Frontpage » Tag » pain

News tagged with pain

Researchers uncover reason why mole rats are oblivious to acid pain

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mole rats aren't the prettiest things; living underground as they do, they more resemble Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy than other rats or mice. But they’re interesting to ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast report

Study examines how diving marine mammals manage decompression

Any diver returning from ocean depths knows about the hazard of decompression sickness (DCS) or "the bends." As the diver ascends and the ocean pressure decreases, gases that were absorbed by the body during ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Snake spills venomous secrets: Research shows how the bite of a small texas snake causes extreme pain

Examining venom from a variety of poisonous snakes, a group of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco has discovered why the bite of one small black, yellow and red serpent called the Texas ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Nanotechnology researchers develop new strategy to deliver chemotherapy to prostate cancer cells

Honing chemotherapy delivery to cancer cells is a challenge for many researchers. Getting the cancer cells to take the chemotherapy "bait" is a greater challenge. But perhaps such a challenge has not been met with greater ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Jan 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Gene discovery explains how fruit flies retreat from heat

A discovery in fruit flies may be able to tell us more about how animals, including humans, sense potentially dangerous discomforts.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study uncovers clues to what makes anesthetics work

Physicians use inhalation anesthetics in a way that is incredibly safe for patients, but very little is known about the intricacies of how these drugs actually work in children and adults. Now, researchers have uncovered ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Fire destroys 1,500 hectares of Patagonia forest

A fire has destroyed or seriously damaged 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of vegetation in a Patagonia nature preserve in southern Chile, forcing the evacuation of 400 people, officials said Thursday.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

St Maarten finds local lionfish tainted with toxin

(AP) -- Conservationists in St. Maarten are warning islanders not to eat lionfish after tests found a naturally occurring toxin in the flesh of the candy-striped invasive species, officials said Thursday.

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 26, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Some 'low-gluten' beer contains high levels of gluten

Beer tested in a new study, including some brands labeled "low-gluten," contains levels of hordein, the form of gluten present in barley, that could cause symptoms in patients with celiac disease (CD), the ...

Chemistry / Other

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Huge wildfire shutters Chile national park

Chilean firefighters on Saturday tried to contain a massive wildfire that has ravaged tens of thousands of acres of pristine Patagonia and forced authorities to close a popular national park.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 31, 2011 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Pain

Pain, in the sense of physical pain, is a typical sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm. Individuals experience pain by various daily hurts and aches, and sometimes through more serious injuries or illnesses. For scientific and clinical purposes, pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".

In medicine, pain is considered as highly subjective. A definition that is widely used in nursing was first given as early as 1968 by Margo McCaffery: "Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does". Pain of any type is the most common reason for physician consultation in the United States, prompting half of all Americans to seek medical care annually. It is a major symptom in many medical conditions, significantly interfering with a person's quality of life and general functioning. Diagnosis is based on characterizing pain in various ways, according to duration, intensity, type (dull, burning, throbbing or stabbing), source, or location in body. Usually pain stops without treatment or responds to simple measures such as resting or taking an analgesic, and it is then called ‘acute’ pain. But it may also become intractable and develop into a condition called chronic pain, in which pain is no longer considered a symptom but an illness by itself. The study of pain has in recent years attracted many different fields such as pharmacology, neurobiology, nursing, dentistry, physiotherapy, and psychology. Pain medicine is a separate subspecialty figuring under some medical specialties like anesthesiology, physiatry, neurology, and psychiatry.

Pain is part of the body's defense system, triggering a reflex reaction to retract from a painful stimulus, and helps adjust behavior to increase avoidance of that particular harmful situation in the future. Given its significance, physical pain is also linked to various cultural, religious, philosophical, or social issues.

For more information about Pain, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.