Native American Pain The phenomenon occurring in the article “Exploring Pain Processing Differences in Native Americans” written by Shreela Palit, Kara L. Kerr, Bethany L. Kuhn, Ellen L. Terry, Jennifer L. DelVentura, Emily J. Bartley, Joanna O. Shadlow, and Jamie L. Rhudy of The University of Tulsa, is that of pain tolerance and threshold between individuals of the Native American descent and white non-Hispanic descent. Pain is a feeling that can cause a reflex in the body which can help with the protection of the body sometimes in the form of moving a limb after the initial stimulus. The initial stimulus of pain that is inflicted to the individual can take many forms, some of which are a stab, cut, or blow to an area of the body, this process …show more content…
is known as a noxious stimulus. The reaction to the noxious stimulus which is more than likely your body or body part moving itself away from the stimulus with or without your control is called the withdrawal reflex. A withdrawal reflex is another name for a nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR for short). (Apkarian, Bushnell, Treede, & Zubieta, 2005; Tracey & Mantyh, 2007).These are translated into signals that get sent to and from your brain/spine. Certain attributes can cause these signals to be dampened or even amplified at times, as seen with many cases of chronic pain where the pain signal is amplified causing increased discomfort for the individual. (Price, Long, & Huitt, 1992; Sarlani & Greenspan, 2005; Staud, Vierck, Cannon, Mauderli, & Price, 2001) In the experiment these signals and stimuli will be monitored to see the differences between Native Americans and white non-Hispanics and their ability to tolerate pain. It has been found that those of Native American descent have a higher percentage of chronic pain associations within their midst. Those of white non-Hispanic descent have shown to be the least of the population with chronic pain in the United States of America. The Native Americans were born in America and have lived here for many centuries and generations. Whereas the white non-Hispanic group are from European descent, meaning they have not lived in America for too long. The white non-Hispanics traveled here only a few centuries ago and have lived here merely a fraction of the time that the Native Americans have. For those few centuries that the Europeans had lived in America the two groups have resided together ever since, but not necessarily peacefully until much more recent times. The subjects of the test were from Tulsa Oklahoma and consisted of twenty-two Native Americans including eight females, and twenty non-Hispanic Whites. (e.g., Campbell et al., 2005; Edwards et al., 2001; Klatzkin, Mechlin, Bunevicius, & Girdler, 2007; Mechlin et al., 2011; Rahim-Williams et al., 2007) Most of the Native American participants provided proof that they were of Native American descent with a CDIB card and the others proclaimed their affiliation and blood percentage. A CDIB is a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. The participants were at least eighteen years of age, had no health issues that would affect the testing, chronic pain, having a Body Mass Index lower than 35 (since the monitoring systems do not work well with a high amount of adipose tissue) or currently taking certain medications that could alter the results of the experiment. (Palit, S., Kerr, K. L., Kuhn, B. L., Terry, E. L., DelVentura, J. L., Bartley, E. J, & Rhudy, J. L. 2013) In the tests the participants were asked to express the amount of their pain in the for of a Number Ranking Scale (NRS) that lies between 0 and 100; 0 being no pain at all 100 being excruciating pain.
(e.g., Rhudy, Williams, McCabe, Nguyen, & Rambo, 2005; Terry et al., 2011). For the Ischema Pain Test the individuals were to exercise their hand with 50% of their maximum grip for a total time of 2 minutes. Next, blood was drained from the arm by elevating it above their shoulder for 15 seconds. Then, a blood pressure cuff was placed around the forearm and inflated in order to obstruct blood flow to their hand. The Ischema test is measured in the amount of time for the individual to achieve a 50 or greater on the NRS. To test the NFR the researchers used 3 diodes placed on the participant’s sural nerve to provide electrical impulses directly to the sural nerve. These impulses went in a ladder pattern that ascended and descended in order to give the individual the stimulation of pain. The stimulus was given at 8-12 second intervals and the participants were asked to translate their pain to the NRS for every section of the test. Each time the power of the electrical shock is increased by 1 mA (milliAmp) and an EMG on the bicep was recorded the whole time. For the Electrical Pain Assessment a single shock was induced to each participant and every time it was increased by 2 mA until they reached 100 on the NRS. The researchers did not exceed 50 mA during this test as to not cause …show more content…
any bodily damage to those participating in the study. TS-NFR testing is done by using a constant stream of electricity instead of short bursts or impulses, also increased gradually by 1 mA intervals, the individuals expressed their pain in the form of the NRS and an EMG was recorded from their bicep as well. This test determined their Suprathreshold. (Terry et al., 2011) In the final results of the experiment it was found that the hypothesis of the researchers being that Native Americans have a lower pain tolerance due to the increased amount of chronic pain within their population in comparison to White non-Hispanics was false.
In the tests Native Americans were shown to have a higher pain tolerance compared to the White non-Hispanics. In the testing, one of the Native American individuals actually exceeded the boundaries of the test meaning the participant was able to withstand up to 50 mA of electrical shock without exceeding his pain threshold, this individual was ruled out in further testing because they were unable to stay within in the margins of the later tests. The Native Americans had higher pain tolerances compared to the White non-Hispanics in all of the testing with the exception of the Suprathreshold test. This means the testing concluded that Native Americans have a higher pain tolerance than that of the White non-Hispanics. (Palit, S., Kerr, K. L., Kuhn, B. L., Terry, E. L., DelVentura, J. L., Bartley, E. J., & Rhudy, J. L.
