Regular exercise increases pain tolerance

UPI news agency quoted information from a new Norwegian study published in the academic journal PLOS ONE showing that the level of exercise will be proportional to a person's pain tolerance.

"Maintaining regular physical activity over time can increase your pain tolerance," said study team member Anders Årnes, an expert at North Norway University Hospital.

For the study, the team analyzed health data from more than 10,000 adults in Norway, collected twice in 2007-2008 and 2015-2016. The experts also examined the people's self-reported exercise levels and their pain tolerance.

Accordingly, people who reported regular physical activity in both rounds of information collection for the study had better pain tolerance than those with a sedentary lifestyle.

Additionally, the results showed that a person’s level of physical activity was also directly proportional to their pain tolerance. Accordingly, volunteers with a higher total activity level across the two health information collection times also showed that their pain tolerance was getting better.

From these results, the authors also recommend that maintaining regular and consistent physical activity may be a potential strategy to help reduce or prevent the development of chronic pain.