Questions tagged [pain]
Tag for questions pertaining the sensation of unpleasant sensory and emotional experiences associated with actual or potential tissue damage.
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Do oysters feel pain?
Do oysters feel pain when you bite into the inside, or when you crack open the shell? I tried google searching it to no avail. When you bite inside the oyster or when you break the shell to open the ...
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Is it painful for the hen to lay eggs?
My little son just asked me this question. His mother used to complain about the excruciating pain she suffered when she gave birth to him. He is a compassionate kid and wonders whether the hen goes ...
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Can one die from pain?
Is it possible that a human or any other creature can die from pain?
I googled and found different answers. Some articles say Yes while others say No.
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What is the cause that angina pectoris is felt in your left arm?
When someone has heart problems sometimes they feel pain in their left arm. But why is the left arm painful?
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Inability of vultures to digest diclofenac
The population of Indian vultures has been rapidly declining since 2003. This is attributed to the diclofenac present in the carcasses which the vultures eat. Vultures seem to digest all sorts of food ...
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Is it possible to feel pain in some part of a body, but the pain "feeling" is introduced somewhere else?
Is it possible to feel pain in some part of a body, but that the cause of the pain is situated elsewhere in the body? For example, somebody feels pain in his toe, but it turns out that this pain is ...
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Why does having cold hands hurt?
(1). Why does having cold hands create a painful sensation?
Is it a physical effect, maybe a protection mechanism from evolution?
(2). Why, if one's hands are cold, does it feel as if they are more ...
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Why does it hurt more when you touch a nerve directly?
I am not a biologist nor know much about biology (so please explain in layman's terms) however I have always been curious as to why this is.
What causes the difference in pain between touching an ...
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Do ants feel pain?
I have watched video on youtube where guy pours molten aluminium into fire ant colony to make casing. In the comments below there's huge discussion on is that a right thing to do. I am on the side ...
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How does a pinched nerve cause pain (at the molecular level)?
Is this due to pressure differentials in the surrounding tissue? (Is it possible to have a pinched nerve without compression of the surrounding tissues, and does this cause pain?)
What are the ...
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What does pain look like in wave form?
I am interested in understanding what "pain" and "hot/cold" look like, as far as waves signatures (signal processing) go.
My general understanding of how pain (nociceptive pathways) and hot/cold (...
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How can tooth enamel feel pain when drilled by a dentist?
Enamel has no nerves, so theoretically a tooth should not feel any pain when a dentist bores into it. Yet still we use anesthetics...
Maybe it’s dentin's fault? It apparently has some tubes filled ...
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What's a mouth ulcer/canker sore "made of", and why do they develop?
Mouth ulcers are red/white rings with a crater. They are sore and last for 7-10 days.
What I want to know is what they are 'made of' - i.e., what is the ring filled with, and why is the centre crater ...
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Does spinal cord have pain receptors?
I understand that the brain itself does not have pain receptors, so when the brain is damaged or cut, there is no experience of pain. For example, surgeons can operate on the brain while a patient is ...
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What stimulates a nociceptor?
For instance, when pressure is applied to the skin, what determines how much pressure results in nociceptor stimulation. And when a sharp object pierces the skin, why is pain, rather than simply touch,...
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Do lobsters possess a nervous system to feel pain?
I was reading an article, which it mentions that lobsters do not have a nervous system:
Lobsters have very poor eyesight and no nervous system. They walk slowly
on the sea floor but are capable ...
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Do people with congenital analgesia feel cold?
There are a few diseases that cause an insensitivity to pain. This question asks about the relationship between the cold and pain, which got me thinking:
Is shivering a response driven by the ...
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How and why can cold inflict pain?
I was carrying a can of very cold liquid, had something heavy in my other hand so couldn't switch hands. After a few minutes, I started to feel very intense pain. I was very surprised. cold is just ...
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How does Tylenol relieve pain without making me drowsy?
So I have a crown that popped out and has been killing me, I've lived on a steady diet of Tylenol since it popped out. I've noticed that aside from killing most of the pain from the tooth, the tylenol ...
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Can nociceptors die because of too much mechanical stress?
In martial art people hit their body (e.g., with small bean bags) to become more insensitive to pain. Can the sensory neurons die during this procedure? I think this is just an urban legend. Instead, ...
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Why Is The Toughness Of Skin Different On Different Parts Of The Body?
My cat was licking my arm with his sandpaper like tongue. It hurt and the area he was licking was slightly smarting afterwards. However, when he licks the palm of my hand the feeling is rather ...
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Why isn't the upper limit of pain lower in humans?
From what I understand, pain is an useful mechanism that signals us that something is not quite right with our body (in particular, we're under attack). It's good - it alert us and tells us that we ...
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How do we share pain?
When somebody else tells me about his or her itching or pain in some specific body part, I sometimes begin to feel similar feelings.
I can think of about three explanations:
I feel pain all over my ...
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Redheads and pain receptors
I remember reading this in a biology textbook, and decided to do a little digging. Redheads have a lower sensitivity to some pain and a higher sensitivity to other compared to people of other colored ...
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How is information sent from the skin to the brain?
Say you have a needle, and you poke a very specific area on your left thumb.
