Dealing with pain

In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on picky eating in adolescence, on childhood exposures that increase the risk of bowel cancer, and on how the gut develops tolerance to potential allergens. We then talk about why everyday pains are so important for children, what allows them to experience these pains, and why mildly painful rites of passage can help children to learn to manage their own pain. Finally, we discuss the effects of humming on airway health.

Topics covered

* Do Children Who Were Preschool Picky Eaters Eat Different Foods at School Lunch When Aged 13 Years Than Their Non-Picky Peers? (actual paper title question!) [01:02]

* What’s the deal on the media hype about colibactin in childhood and bowel cancer risk? [07:55]

* What are thetis cells and how do they reduce a child’s risk of allergies? [10:12]

* How can we set children up for better long-term ability to deal with pain? [16:34]

* How can we help adolescents learn to better deal with pain? [38:07]

* Why is humming good for you? [40:42]

These other podcast episodes cover overlapping topics:

Resources mentioned in this podcast

* My recent pain article (and all the associated pain references that we discuss here):

* Cross-cultural picky eating here:

* Social learning and reinforcement of pain features in my article about setting up guts that work well throughout life:

* Do Children Who Were Preschool Picky Eaters Eat Different Foods at School Lunch When Aged 13 Years Than Their Non-Picky Peers? https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jhn.70063?msockid=006b94e58178633c336581b580b362d3

* Colibactin and risk of bowel cancer: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09025-8

* Thetis cells and immune tolerance: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp0535

* Humming greatly increases nasal nitric oxide (15 fold): https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.200202-138BC

* Case report on humming for chronic rhinosinusitis: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987705006328