It Hurts ...: What Is Pain?

 
For a long time, doctors adhered to the assertion that the pain we are experiencing is just the reaction of the nerve endings to too much irritation:

• When someone strokes you, you blink enough;
• If you are given a slap - you start to get a little nervous; 
• And if you are hit when a stick - you are excitedly start yelling and complaining about life. 

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However, all these simple representations are complete nonsense, because in reality, what we are used to calling pain is called nociception. Nociception -  is a kind of unique "mechanism" for recognizing and transmitting potentially dangerous sensations. That is, while the usual receptors send signals about warmth and comfort, nociceptors send all the disturbing information to the neurons.

Very often in life it happens that the pain turns into a whole symphony, where behind a chorus of cheerful harps and pacified keyboards, suddenly an ill-fated violin is thrown up by an inner hysterical voice, which tells us: "Everything is super, of course, had fun next, but actually we are here. ..! " .

 Why Do Some Suffer Pain, While Others Weep For Hours?

A hundred years ago, British physiologist Charles Sherrington called the pain "guard dog of health" protecting our body - "from a part he was right, because if we could not feel the pain, then our body would probably have broken his head against the wall for a long time". However, this does not happen due to nociception, which observes the balance between pain and its absence.

But as you know in nature, there is no ideal protection, so even nociception has its own weak points: nociceptors are absent in such vulnerable organs as the head (with the exception of its hard shell) or the spinal cord - why put alarm on the organs, whose trauma is almost always fatal?

Therefore, in cases where we are exposed to increased activity or feel a danger, our body, depending on the situation, produces one of three analgesic substances:

• I think it is not a secret for anyone that during sex our receptors show great physical activity - friction .... But the serotin entering the blood in time convinces us that everything is fine, and all manner of rubbing can be tolerated ...
• When we fight, we ourselves without noticing do incredible things - stop feeling the pain, forget about the broken hand, and in every way rush into the fight. This ability is manifested through norepinephrine, which at the time of a sharp excitation by a huge fountain spills into the blood, thereby blocking all pain signals.
• Perhaps you have often noticed this phenomenon - when a few weeks in a row the aching tooth suddenly ceases to hurt? This is due to the opiate analgesic substance that secretes the surrendered body in order to relieve you of painful stress and allows the tooth to rot softly for pleasure.

Why all this is said? The fact is that if the work of nociceptors is carried out according to a similar principle, then the abilities of our glands to isolate the analgesic substance vary depending on the person himself, or on the situation.

Therefore, some people can be tortured for years, and they still will not tell you anything. But for some, it's enough to shout at them or hit them - and they will agree to anything. And there is nothing embarrassing about this, because the matter here is not in the strength of will and endurance, but in the ability of the body to react quickly and correctly to stimuli by the release of anesthetic substances.

How To Cheat Pain?

Have you ever wondered why a nurse before slapping, necessarily slaps you on the buttock - and without any erotic overtones? And can you guess why all the same work "shaman" ways of treatment of headache and toothache? Or maybe you know why you are talking teeth and poking at different points on your neck and face?

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The thing is that in our spinal cord there is a certain group of neurons called - gelatinous substance. This group of neurons is responsible for blocking tactile signals that have lost their novelty. That is why the most clearly we feel something at the moment of touch, tk. The strongest sensations arrive during the first seconds, and then lose their novelty.

Thanks to the gelatinous substance, we do not feel every millimeter of our skin the clothes we walk in, the hair on our forehead, the warm air of the room on our cheeks.

In fact, the gelatinous substance not only slows down and stops the supply of long signals from the receptors, but also follows the instructions of nociceptors, which give an exceptional command - "Oh well, lie still!". And obedient to their orders, the substance will not lie, dutifully resolving the flow of pain unchecked on your neurons, which in turn recognize this signal as uncritical.

But no matter how much we talk about pain, our modern society will always treat it ... cautiously. Remember yourself and how you proudly turn away from the analgin tablets, or how you feel about going to a doctor with such nonsense as in pain in the leg, abdomen or ear ....