2013)
Each person will respond differently to the pain experience. Therefore, the individual’s attitudes, personal experiences and knowledge are also antecedents to the concept of pain. For instance, a person that has been exposed to severe pain knows the
From the time when the Europeans first met the Native Americans, to the time after the American Revolution, the Native Americans had to endure inhumane pain and suffering. According to my resources, the original population of Native Americans was over 10 million during the 15th century. Surely over millions of people should be able to defend themselves from outside invaders. However, that wasn’t possible for them. By 1900, only 300,000 of the population remain. Around the time the Natives encountered the Europeans, they suffered from diseases and bloodshed. Later on they were forced by the Spaniards to convert a new religion, Christianity.
People have been living in America for countless years, even before Europeans had discovered and populated it. These people, named Native Americans or American Indians, have a unique and singular culture and lifestyle unlike any other. Native Americans were divided into several groups or tribes. Each one tribe developed an own language, housing, clothing, and other cultural aspects. As we take a look into their society’s customs we can learn additional information about the lives of these indigenous people of the United States.
American Indians have had health disparities as result of unmet needs and historical traumatic experiences that have lasted over 500 hundred years.1(p99) Since first contact American Indians have been exposed to infectious disease and death2(p19), more importantly, a legacy of genocide, legislated forcible removal, reservation, termination, allotment, and assimilation3. This catastrophic history had led to generational historical traumas and contributes to the worst health in the United States.2 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) represent 0.9 percent of the United States population4(p3) or 1.9 million AI/AN of 566 federally recognized tribes/nations.5 American Indians/Alaska Natives have significantly higher mortality rates of intentional and unintentional injuries, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease than other American.6
Therefore, Mexican Americans typically take a passive role with regard to treatment options. For example, Mexican Americans seldom voice problems with pain while in the hospital due to a high value being placed on stoicism. Consequently, studies show that they receive inadequate analgesia more often than any other population. Life-sustaining measures may also be requested by family members if there is any hope that the ill loved one will survive. However, Mexican Americans believe that th...
There is a general consensus of what physical pain is amongst society. Pain is never good. It is something that hurts and no one ever wants to actually be in pain. In infants and toddlers, pain is associated with cries, tears, and the word “ouch!” As they grow into adults, pain and all of its expressions follow and branch out with them. Its dimensions multiply and what used to hurt as toddlers, no longer does. At the same time, they begin to experience new physical pains – pains, which create such an unimaginable physical suffering. Today, pain remains as an unpleasant feeling that causes physical suffering; however, it can be seen and interpreted from many different vantage points. One perspective is the personal standpoint, where many people have trouble describing the feeling of enduring pain or the physicality of it. Another viewpoint is the neurobiological viewpoint, where neurologists have readily created three separate types of pain and explications for each.
pain focuses in on only a few of the subtler nuances of pain that are
Throughout time, mankind has persistently been seeking ways to maintain their health and to cure those that had not been so fortunate in that task. Just about everything has been experimented with as a cure for some type of illness; whether physical, spiritual or mental. There has always been evidence of spiritual healing and it will continue to be an important part of any healing process, large or small.
The ischaemic pain was produced in the participants’ non-dominant arm by using a sphygmomanometer cuff, which was inflated and maintained at 200 mmHg. The subject squeezed a handheld force measuring device, maintaining a constant force of 10 kg (females) or 20 kg (males) for 3 seconds. This was repeated at 10-second intervals
Contrary to popular belief, discrimination of Native Americans in America still widely exist in the 21st century! So you may ask, why? Well, to answer that one question, I will give you 3 of the countless reasons why this unfortunate group of people are punished so harshly for little good reason. So now, let’s get into it, shall we!
Native American’s experience transference of historical trauma across generations and genders. The frequencies illustrate that across all generations of Nez Perce tribal members are aware of and feel with frequency the historical losses of their people.
This lab we demonstrated the body’s reaction to stimulation and the actions on the nervous system. The knee jerk reflex is a spinal reflex activated by tapping the patellar tendon below the knee. This reflex is important when trying to figure out the damage to the spinal cord or the nerves. In this activity, we used an EKG sensor to measure the relative strength of the impulse generated by a stimulus with and without reinforcement.
Measuring Pain 1. 1. Sensory - intensity, duration, threshold, tolerance, location, etc 2. 2. Neurophysiological - brainwave activity, heart rate, etc 3. 3. Emotional and motivational - anxiety, anger, depression, resentment, etc 4.
due to a reduction of the natural pain-killers that exist in the body of non-
Nurses must embrace this vital fact, in order to deliver patients with culturally adequate pain management. Nurses must also be conscious of the cultural patterns, for example, principles, morals, and behaviors that influence and guides their own and their patients' responses to pain. Moreover, it’s imperative not to stereotype patients by assuming that patient’s will adhere to a certain culture's typical pain patterns. Rather than trying to forge the pain philosophies and practices of particular ethnic groups, a nurse should consider the various ways in which culture influences how patients respond to and referred