How to Cure Pain

When people expect a cure, their brains release freakish dopamine (the happy juices), combating pain -- and making them feel better.

1. Ever starved yourself for a few hours? OMGOMGOMGSOOOHUNGRYOMG
2. Then, when your bad self put something in the microwave, you started feeling better.

BAM! What happened?

1. Dopamine releases.
2. "I feel better."

Win.

Why do people feel better after talking to a doctor?

• Because they feel they expect a cure is on the way, regardless of the competence of that doctor in prescribing the correct medicine.

But get this, why do people feel even better after surgery?

Because, as Harvard Medical School's Ted J. Kaptchuk puts it, people expect even greater cures from surgery.

• The more that you expect pain relief, the more your brain releases dopamine, the more you combat pain.

Feel better.

Expect cures.

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