the.com/pain
the body's smoke alarm, screaming at full volume long after the toast is fine
means An unpleasant physical or emotional sensation that signals harm, injury, or distress.
from From Old French 'peine' (suffering, punishment), itself from Latin 'poena' meaning penalty or punishment — the same root behind 'penalty' and 'subpoena.' The Latin 'poena' was borrowed from Greek 'poine,' meaning blood-money or retribution. So the oldest sense isn't sensation at all but punishment, which lingers in phrases like 'on pain of death' — pain as the price you pay.
- no receptors
- the brain itself feels no pain directly
- phantom limbs
- amputees feel agony in limbs that don't exist
- redheads
- genetics make them need more anesthesia
- social hurt
- rejection lights up the same brain regions
- useful curse
- people born painless rarely survive childhood
cluster headaches — neurological condition causing excruciating head pain in cycles, affecting ~1 in 1000 people
fibromyalgia — chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain disorder affecting ~2-4% of population, predominantly women
trigeminal neuralgia — severe facial nerve pain described as worst pain humans experience, affecting ~12 per 100,000 people