Beat The Pain

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 494
Comment this article

There seems to be a lot of controversy about whether fish feel pain. It's probably the folk that catch them for us to eat that want to make themselves feel better. Denial always works best to beat guilt. It all the fault of those vegetarians. If they didn't stir things up so much, we would just fish and farm and not worry about whether we're hurting the food while it's still alive. Anyway, the point we're trying to make here is that pain doesn't care about intelligence. Staying with humans, even the stupidest person we know (like those appearing on Jackass) are capable of feeling pain. It's all to do with having a nervous system. It passes electrical current from the injured bit to the brain to give you the good news. It's automatic. It's effectively instantaneous. Well, all the science says that fish have just as many nerve endings and pain receptors per square inch as humans. So the next time you see one lifted out of the water with a big hook in its mouth and it's hanging there gasping for breath, ask yourself how you would feel if someone stuck a hook in your mouth and dragged you underwater. No amount of painkiller is going ...
... to make this an alright situation.

Now we've got the controversy out of the way, the unpleasant sensation we call pain is one of the best survival tricks ever devised. Like magic, it tells us if we're injured and triggers the flight-or-fight response. It's a wonderfully complicated system, affecting the whole body. Immediately the messages start reaching the brain, they trigger the release of hormones to wake us up and get all the muscles ready to run like crazy if the house is on fire or a mama grizzly bear wants us as a snack for her young'uns. No matter how young or old, fit or ill you are, you will feel stronger for a few vital minutes in which you can run or defend yourself. This is not something we want to do without. Even in our modern lives, pain protects us.

This may not be what you want to hear, but even though you may be suffering from long-term pain, you don't want to switch it off altogether. Suppose you have arthritis, it will hurt and taking a painkiller gives you a respite, perhaps helps you sleep. But you still want to feel pain. No matter what's happening in your joints, you want to know if you are burning your hand when lifting the boiling kettle from the heat. It's not in your best interests to shut down all pain sensations.

In fact, some of the opiates do effectively knock you out and, unless you have someone watching over you, any emergency is likely to result in serious injury or death. Ultram is a good compromise. It leaves you feeling a little pain, usually as a dull ache. But you are always alert enough to understand when further injury is threatened or actually occurring. Ultram is a very safe drug and millions around the world benefit from its use.