Does having a painless life make you live longer? Does having chronic pain possibly shorten your life? Perhaps. But, what is pain, how do we define pain? Studies by the University of California, Berkeley used the very feeling of pain.Celine Riera conducted a mouse study with genetically mutated mice that do not have the pain receptor TRPV1 that can be combined with capsaicin which can be found in chili peppers. The mice had shown having a significantly higher metabolism than regular mice there is a strong relationship between metabolism and aging.
They found the mice lifespan was twelve to sixteen percent higher; a hundred to one hundred thirty days longer than regular lab mice. These amazing mice also showed increased oxygen consumption, energy, and activity levels. In animals, when pain receptors like TRPV1 spark pain, they let out a protein called calcitonin gene-related peptide which blocks the pancreas from releasing insulin and promotes inflammation. Aging mice contained too much of the calcitonin gene-related peptide.
I think this article makes me want to change my way of thinking and my attitude towards my life. It was extremely thought provoking for me personally, especially after hearing that pain is good for health or other tales like that, the article shows how delicate human life is. The article gives me a lot to think about, it makes me feel a lot more sympathy for people who have chronic pain. Not only can their life be short, but also painful. I think this also connect to the increasing stress of our demanding school district. I hope this article will give new perspectives to many of the straining students in our school.
On the contrary I think there are so many ways pain is viewed, and can be viewed. In the experiment done, they used the pain receptor, but as humans they are emotional, physical, and mental pain. Also as teenagers our views as “monumental pain” may not be the same as an adults.
I chose this article because I thought it would stir the most reactions in my peers and make people stop and think about the meaning of pain and the article. I feel as though being aware of whether a lot of the sayings that go around like “No Pain, No Gain” are true, help in our daily lives.
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Although chronic pain is detrimental to human health, the complete lack of pain receptors can be just as harmful. The purpose of pain is to alert one of something wrong with his/her body. If the person does not feel pain but has a serious injury, the injury could go untreated and worsen over time. For example, I read an article about a small child whose pain receptors were blocked. Being so young and curious, he dipped his hand in a pot of boiling water on the stove. By the time his parents noticed and pulled his hand out, he had sustained second-degree burns. I also sympathize with those who feel chronic pain, but it would be foolish for someone to wish they felt no pain at all.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if, from this article, scientists will try to experiment this on humans (though on some rare occasions, some people do have blocked pain receptors) to block their on pain receptors to test whether or not they live longer, just like the mice. Maybe scientists have done this already?
ReplyDeleteI always that the results would be different that not feeling pain would in fact shorten life spans due to indirectly destroying ones body without knowing it. For example if ones pain receptors are blocked and everyday they preform a task, that would be detrimental to their health but they cant feel it, they would end up killing themselves without even knowing it
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jackie; perhaps animal experiments aren't enough to conclude that pain is necessarily good for the human body? I think that there are many other mysteries to pain that can't be discovered through experiments on lab rats. I wonder if chronic pain receptors can be further researched so that new medicine can be developed for those suffering from trauma, depression, etc? I thought that this article was really well-written, and made me consider what pain really is. Great job :)
ReplyDeleteIts interesting how the genetically mutated mice showed higher metabolism than regular mice. I was amazed by the fact that the scientists found the mice lifespan was twelve to sixteen percent higher than regular lab mice. After reading your article I'm wondering if pain is good for the human body. Maybe scientists will test this experiment on humans. Great job overall! :)
ReplyDeleteDoes having blocked pain receptors mean the animal (or person) is unable to feel both physical and emotional pain? I'd have to agree with Alexandria, not being able to feel physical pain at all is dangerous but what about emotional pain? Perhaps more research could be done to help depression and PTSD patients from feeling emotional/mental pain. Good job :)
ReplyDeleteIt is quite interesting to think about pain being good. Pain is used to inform the body that it most stope doing what it is doing, or that the thing you are doing is dangerous. Yet feeling pain is good. Maybe feeling pain caused resistance? This article does give meaning to the phrase "pain is weakness leaving the body."
ReplyDeleteNice article! I read about this one particular girl who felt no pain, and this was extremely bad since pain actually tells the body to stop the harmful action. The experiment with the mice and the chili peppers were strong pieces of evidence to support the hypothesis that pain is actually good.
ReplyDeleteThis article is interesting and gave off a lot of information. But one thing that I had in my mind for a long time is a way to measure pain, or a pain scale. This would be revolutionary to the world if this were made. A simple tooth pull could be about a 3, or a surgery could be a 10. This would change the world to how doctors do their job. But this has a negative side. Every single person has a different brain and react to different things differently. So a 3 for someone could be a 5 for another person. So the scale wouldn't be exactly accurate. And also, to actually create the scale, tests would have to be made to create it. Tests and experiments would have to be made on living organisms and this would be physical abuse. And even worse, human testings would also have to be made to make the scale more accurate. So even though this scale would be revolutionary, it would also be dangerous and harmful to the world.
ReplyDeleteI think this article is rather interesting because it not only shows how far we have gone in extending human life periods but also in genetics. The mice were genetically mutated not to feel pain and as a result, they lived longer. All throughout history, we have been improving lifestyles to extend our lives and this is not different. I also really enjoyed how you put the thought provoking ideas within your article which allowed me to expand my thinking.
ReplyDeleteThis article is extremely interesting and gives me insight on how pain really impacts the body. The experiment conducted with mice lets me see the physical effects of this pain on an actual living creature. In addition, I find your analysis and personal thoughts very enlightening. The way you applied it to the feelings- both emotional and physical- of the students in our age is both relatable and interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteI thinking that it is very thought provoking how pain can actually be good for our health. I also found the mice experiment interesting, on how they compared a lab mice to a regular mice.
ReplyDeleteWhile not feeling pain is obviously terrible, I don't think that feeling no pain is that great. In a controlled environment, yes, people with no pain receptors might live longer, however, in real life, not feeling pains means you might do dangerous things and not realize it. For example, if you slit your wrist with a knife, but you had no pain receptors, you wouldn't feel pain, and therefore wouldn't know that this was a dangerous act.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that pain is harmful and is life-threatening, but after reading this, it is so surprising that pain actually has certain benefits, and especially pain caused from chili peppers. It is very surprising that a person needs physical pain in order develop themselves.
ReplyDeleteI thought that pain was a negative factor to our lives, but now that someone has conducted an experiment where pain would not be an option to the study; this made me realize how easily the things that we don't want can be taken away. If pain is taken away from humans in the future, would it really be beneficial? The fact that mice were genetically mutated makes me cynical of the results concluded from the observations.
ReplyDeleteI thought the article brought up some thought-provoking ideas. Personally, I was concerned with the treatment of the genetically mutated mice because it raises some ethical questions. Is it okay for the mice or any other animal to be treated that way? If this research was expanded to include human trials, would it be a different case in terms of the reception it gets from society?
ReplyDeleteThis could be a huge step in today's medical field, because many people might want to have this procedure be performed on themselves. A life without pain is interesting to think about, although I think it's also a bit intimidating. How exactly would this pain receptor be extracted from the human brain?
ReplyDeleteI agree with many people here, but it makes me think do people become more resistant to physical pain or they can mentally handle such things happening to them. Or can it be both?
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine a life without pain. Although it may be that having no pain may make you live longer, I actually think it's a potential danger. For example, if you feel no pain when you touch a burning hot stove by accident, your hand is being burned severely and you wouldn't even notice until you saw it. So a life without pain in my opinion is bad as it brings other great dangers that can be avoided with pain.
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