The mutation that takes away pain
Studies of rare disorder shed light on pain mechanism.
Imagine being unable to feel any pain at all. For a tiny handful of people, that is the reality — and medical researchers have now pinpointed the mutation that removes their ability to perceive painful sensations.
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Comments
Re. the Nature article "The mutation that takes away pain", I was very surprised to learn of this on NPR today (12-13-06). It was so strange because they were describing my cousin in Tennessee! I called my brother and he was hearing the same thing on All Things Considered and totally agreed. I intend to contact my cousin and see if he will contact the researchers that are involved in this work. If someone knows exactly who to e-mail then please contact me.
Posted by: John K Hiett | December 14, 2006 03:50 AM
I have noticed the value of the pain in the human body after reading this article
Posted by: Anonymous | December 14, 2006 08:22 AM
With this knowledge, might it be possible to breed livestock and lab animals that are numb to all pain? Such a possibility could make the prospect of eating meat a bit more palatable as they would not feel any pain. The same goes for conducting experiments on animals. By the same token, it could bring up an entirely new argument. Just curious.
Posted by: JP | December 14, 2006 10:26 AM
Sign me up right now!! I recieved a major back surgery in February of 2006 and live in constant pain. The doctors have now diagnosed we as having "failed back due to surgery syndrome" this basically means living the rest of my life in severe pain with no hope of releif. They can only offer me high doses of morphine which continually go up in dosage. So if the science community can figure out how to stop pain altogether by using this mutant then lets go!! SIGN ME UP!! It would be really nice to sleep in my bed again pain free.
Posted by: bruce brewer | December 14, 2006 03:49 PM
Have any studies been done on adults? All of the subjects were children.
Experiments with animals is a good question but do we want another additive in the food supply. We've seen the concerns that anitbiotics and BGH have raised.
Posted by: K Milligan | December 14, 2006 05:39 PM
Please post information regarding this discovery as many people suffer with constant pain due to so many different reasons and this could be a solution to their suffering, including my son who has RSD (CRPS) Thanks.
Posted by: Shawne Brookins | December 14, 2006 07:34 PM
Sign me up too.
I am having severe pain for several years now, and i can't even walk nowadays, when the pain come and strikes.
And i am not yet 40 or 50, just 25.
Posted by: Klo | December 15, 2006 09:40 PM
An important note to the researchers:
You have omitted to say in this report that besides paroxysmal extreme pain disorder, another rare pain disorder called ERYTHROMELALGIA is caused by mutation of the SCN9A gene that encodes the Na1.7 sodium channel. I, and others in UK and all over the world, suffer from this debilitating disorder that ruins our lives. Please do not forget us! More info. from The Erythromelalgia Association www.erythromelalgia.org
Posted by: Jean Jeffery | December 16, 2006 04:02 PM
I would love to see some sort of treatment for those of us with chronic pain come out of this discovery. It would truly be a miracle if something could treat the pain that no medication seems to be able to touch.
Posted by: Sherry | December 18, 2006 06:33 PM
I appreciate science's efforts to ease our lives but my apology to frustrate the scientists that I am not so much interested to "remove" any pain in humans, should this initiative will go beyond its usefulness other than treating untreatable illnesses. Most of the time the sense of pain is beneficial as it connotes life. Similarly, the lack of capacity to sense pain would lead to complicating problems, as the body would casually detect "normal" conditions. The pain is just a signal, a warning clue, that something is going out wrong in the system, which should be addressed, and not the "warning-maker" itself.
Posted by: Caezar Angelito Estioko Arceo | December 28, 2006 12:23 PM