God has marvellously designed all our bodily systems and they are flawless. Just imagine a life with no pain. If you think that it great, then think again. There are some people who cannot feel pain. They’re born this way and they tend to die young.
According to Luda Diatchenko, Pain researcher at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, “Pain is much more important for survival,”
Scientists are gradually discovering the processes in the body that lead to an unpleasant sense of pain. For example, when you unintentionally touch a hot stove, you pull your hand suddenly away from the stove, which helps you to avoid getting a burn that might me dangerous or even deadly. The aching of a broken leg tells you to stay off it until it heals, so that you may not do more damage. If we were unable to experience these pain sensations then we all would be in trouble.
There are two main types of pain. i) Acute pain is a short-lived pain warning the body that some damage is occurring. It is a sign of injury or disease and has a tendency to resolve itself as the injury or disease does. ii) Chronic pain, can last months or years.
In fact, “sometimes the nervous system can get it wrong,” Steve Prescott, pain researcher at the University of Toronto, Canada, says “Sometimes you have pain that should not be there,”
Scientists are working on this area to know how and why do we feel pain but the biology of pain is complex, and researchers are learning more about it day by day.
Nociception (from a Latin word for "hurt"), or Pain perception, is the process by which a painful stimulus is transmitted from the site of stimulation to the central nervous system. There are many steps in the nociception process:
1. Contact with stimulus. E.g. pricking of a nail in your foot
2. Reception. A nerve ending senses the stimulus.
3. Transmission. Nerves send the signals to the central nervous system. The transmission of information usually involves various neurons in the central nervous system.
4. Pain center reception. The brain receives the provided information for further processing and action.
Factors Affecting the Experience of Pain:
Sudden severe pain gets your attention quickly and commonly produces a stronger physical response than mild pain. The location of your pain can also affect how you perceive it but the location of pain does not always specify where this pain is coming from. For example, in heart attack the pain is usually felt in the neck, arms, jaws or abdomen and it is known as referred pain. There are several factors that can affect you interpret pain:
1. values and beliefs
2. emotional and psychological state
3. previous pain memories
4. upbringing
5. age
6. sex
Pain may be called as God's Blessing, because if we were unable to feel pain, then we were unable to treat any injury or disease. So it really is a "Blessing in Disguise" and sometimes it turns you towards your Creator.
