Pain is an unpleasant feeling that is usually caused by an injury, disease or other abnormality of the body. It is a warning that something is wrong somewhere in our body. Do you know why do we feel pain?
We feel pain if something burns or presses hard on the end of certain nerves which are known as pain receptors. These receptors are located throughout the body as well as in the skin. Each pain receptor is a part of a nerve which carries pain impulses to the brain.
Superficial pain is caused by receptors in the skin. A person can tell the location of the superficial pain as the skin has a large number of pain receptors. It is very difficult to pin-point the location of pain in internal regions because there are only a few pain receptors there. Sometimes deep inside the body, pain may be experienced that might get transferred to some other part of the body at some distance from the actual source of the pain. Toothache is one example of such pain.
The best treatment of pain is to treat its cause. It can be controlled by some drugs called pain killers. Aspirin is one such drug. For controlling severe pain narcotics are usually used. Long term or chronic pain is treated by interrupting the pathways of the brain or spinal cord. Opium, morphine and heroine are the important narcotics used for this purpose. These drugs cut off the paths of the nerves which carry the pain messages to the brain. The biggest disadvantage of these drugs is that they lead to addiction. In modern times, chemists have invented anaesthetic drugs and other pain killers having fewer side effects to deaden pain caused by any disease and injury.