afreytes 🇵🇷

Do minor cuts and scrapes objectively hurt more, or less, as you get older? Why is this so? Is this a known phenomenon, are there studies? Example: Does a paper cut hurt more, or less, at age 60 than at age 30? Could there always be a correlation with peripheral arterial disease? Any other factors?

Yes, it is widely known that even minor cuts take longer to heal and can be more serious as we age. The question is about experiencing or measuring pain.
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Apr 12 at 5:40pmWeb
Show threadPhil Dennis-Jordan1d ago
@afreytes Good question. I mean, kids cry at relatively minor injuries. And subjectively, I feel like my pain tolerance has increased somewhat with age. But that could be thanks to conditioning via being in long-term pain for some years. (Fortunately not anymore.)
Show threadchristian mock1d ago
@afreytes personal anecdata: they don't hurt more, but take much longer to fully heal.
Show threadafreytes 🇵🇷1d ago

@cm @eobeara Yes, indeed it is widely known I think, that as we get older even minor cuts take longer to heal and can be more serious...

But I want to know about measuring pain. Not because I want pain, but more about the mechanisms that activate pain and whether those mechanisms decay, and how that decay may affects how people experience pain as they age.

I feel like this is an under-explored subject maybe. And cursory searches (using my limited vocabulary) brings up nothing.

Show threadafreytes 🇵🇷1d ago

@cm @eobeara BTW: over here, a few years ago, hospitals started having a 1-10 scale pain chart. 1 being mikd discomfort and 10 being excruciantly disabling pain.

But we know that even that will vary from person to person.

Now imagine a study like the one a doctor made throughout his life, where he cracked the knuckles on only one hand so he could study if joints cracking had any effects over a long period of time.

And again, Im not suggesting inflicting pain on anyone, but it's misterious.

Show threadDr Jess Birch1d ago
@afreytes Personally, I have been losing nerve sensitivity over my life and so I may not even notice minor cuts and scrapes anymore. I find this aligns with my memory of elders, who seemed not to realise when they'd injured themself.
At least some of this stuff seems to be well-known but also include various "well, not sure why that works" shrugs from my scan of more recent papers around the topic. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2021.02.015
Show threadKristell1d ago
@afreytes @shivoa Yeah, same. It's fun playing the game of "Let's find the mystery bruise" once a week and speculating what I couldve even done to get a cut/bruise there of all places
Show threadEoin O'Beara1d ago
@afreytes
As a first aid instructor, I can say that our epidermis (outer layer of our skin) gets thinner as we age, so a similar cut in our 60s and 70s will be more detrimental to us as it was in out 20s and 30s.