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Why is pain so painful? After all, it is only nerve impulses sent to our brains like many others.

Jeremy Greenwood

Bacup, Lancashire, UK

Pain may be considered as both a sensation and an emotion, which is to say that the painful stimulus is directed to more than one part of the brain.

It needs to be unpleasant. A person who can’t feel pain may not notice that they are leaning on a hotplate until they become aware of a smell of burning.

But pain isn’t just a question of avoiding such obvious trauma. Normal daily activities can be damaging. The forces on the knees while walking are one-and-a-half times body weight, and when running or jumping, this force is several times greater.

We continuously adjust activity in small ways that we don’t notice, guided by twinges that makes us unconsciously alter behaviour to avoid long-term damage.

The borderlands of pain and emotion are complex and poorly understood, most commonly encountered in those whose pain is out of all proportion to any discernible damage. Their condition is greatly exacerbated by the ignorance and misunderstanding of others.

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