Hurt = Harm, or Does It…?

I want you to think about the following scenarios before you skim ahead to the answers.  Think about how much pain you would experience in that scenario and then think about how much tissue damage actually occurs.  Do the two match?  You can grade pain and tissue damage as ‘none’, ‘mild’, ‘moderate’ or ‘severe’.

A headache or migraine – this can be severe pain, however the vast majority of the time there is absolutely no tissue damage occurring.

Papercut – if you run it under water or accidentally squeeze lemon juice over it, this can result in moderate to severe pain, but only very mild tissue damage.

A stubbed toe (not fractured) – a stubbed toe can be extremely painful for a short time; however, it generally results in only mild or no tissue damage.

An eyelash in your eye – this can cause a moderate to severe pain response/irritation in the eye, yet there is no tissue damage.

Stepping on a pin – this can cause moderate pain but only very mild tissue damage.

Toothache – this can sometimes cause severe pain; however, the underlying cause/problem is normally only mild. 

Don’t worry if your answers don’t quite match those above, everyone experiences pain differently so there is no right or wrong answer.  Now have a look at the accompanying picture.  This is a visual representation of what we have just discussed.  Can you see that the lines don’t match?  Severe pain is often accompanied by mild or no tissue damage.  We therefore need to ask how reliable out body’s pain system is?  Just because we are experiencing high levels of pain, does not mean we are experiencing high levels of tissue damage – there may actually be no tissue damage going on.  Can you think of any other scenarios that follow this pattern?