According to the RAE, the word pain refers to the “annoying and distressing sensation of a part of the body due to internal or external causes.” This time we don’t want to talk to you precisely about “annoying sensations”, but about the pain that can be real torture. Migraines, fractures, bites, kidney stones, childbirth … Have you ever wondered what is the worst pain that people can suffer?
Childbirth
Childbirth is one of the most painful moments in the lives of women who give birth since during this process up to 57 pain points are activated. Fortunately, the brain saves the positive part of the experience so that it can be repeated in the future.
Bumps on the testicles
Any bruise on the testicles generates excruciating pain. The explanation is that the testicular area is covered with a thin layer of skin and contains a multitude of nerve endings, which makes it a very vulnerable part of the male anatomy.
Bone fractures
Fractures produce severe pain, the worst being those affecting the tibia, fibula, and coccyx.
Torn ligament
It is difficult to explain the pain felt when the click sounds and the ligaments of the knee, the largest joint in the human body, are torn.
Bone cancer
Bone cancer is the most painful of all cancers. In the most acute cases, patients need to be sedated 24 hours a day.
Herpes zoster
The famous viral ‘shingles’ causes extreme pain when it occurs in its most severe versions (ring-shaped skin blisters), and can remain active for a whole year.
Toothache
Most people suffer from toothaches at some point in their life, so if you are reading this you will know what we are talking about. A toothache with the affected nerve is really painful.
Burns
Skin lesions caused by burns produce very intense pain and in the most advanced degrees can lead to necrosis of bones and muscles.
Nephritic colic (kidney stones)
Kidney stones cause one of the most excruciating pain that we can suffer. Especially when the stones slowly travel through the urinary ducts.
Menstruation
Female menstrual colic, known as dysmenorrhea in its most painful variant, is an important cause of incapacity for work, self-medication, and medical consultation.
Trigeminal neuralgia
This disorder of one of the longest nerves in the head produces such a brutal headache that many people ended up taking their lives to relieve it. It was known as ‘the suicide sickness’ although, thanks to science, treatments have improved considerably.
Cluster cephalic
It is another maddening headache that affects one of the two sides of the face, from the temple to the neck through the eye.
Executioner wasp sting
The stings of insects and poisonous animals are generally painful. But that of the executioner wasp -which lives in Central America- is particularly unbearable. The bullet ant and the tarantula hunting wasp round out this list of the most painful stings.
Fortunately, the human body is prepared to withstand pain. And this, together with advances in medicine and pharmacology, has made most of these pains bearable and the people who suffer them can lead a totally normal life.