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Asked by to Anna, Chris, Jane, Iain, Nick on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Chris Cole answered on 18 Mar 2014:
Two reasons:
1. it’s a defence mechanism. You’re damaging yourself so your body is telling you to stop doing whatever it is you’re doing.
2. at the physical level pain is caused by pain receptors being activated which send messages to the brain informing it of damage being done.
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Anna Middleton answered on 18 Mar 2014:
Hi kaylaahblieberr
Pain is a very useful mechanism for protecting yourself from further damage. We have genes that control our response to pain and how much of it we feel or don’t feel. A colleague of mine is studying kids who have changes in their genes which mean they don’t feel any pain. You might think this was great, but actually, its a real problem. These kids will happily jump off a garage roof and then not realise that they’ve broken their legs, they will then try and move them, so causing more damage. They are at a very high risk of destroying their bodies without realising. So, the bottom line is, even if pain is not nice, it serves an important role in protecting us from further damage. -
Jane Charlesworth answered on 18 Mar 2014:
Our bodies are covered with special cells called receptors that send signals to our brain about what is going on around us. These receptors include the cells in our eyes that detect light and our tastebuds. Some of those receptors let us feel pain and the reason for that is probably as a warning. Sometimes people are born without those pain receptors and they have a terrible time because they can’t tell when they’ve hurt themselves. Some diseases can cause the pain receptors to break down–like leprosy, which eats away at people’s nerves, so they lose feeling.
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