| Popis: |
We all experience pain at one time or another. Pain is an essential “alarm bell” that tells us that something is wrong, and a “teacher” that reminds us not to do that same thing again. Usually, pain is felt when a stimulus, such as a pinch or an injury, causes electrical pulses to run along one of the cables of nerve fibers in our body and into the brain where they generate an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. Sometimes pain occurs without any actual stimulus, such as when nerve fibers have been damaged. An example is the phantom pain that amputees sometimes feel in their missing limb. Certain drugs can stop pain by blocking the electrical pulses before they reach the brain. Other drugs stop pain in a different way, by preventing the brain from reading the pain message carried by the electrical pulses. This article explains what happens in the body when we are hurt, how the brain causes this to be felt as pain and how certain drugs can stop pain. |
