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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2007 | Volume
: 51
| Issue : 1 | Page : 49 |
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Correspondence : Letter to Editor
Harjinder Kohli
Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, India
| Date of Web Publication | 20-Mar-2010 |
Correspondence Address:
Harjinder Kohli
Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
How to cite this article:
Kohli H. Correspondence : Letter to Editor. Indian J Anaesth 2007;51:49 |
THE BETTER HALF OF PAIN
To
The Editor, IJA
The authors of "Post- Graduate Number Theme:
Pain" have done a great job and deserve an applause. However I wish to draw attention to the brighter side of pain, which cannot be ignored.
Our understanding of the mechanisms and management opain has changed dramatically in the recent history and will continue to evolve into the 21 st century. The mission of pain management is five fold: to diagnose, cure, palliate, restore function and educate. The medical therapies aim to any one of the following : decrease activity in C- fibres ,modulate transmission in the spinal cord, improve mood and alter the perception of pain. BUT remember pain is not only pain , it is an alarm for body injury which is activated when our body suffers any injury. [1] Pain also helps healing…. Since an injury hurts, we take rest. There are some people who are born without the sense of pain, though a rare entity this condition is called "Congenital insensitivity to pain". Their nervous systems are not equipped to detect painful information. These individuals usually have many injuries like pressure sores, damaged joints and even missing or damaged fingers. Events that cause reaction are called stimuli. Stimuli are painful when they damage or threaten to damage tissues. Pain is nature's way of telling brain about injury to the body. According to Dr. Holly Strausbaugh, pain plays an important role in regulating the body's inflammatory cycle, wherein the body reacts to injury by releasing an array of substances that fight infectious agents and hence help in speeding healing by increasing the blood flow. Researchers focused their study on the link between pain and neutrophils (the first line body defense). They found that the pain signals dampened the inflammatory response by inhibiting neutrophils' ability to release LSelectin, a substance that allows neutrophils to leave the blood stream and enter an infected area. So a fine balance is required in turning on and off the body's defense. [2] Though agreed that pain is considered as a negative aspect , they speculate that understanding its very purpose could make it easier to bear. It is for conclusion that days may not be far off, when doctors would be telling their patients that a little pain could be good for them.
 References | |  |
| 1. | Joshi GP. Multimodal analgesia techniques and postoperative rehabilitation. Anesthesiol Clin N Am 2005; 23: 185-202.  |
| 2. | Kotur PF. Editorial Critical Care Anaesthesiologist… Past, Present and Future. Indian J Anaesth 2005; 49(2): 86-88. |
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