Fool your brain, reduce your pain

Next time you're looking for pain relief, try a little distraction.

A recent study published in Current Biology found that mental distractions actually block pain signals from the body before they ever reach the brain. "Human brains have a limited capacity for attention. If you have a demanding enough task, you'll have less attention to give to your pain," explains Dr. Randy Gollub, associate professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.