Pain

A sensory experience

Pain, is a sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm. Individuals experience pain from multiple hurts and aches including Arthritis, Bursitis, muscle aches, sports injuries, sprains, strains and occasionally through more serious injuries or illnesses. For scientific and clinical purposes, pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".

The pain we experience is highly subjective to each and every one of us. A definition that is widely used in nursing was first given as early as 1968 by Margo McCaffery: "'Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does".

Human pain of any type is the most frequent reason for physician consultation in the United States, prompting half of all Americans to seek medical care annually. Pain is a major symptom in many medical conditions, significantly interfering with a person's quality of life and daily functioning. Diagnosis of pain is based on characterizing pain in various ways, according to duration, intensity, type, source, or location in body. Chronic pain, in which pain is no longer considered a symptom but an illness by itself is common in Arthritis and Bursitis. This type of chronic pain responds to simple measures such as resting or taking an analgesic such as ArthArrest.

The feeling of pain is part of the body's defense system, triggering a reflex reaction to retract from a painful stimulus, and helps adjust behavior to increase avoidance of that particular harmful situation in the future. Unfortunately the pain of Arthritis and Bursitis can hardly be avoided, in such cases it is highly recommended to use a topical analgesic like ArthArrest to relieve the pain of Bursitis or Arthritis.