Imagine feeling no pain after sticking daggers through your arms, or even breaking your arms or shocking yourself while working on some wiring! The culprit is a human gene which encodes a protein that forms part of a channel that allows electrically charged particles to cross the surface of nerve cells. Such patients suffer a mutation which stops the protein from working. This apparently prevented a certain type of nerve cell from passing on signals that tell the brain when something is painful. It is treacherous for people with complete insensitivity to pain, since they can suffer major injuries without noticing. But eventually sufferers can learn what to avoid doing even without pain as a guide - by using one's intellect and experience of watching others, especially when "no pain, no gain" doesn't apply to them.
Link & Image: National Geographic
Tags: No Pain | Gene Disorder
Comments