Life is more dangerous if you can't feel pain. If we want to avoid injury, we should use a hammer more gently, wait for the soup to cool or put on gloves. Those with rare inherited disorders that leave them without the ability to feel pain are unable to protect themselves from environmental threats, leading to broken bones, damaged skin, and infections.
Pain is more than a sensation in these contexts. Pain that lasts a long time can be disabling. Modern medicine makes the call easier.
This is a question that we and other researchers have tried to answer. Over the past several years, science has made great strides in understanding how the body feels pain. There are multiple pathways that signal tissue damage to the brain and sound the alarm.
While the brain uses different pathways for different types of damage, there is more than one pathway. Even though the protective function of pain is no longer needed, neural pathways can amplify signals in chronic pain and pain caused by conditions affecting nerves themselves.
Different parts of the pathways are tackled by painkillers. Some painkillers work for certain types of pain. A perfect painkiller is hard to come by. Understanding how existing painkillers work helps medical providers and patients.
Tissue inflammation from an injury can lead to swelling and redness as the body tries to heal. Nociceptors are specialized nerve cells that sense inflammation and send pain signals to the brain.
AdvertisementInflammation in the injured area is reduced by the use of common over-the-counter anti- inflammatory painkillers. Inflammation caused by arthritis is one of the reasons why these are useful.
A key role in a biochemical cascade that produces inflammatory chemicals is blocked by the use of nonsteroidal anti-inmatoflamries. The cascade can be blocked to decrease the amount of inflammatory chemicals in the body. Although it doesn't reduce inflammation as NSAID do, it does reduce pain and has similar effects.
More recently, drugs that target and inactivate the inflammatory chemicals themselves have been added to the list of prescription anti- inflammatory painkillers.
Because inflammatory chemicals are involved in other important physiological functions beyond just sounding the pain alarm, blocking them will have side effects and potential health risks. If the directions on the bottle are followed, over-the-counter drugs are generally safe.
It's likely that steroids block the inflammatory cascade early on in the process, which is why they're so effective in reducing inflammation. Steroids can pose a number of health risks that need to be discussed with a doctor before starting a treatment plan.
Nociceptors are special nerves that detect tissue damage. Local anesthesia, like lidocaine, prevents the nerves from sending signals to the brain.
The tips of other sensory cells are also targets for pain killers. The cooling sensation of menthol or the burning sensation of capsaicin are some of the sensations that can be elicited by the activation of these proteins.
Because they work on the nerves in the skin, they are the best way to relieve pain. A shingles infection can damage the nerves in the skin and send pain signals to the brain, which is why it's so dangerous. Pain signals can be reduced with the use of lidocaine or capsaicin.
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