Not everyone hurts the same way

It varies from person to person, with each individual describing pain — and its intensity — differently.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But a boy in Pakistan who can pass knives through his arm without feeling pain and a woman in China who experiences the intense, burning pain of erythromelalgia have one thing in common — mutations in the same gene. This gene, SCN9A, which has been the focus of a flurry of recent pain research, holds the code for a type of molecule, called a sodium channel, on the surface of nerve cells. Touch something painful, such as a hot plate, and a sodium channel opens a gate that allows signals to run to your brain, which interprets these signals as pain.

This is an awesome article.

One medication my wife was taking for a number of years, had a great effect on her pain threshold. Anything that was hot, but not hot enough to bother most people, would burn her. Finally when she was able to go to another medication, she was then able to handle heat normally. (whatever normal is. lol)

Also, the first time my wife and I got tattoos, there was a noticeable difference in the pain we experienced. She experienced it the way most people do, but to me it felt good. I asked the lady giving me the tattoo on my shoulder, if people usually thought it felt good? She told my wife that she should keep an eye out on me, since I liked the feeling of pain. (she was joking with my wife)

I'm still curious, though, if other people ever like the feeling of getting a tattoo, or if I'm just weird. lol

some how, the pain/pleasure fear/courage receptors get switched,

like how some can run and jump off a bridge into a creek, then another, can't get within 10 feet of the edge, much less climb over a rail and jump.

same thing somehow for pain and pleasure, ( I wasn't going to bring up the bondage issue, but yes. )

I wonder how many people can't tell the difference between extreme hot and extreme cold?

I know there are people that don't feel pain. But what about people that feel some pain and not other pain - for instance the muscle pain would be felt, but the pain from a deep cut would not be felt?

Lorretta you made think about this when you mentioned the muscle pain. I know someone who has experienced these types of problems.

Loretta, I knew someone that was hypersensitive also, you couldn't even touch her without it hurting. There is so much research that has come out about the pain sensory areas in the body and what we really don't know. It is amazing that we are still learning and changing old beliefs. You made me think of the nervous system and then the system that produces different chemical reactions in the brain that identify how we are feeling pain. I know one of the chemicals is serotonin, but this article talks about the hormones also. It pulls together a lot of different articles that I have read in the past. Now if only they could get doctors and nurses to actually take this seriously. I have seen a person writhing in pain and watched professionals making fun of them to each other and wondered about that persons' own pain threshold. I don't know that even education will get some of these professionals to be compassionate to individuals like this, which is a shame.

I had forgotten the differentiation between the sympathetic and isn't the other one the autonomic?