One thing I noticed whenever I worked the walk in freezer at a local restaurant, that has had me baffled for years (I no longer work there)…
Whenever I did something that I knew would cause pain (hit my fingertips or knuckles on a rack, wall, or drop a box of stuff on them, for example), I would brace myself for the pain. But it never came immediately. There was a noticeable delay. More than long enough for me to think, “Oh, crap, this is gonna hurt!”
When the pain did hit, it was far more intense than the same action would be at room temperature. In addition to the onset delay, the pain also lasted much longer than it would at room temperature.
What is the medical reason behind this? I assume the intensity has something to do with blood flow, but what about the onset delay and longevity?
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This is an interesting one and I will be interested in other people’s take. The easy hypothesis is summed up by the quote:
“The reason injuries hurt more in cold weather is because the cold causes the body to try to conserve heat by sending more blood to the organs in the center of our body, which causes the blood vessels in other areas to constrict. This reduced blood flow leads to stiffness, which can cause discomfort and pain.”
There are some other aspects which also kick in from a neuroscience perspective that generally is not well known. So the Nervous System consists of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. Our sensory organs and the nerves throughout our body receive data and pass on the information to the spinal cord, and finally to the control center—our brain—which then interprets the information it receives. So, if we hit our hand on something it sends the sensation to the brain through the spinal cord and interprets the sensation. If you have experienced the sensation of cold before, the brain has already been tuned to that sensation. In the freezer and you hit your hand, the brain now has two inputs to process, the hit and the cold. The brain draws the conclusion that those two inputs is more painful which is reinforced by the brain each time it happens. In your case, you actually created a self fulfilling prophecy by thinking “Oh crap, this is going to hurt”, a third input into how the brain interacts the hit. The same with the delayed onset and extension of the pain sensation. Just to be clear, the pain you feel and the intensity is real but is more driven by the brain’s interpretation of the inputs rather than just blood flow.
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