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Originally posted by Dewgirl:
What does it mean when someone says they have a high tolerance for pain?

I've been asked a lot about my pain tolerance lately and I don't know what that means... does it mean how much pain you can stand without passing out? how badly you need to be injured before you feel pain? how can I tell how much pain I'm feeling compared to anyone else?

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In a book I'm reading called Complications (collection of essays on medical topics by Atul Gawande), a test for pain threshold and pain tolerance is described (I didn't know they were different). "After immersing you hand in body-temperature water for two minutes to establish a baseline condition, you dunk your hand in a bowl of ice water and start a clock running. You mark the time when it begins to hurt: that is your pain threshold. Then you mark the time when it hurts too much to keep your hand in the water: that is your pain tolerance. The test is always stopped at a hundred and twenty seconds, to prevent injury." (p.121)

In a study where researchers performed this test on a group of university students, female students reported average pain thresholds of 16 seconds, and tolerances of 37 seconds.

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Originally posted by jstrizzy:
In a book I'm reading called Complications (collection of essays on medical topics by Atul Gawande), a test for pain threshold and pain tolerance is described

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Originally posted by Eckerslie:
Why does drinking lots of coffee make my scalp itch?

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Originally posted by ralphyr:
guys, I'm going to do this.

Just to keep this digstest scientific, how much of your hand do you imerse? Do you include the wrist? I might get boy to give it a go too.

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Originally posted by geogirl:
I'm not sure, but I know that coffee is a diuretic (sp?) & being dehydrated can cause dry skin. Try alternating coffee with glasses of water & see if that helps.

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I drink heaps of water and I'm not dehydrated (I have to keep an eye on that as it triggers migraines) and I take cream with my coffee so it's not an allergy to milk... Could it be because it's a stimulant? Why my scalp?

Maybe there's a special kind of ear-pimple?

Edited to add... damn, I keep forgetting about the water test thingie.

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Originally posted by Dewgirl:
Eek! I do. It feels like a little tiny marble under your skin. I tend to get them right on my earlobe, or like you said, where the ear joins the face. But I don't think I get them anywhere else, just the ear.

Maybe there's a special kind of ear-pimple?

Edited to add... damn, I keep forgetting about the water test thingie.

[This message has been edited by Dewgirl (edited 01-07-2005).]

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Originally posted by meggo:
Wow - I thought this had to be a "this would only happen to me" kind of thing - but you get them too!! Ear pimple - very strange...

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I think it's a boil, I get them too. I get them inside the curvy parts of the ear - very painful.

As far as I know, ganglion cysts must be surgically removed.....

But the alternative is to have them lanced or surgically removed. My mom has a recurring one in her wrist that has been operated on and just keeps returning. The procedures all sound kind of painful, so no thanks.

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Originally posted by Lis:

But the alternative is to have them lanced or surgically removed. My mom has a recurring one in her wrist that has been operated on and just keeps returning. The procedures all sound kind of painful, so no thanks.

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Originally posted by Lis:
But the alternative is to have them lanced or surgically removed. My mom has a recurring one in her wrist that has been operated on and just keeps returning. The procedures all sound kind of painful, so no thanks.

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Ok, don't get grossed out. The one on/in your mom's wrist is probably a ganglion, but the one on your ear is not, b/c, as far as I know, they only occur on your wrists/hands.
I have a recurring ganglion problem. Did you know that they are called "bible bumps"? My dad informed me of this the first time I had one, as he whacked it with a very very heavy dictionary, hence the name. It's a build-up of fluid and nerves all knotted together, and the "whack" spreads it back out. It really did work. But when it came back, I refused to let him try it again, b/c it hurt so badly (a large heavy hard book hitting a bundle of nerves?!?!) so I made my mom (this was grade school) take me to the doc. He drained it with a hollow needle, which hurt SO MUCH MORE. And then a week later, it was back. So I went back to dear Daddy and his dictionary, and I've been there ever since. I don't get them too much anymore. If your mom sees a chiropractor, tell her to have him adjust her wrists, too. I think that's why I don't get them anymore.
(Moment to breathe.)
Ok. On to your ear. I've also gotten these. Chances are that what is on your ear is more of the pimple variety, by that I mean that there is a clogged poor or ingrown hair, or a cyst if it has gotten that far. Try holding a hot washcloth on it and see if it will drain. Don't pick at it too much. If it doesn't drain, go to your doc or dermatologist.

