WHY IS IT IMPORTANT THAT WE FEEL PAIN?

Pain is our body's way of telling us that something is wrong. It works as an alarm system, a signal to tell us to stop doing something that may be harmful to us, and in this way protects from dangerous situations. For this reason, pain should always be taken seriously.

Pain is a subjective feeling and it is influenced by personal opinion. Our ability to withstand pain depends a lot on the mood we are in, our personality and the circumstances under which our pain occurs. In the heat of the moment (eg. during an exciting football match), we may be able to override our feelings of pain to get the job done.

OUR NERVOUS SYSTEM
Nerve cells can transmit nervous impulses at 225 miles per hour. Pain gets on our nerves, quite literally. Our perception of pain is controlled by our nervours system, the part of our bodies that records and distributes information throughout the body. Our nervous system is in two parts, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.

The smallest unit of the nervous system is the nerve cell or neuron. These are highly specialised structures that are able to conduct messages to and from the brain as fast-moving nerve impulses (electrical signals). Nerve cells communicate with each other via their dendrites, spindly extensions that act as antennae and gather information for the nerve cell to deal with. Nerves themselves are made up of bundles of the axons of the nerve cells.

They transmit electrical nerve impulses between the peripheral and central nervous systems. To look at it another way, nerves are the electrical wiring of the body and the brain and spinal cord are the nerve centre - the mission control of pain perception.






The central nervous system is made up of the brain and the spinal cord.








The peripheral nervous ystem comprises the nerves that transmit sensations between the central nervous system and the rest of the body.