Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Painless Family

It does sound queer that there is a family in Boston, US which feels practically no pain. Drs Riachard Sterbach and Frank Erwin of the Massachuesetts General Hospital recently investigated the case of Mrs J. and found after exhaustive neurological and mental tests that it was impossible to cause pain to Mrs J.
Mrs J. has never felt pain. She has borne seven chiuldren without feeling the pangs of labour. Two of her children are similarly insensitive for pain while others show a great tolerance for pain. But according to Boston psychologist 'pains' warning signals are almost essential for survival.
This pain-blind phenomenon is possibly due to some abnormality in the structure of thalamus, the pain brain area where pain is registered. Or the nerve pathways which carry impulses to the thalamus 'may' not code them as 'painful'. A third degree burn thus feels like a little itch.
( From The Torch of Homeopathy - October 1963 )

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