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Originally posted by pollyhyper:
Ok. On to your ear. I've also gotten these. Chances are that what is on your ear is more of the pimple variety, by that I mean that there is a clogged poor or ingrown hair, or a cyst if it has gotten that far. Try holding a hot washcloth on it and see if it will drain. Don't pick at it too much. If it doesn't drain, go to your doc or dermatologist.

This concludes today's episode of "Gross Growths." I'm pollyhyper, wishing you a good day and good hygiene!
Over and out.

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Okay - the one in the "corner" of my ear/lobe/head is still there and it still hurts. It feels kind of squishy - like it's fluid - not anything really concrete. Maybe I'll try the hot washcloth trick tonight.

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Originally posted by ralphyr:
Is there a cure for tongue ulsers?

My boy has had two for the last week and they are very sore. Poor boy.
He had a tooth extracted and the dentist thought that it could be caused by him playing round with the rotten tooth!
Also he has been drinking lots of tomato juice (very acidic).
Also he has gone on a health kick and stopped drinking, his body went through the whole detox thing, sweats and such.
It could be a combination of these.

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I think there's a whole thread about this -- I'll try to find it to bump for you. The short answer is not really, you just have to wait for them to go away, but there are things that can make them hurt less in the meantime.

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Originally posted by meggo:
Okay - the one in the "corner" of my ear/lobe/head is still there and it still hurts. It feels kind of squishy - like it's fluid - not anything really concrete. Maybe I'll try the hot washcloth trick tonight.

I have heard of bible bumps - I didn't know they were fluid though. Interesting...

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So tell me what relevance does your blood type have on health/diet. My boss is gaga overeat right for your type. A naturopath suggested that the problems she is having losing weight is because she is not eating correctly for her blood type.

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Originally posted by Aimee:
I've noticed quite a few stretch mark type things coming up on my inner thighs and around the top of the crease where your arm lies next to your side on my back, a month ago i was 140lbs and had not a single mark anywhere but have lost 20lbs (way too fast) and suddenly have noticed these marks coming up.
Are these to do with losing weight and can i get rid of them or make them less noticable some how?
I intend on hopefully losing another 14lbs so is there away to avoid any more marks coming up when i lose more weight?

(a friend who also lost alot of weight quickly has alot of similar marks all over her legs where she lost most her weight from)

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Originally posted by geogirl:
Don't they recommend pregnant women to use cocoa butter on their bellies to prevent stretch marks?

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There are lots of claims about what will help stretch marks, and lots of other claims that nothing will help. As one who has stretched beyond hope (I was 105 lbs when I got pregnant with twins--I now have a wrinkly pit where my belly button used to be), I did find one thing that really helped my stretch marks. It's called L@nsinoh, and it's this gooey lanolin ointment for breastfeeding mothers.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

(and, as a sidenote, it's nice to be in a relationship where my boy saw this and I didn't feel it necessary to run and put my shirt on)

I got these GNC Nourishair which I hope will make my hair grow a bit faster and they REEK.

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Originally posted by TinyGirl:
I can't believe I'm putting this on the internet--
Can you get a pimple on your breast? It looks like a whitehead right at the tip of the nipple. Do I need to be worried? It kinda goes and comes depending on how, er, pointy I am, but it's there.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

(and, as a sidenote, it's nice to be in a relationship where my boy saw this and I didn't feel it necessary to run and put my shirt on)

[This message has been edited by TinyGirl (edited 03-23-2005).]

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My thought would be yes, you can get a pimple on your breast - they're made of skin and gave pores, right? So either pimples or ingrown hairs should be possible?

However, I'm thinking the tip of your nipple (I hate to think of what google searches are going to find this discussion!) would be a different matter, because I don't think there are pores on your nipples.

I found a discussion of something similar here and here, though the second one seems fairly specific to breastfeeding and I'm assuming you would have mentioned if you were doing that. Anyways, the first one suggests it might be totally normal, though not a pimple.

As always, I would suggest seeing a doctor of you're worried about it, or if it's painful or there's discharge or anything.

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Originally posted by blanketbat:
Eww, are vitamins supposed to smell like that?

I got these GNC Nourishair which I hope will make my hair grow a bit faster and they REEK.

Someone tell me if this is normal! Are they going to make me smell like a filthy yetti?

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Is there a 1-800 number on the bottle? If they have a helpline maybe they can tell you if it's normal to have a weird odor.

Hehe, if it were me I'd just use regular vitamins. Silica, the secret hair ingredient, is just um, sand.