A signal gets sent from that nerve up your spine and into your brain.
How does the brain know exactly where this signal ...
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Reseach on feeling pain of other people
I'm more of a tech than bio kind of guy, but I have read and learned a lot alongside of my girlfriend's education. Which is very interesting!!
Currently I want to investigate : people claiming to ...
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If one endures the same form pain over a long period of time, would the pain begin to lose intensity?
Metaphorically thinking, if one endured the pain of constant burning for decades, would the pain slowly lose its strength?
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Why Do Nerve Signals Get Crossed?
First off, I don't know if this is a normal healthy thing to occur. There have been many times where I have an itch on say my arm and I scratch it, only to feel the scratching elsewhere on my body. I ...
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Does the body have a gate control for pain
I understand it is not the most accurate source but I recall a House episode where he claimed the body had a control mechanism for pain in which only the most painful thing was felt. Is that true? and ...
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Death by exsanguination not painful?
Several places on the internet seem to purport that animal sacrifice is painless because exsanguination causes no pain. That sounds unscientific to me and an attempt to appease culture than than using ...
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What causes the pain when a bone fracture is healing?
Why does a fracture still hurts when it is healing? I understand the pain at the beginning - the bone is not in its place, there is a pressure against the nerves, also the swelling pushes the nerves ...
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Does suffocation pain involve nociceptors?
I never suffocated myself so not entirely sure, but when you suffocate, it's painful, right? But of course different kind of pain than being injured or sick. What I'm wondering is, if the "painful" (...
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Advantages of pain sensation?
The hazards of congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP) are well-known.
This question is about the obverse: what selective advantage, if any, does the normal sensation of pain confer? I'm thinking of ...
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How can we know or measure pain in animals?
Is there any standard way to know how much pain an animal feels when it gets hurt like when a bird loses it's wing or hen when killed etc. All pain sensation points?
Hey I'm new to biology. :)
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Why is burn feeling 'slower' than touch?
When you touch a hot object you first feel the touch and only after a second you feel the burn too, and if you detach your skin from the object the burn feeling continues for few seconds. I remember i'...
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Is there a specific mechanism for the delivery of pain medication?
For example, when one takes aspirin or ibuprofen does the chemical get dispersed to all pain receptor? My question really is, how does the chemical know where to target in the body? I figure wherever ...
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Why do we suffer abdominal pain after we get very angry or stress?
You also realize probably, when we get so much anger or high levels of stress, after some point we have terrible stomach ache, like really heavy pain. Why is that? How stress or anger can effect our ...
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Is there a maximum pain threshold?
Is there a maximum threshold of pain a Human can experience, beyond which point there is no noticeable difference?
I ask this question in part to better understand the definition of pain and its ...
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How do muscle relaxants work?
Do they act directly on the muscle and actually relax muscle tissue and ease spasms, or do they just prevent your brain from receiving signals that inform you of tight muscles?
In the latter case, ...
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How is pain induced by blunt and sharp objects?
Normally, when something touch you, you won't feel pain. With a great force "touching" you, you will feel pain. However, if something that is spiky makes contact with you, you will feel pain. So, how ...
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What causes sinus pain and congestion?
When the sinuses flare up, it can get very painful. Thus, my question - what biological mechanisms cause the congestion and especially the pain associated with sinusitis?
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Surface perception
I'm looking for research studying:
How small and compressed together do particles of a surface need to be to be perceived as solid surface to human touch? E.g. sand still feels grainy. Has there been ...
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Why pain caused by blunt objects vanish after some time and return at the event of touching?
Background
When any bone/muscle of body is hit badly by a blunt object, it hurts pretty bad of course for some time. But, after some time the pain goes off completely or to some extent.
Then, if we ...
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Is there a difference between pig and cow anatomy that makes religious slaughter of the latter less painful?
This question is not for the squeamish. I was told that non-Kosher animals like pigs have a different anatomy in their neck compared to kosher animals like cows such that the Shechita method of ...
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Why does crippling pain exist? [closed]
Some kinds of trauma can cause pain so severe that it makes you unable to move or do anything at all.
It may put you out of action and unable to help yourself because of how excruciating it is.
...
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Skin extra sensitive to heat after burn
I just got my finger burnt (first degree burn $\Rightarrow$ I didn't even bother to bear the wound). It didn't hurt much, even when I pressed the wound.
However, when exposed to heat (hot water, but ...
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Viagra for pain management
Not all men who take Viagra experience any sexual side effects about 40% have no change of sexual abilities on the pill. However like many women the drug in such cases cause a strong pain reduction ...
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What's the mechanism for pain-induced swoon?
Is it true that people will pass out when subject to pain too much to bear, or there's no such threshold? What's the reason for passing out under acute pain, even if no physical injuries occur (e.g, ...
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Does pain scale with mammal mass?
Some biological features scale with the animal mass (see previous Q&A).
Assuming the same concentration of nociceptors on the skin surface, I'm wondering how painful a 1 cm wound will be ...
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What controls the feeling of discomfort/comfort before and after sleep?
I'm interested in which biological systems or hormones are involved in the following phenomenon:
Before sleep it may be difficult to find a comfortable position, and muscular aches and pains are more ...