What is Pain? Causes and Types
Pain Overview
Pain is a general term that describes uncomfortable sensations in the body. It is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli which stems from activation of the nervous system, it is a signal in the nervous system that something may be wrong. In medical diagnosis, it is regarded as a symptom of an underlying condition. The feeling of physical pain can vary greatly, it can be mild, sharp, severe or dull.
When you do something that hurts your body, your brain normally triggers the pain response. If you touch something hot, the pain you feel is your body’s way of telling you that you should stop touching the hot item and should take action to cool the skin. If you walk on an injured ankle and it hurts, that’s also your body telling you to stop.
Acute Pain
Pain can be acute or can occur over a longer period of time. It may be related to a specific injury or issue, or it may be chronic, with ongoing sensations lasting for months. It can be localized, affecting a specific area of the body, or it can be general, for example, the overall body aches associated with the flu. With many chronic conditions, the cause is unknown.
Pain is the most common reason for physician consultation in most countries of the world. It is a major symptom in many medical conditions, and can interfere with a person’s quality of life and general functioning.
Although pain is an inconvenient and uncomfortable condition, it can be a good thing, it let’s us know when something is wrong and gives us hints about causes. Some pain is easy to diagnose and can be managed at home, but some types signal serious conditions. Moreover, it motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future.
Causes of Pain
Pain is an uncomfortable sensation that usually signals an injury or illness. Moreover, it is the body’s way of telling you something isn’t right, this is the purpose of pain.
Furthermore, it is meant to make you uncomfortable so if you are injured or sick, you will know you need to do something or stop doing something. In addition, it can be caused by many different factors anything from a bad mattress to stomach ulcers can cause chronic pain. While it may begin with an injury or illness, it can develop a psychological dimension once the physical problem heals.
Following are some of the common causes of pain:
Many illnesses or disorders, such as flu, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and reproductive issues, can cause pain. Some people experience other symptoms with pain. These can include nausea, dizziness, fatigue, loss of appetite, irritability, depression, and anger.
Types of Pain
There are five common types of pain, but some pain can fit into more than one category. The five most common types of pain are:
- Acute
- Chronic
- Neuropathic
- Nociceptive
- Radicular
Acute
Acute pain means the pain is short in duration, lasting from minutes to about three months (sometimes up to six months). This type also tends to be related to a soft-tissue injury or a temporary illness, so it typically subsides after the injury heals or the illness subsides. Acute pain from an injury may evolve into chronic pain if the injury doesn’t heal correctly or if the pain signals malfunction.
Chronic
Chronic pain is longer in duration. It can be constant or intermittent. For example, headaches can be considered chronic pain when they continue over many months or years, even if the pain isn’t always present. Chronic pain is often due to a health condition, like arthritis, fibromyalgia, or a spine condition.
Neuropathic
Neuropathic pain is due to damage to the nerves or other parts of the nervous system. It is often described as shooting, stabbing, or burning pain, or it feels like pins and needles. It can also affect sensitivity to touch and can make someone have difficulty feeling hot or cold sensations. Neuropathic pain is a common type of chronic pain. It may be intermittent, meaning it comes and goes, and it can be so severe that it makes performing everyday tasks difficult. Because the pain can interfere with normal movement, it can also lead to mobility issues.
Nociceptive
Nociceptive pain is a type of pain caused by damage to body tissue. People often describe it as being a sharp, achy, or throbbing pain. It’s often caused by an external injury. For example, if you hit your elbow, stub your toe, twist your ankle, or fall and scrape up your knee, you may feel nociceptive pain. This type of pain is often experienced in the joints, muscles, skin, tendons, and bones. It can be both acute and chronic.
Radicular
Radicular pain is a very specific type of pain can occur when the spinal nerve gets compressed or inflamed. It radiates from the back and hip into the leg(s) by way of the spine and spinal nerve root. People who have radicular pain may experience tingling, numbness, and muscle weakness. Pain that radiates from the back and into the leg is called radiculopathy. It’s commonly known as sciatica because the pain is due to the sciatic nerve being affected. This type of pain is often steady, and people can feel it deep in the leg. Walking, sitting, and some other activities can make sciatica worse. It is one of the most common forms of radicular pain.
Treatment
Acute pain usually goes away on its own once the cause for the pain has been treated. For accidents or a specific injury, this could be once the injury or tissues heal. The injury might heal naturally with time or after medication, surgery, or other medical attention is provided. Treatment for acute pain depends on the issue or injury causing the pain, if it’s known.
Chronic pain can be more difficult to deal with, especially if the cause of the pain is unknown. Sometimes chronic pain is the result of an initial injury, but this is not always the only reason. The easiest way to ease pain is to deal with the underlying issue causing the pain.
Treatment for pain management may include:
- Over-the-counter pain relievers like aspirin, Tylenol and Ibuprofen
- Prescription pain medication
- Physical therapy
- Surgery
- Acupuncture
- Massage
- Yoga or gentle stretching with deep breathing
- Heating pads or heat baths
- Cold packs or ice baths
- Progressive muscle relaxation
Biospecimens
Bay Biosciences is, indeed a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.
Specifically, aamples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Moreover, Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.
In fact, our biobank procures and stores fully consented, de-identified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.
Additionally, all our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.
In particular, critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.
Moreover, researchers find patient’s data extremely valuable and use it to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Specifically, Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.
For example fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.
Furthermore, Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.
Therefore, please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.
Types of Biospecimens
Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:
- Firstly, Peripheral whole-blood
- Secondly, Amniotic fluid
- Third, Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL)
- Moreover, Sputum
- Furthermore, Pleural effusion
- Next, Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
- Also, Serum (sera)
- Likewise, Plasma
- In addition, Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)
- For example, Saliva
- Also, Buffy coat
- Moreover, Urine
- Furthermore, stool samples
- Next, Aqueous humor
- Likewise, Vitreous humor
- Lastly, Kidney stones (renal calculi)
- Finally, Other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer.
Moreover, we can also procure most human bio-specimens, furthermore; we offer special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.
In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols. Additionally you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.
Furthermore, Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.
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