Nostalgia can even shield you from physical pain, says a study

Past can be a pain but nostalgia often brings a delightful relief. Everyone likes to think of good ol' days once in a while. And this sure evokes happiness, lifts our mood and sometimes makes us meet life with a renewed vigour.

But can nostalgia have real, physiological benefits? A study says yes.

The study was made by Chinese Academy of Sciences. In this study, volunteers were given heat stimulus. This heat stimulus could be slightly painful at times. 

At the same time. They were shown images from their childhood that evokes nostalgia. They were asked to rate the pain they felt from the heat stimulus.

It was observed by the researchers that a strong nostalgia provided some sort of pain relief to the volunteers. This was especially apparent when the level of pain within the ranges decided for the study was low. 

The relief brought about by nostalgia did not have a profound effect, however, when the pain intensity was higher. Researchers think that this was so because pain of higher intensity took up more cognitive resources of the mind.

"The more nostalgic the participants felt, the less pain they perceived," said the research team in its paper as quoted by ScienceAlert.