Mayim Bialik - Mayim Bialik Copes With Hand Injury Without Powerful Painkillers

The super-smart The Big Bang Theory star admits everything she learned about how the body copes with pain during her studies and labour helped her stay calm as doctors worked to save her hand.

Not a fan of narcotics, Bialik opted against taking powerful painkillers - and she's using over-the-counter medication and "deep breathing" to get through the agony.

She tells U.S. news show Access Hollywood Live, "Everything I used for natural labour I absolutely used at the scene of this accident.

"I didn't take drugs all through the ER (emergency room) and until they made me go night-night for surgery I was awake and in it... It really affirmed by faith in pain with a purpose... and the ability to lower your blood pressure, which women do in labour."

But the actress accepts she's lucky surgeons were able to save her hand: "It was a bad car accident, but I'm OK. I have a PhD in neuroscience, so it's a lot of worse it could have been; that's what I was thinking as I stepped outta (sic) my car."