiter deep to the umbilicus
Stomp stagger stagger Stomp! Stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger

High Tide gets higher the deserts get drier. Throw out the lifeline someone is sinking away
Deeper and deeper I go into the enteric plexus dancing on a quite familiar dendrite
Stomp Stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger Stomp stagger stagger

Inside cold Cement steel and aluminum ? Gray cinder block painted another shade of gray InsideAllied with phospholipid crusted cell outside the crepuscular clouds of near Solistice
Stomp Stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger Stomp stagger stagger

Here, eat the apple. It looks good. It makes me feel the cold and I am out of coffee.
Oh bother return I must in case of disaster hypothermia if it isn’t a quake its neuropathy
Stomp Stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger Stomp stagger stagger

I am shaking yet there is nothing there nothing tangible Are there ghosts in this bano?
No crowds of children smiling or otherwise around yet the amygdala sends out an alert
Stomp Stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger Stomp stagger stagger

Who is going to save us? From what he has done? Who is the decider? Who has won?
The door is blocked it opens a little. I grab and pull it shut. “Someone’s in there.”
Stomp Stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger someone’s in here
Stomp stagger stagger Stomp stagger stagger depths have not cleared

Missed the Church of Parker Wallace today. A Rain out in Oaksterdam
There is an uhhhhhhh known unknown of profundity down there
Stomp Stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger stomp stagger stagger Stomp stagger stagger

Existential Baptist Mural

As we were taking some stuff we can't use or fit into our humble apartment to a consignment shop. I spied this wonderful art inspired by the Roman crucifixion of Jesua of Nazareth. On the sidewalk was a sign announcing the existential definition Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? Except they left out the question marks...Why????
Which is a good way to make a fella worrisome about hell or missing out on a good condo deal or having too much time on their hands. The preacher had many things to do to take ones mind off of the subject of destiny or salvation or sin and death. The cross seems to underscore the need to OBEY. or BURN. this is my first attempt at my religious doctrinal evolution.
At the cross at the cross
where I first saw the light
and the burden of my sins rolled away.

Heck, you can get a really good deal on a rollaway just across the street from Calvary.
Now that's service.Gawd Bless America!

Rain really F**** Me Up

Here and now I am sad and angry about life. The world as we know it(sic) is a troubled and dangerous place. Especially for pussies and wimps like myself.A real man would fight for his life his place and his honor(sic). Me,, on the other hand am content to suck up and take the abuse that is a result of my own failures and weaknesses. The depression which, according to my partner, is my own design my own creation and my own defense against happiness. I guess I would be happy and content if only I would just see how wonderful life is to the unjaded. I am not in that category. I have lost my way only to be rescued by someone who really really really loves me but who denies my feelings and my emotional well-being in the process. If i have a home i should by default be happy just to have a place to sleep, even if I do not sleep well. I am free to be denied my true feelings are real. Geejus this is just like my family of origin. They also think I am an emotional idiot. So after attempting to find a true bearing in this life, I have walked away from my partner's anger at me for not accepting my own sense of fear and anxiety over the present state of affairs. Its gray out today. The rain really makes me sad. I left anyway because I do not want to argue about what I have and where it is stored. Do I use it every day? No so it needs to go. Maybe i need to go also falling further away from myself or expect to be understood/accepted. I am not the reason you are angry at me. You are not the reason I am angry at myself. I will not waste my time trying to replace your ex in mind and body(sic). I only have a very short time to live, though with you it seems like an eternity. Stop saying you love me. I don't believe it and it makes me sick to try to think you have to lie about who I am. Lie no more I am crazy sad angry and me. don't like it? stop telling me you love me