Have a high pain tolerance? Why do things hurt?

The perception of pain is a peculiar subject.  We know that pain is a subjective symptom.  By subjective I mean that pain is what your brain thinks pain is...if it looks like it hurts...then it usually hurts.

So, I was just over at a friends place hanging out with their kids.  One of them was a 5 year old who was doing back flips off the couch onto a mattress on the ground.  On one of his jumps, he jumped a bit too far and bounced off the mattress and landed on the hard wood floor.  Instead of running over and asking if he was alright, I said, "that was probably the coolest jump I have ever seen!!!"  and proceeded to give him a high 5.  After being a bit confused he gave me a high 5 and went right to the couch to continue with his back flips. 

How is it that landing on your neck and back on hardwood did not hurt?  Well, it probably did hurt, but most toddlers look to us to determine how they should react.  When something looks like it should hurt a lot, and we react accordingly, the toddler would bawl his eyes out.  However, if you change the perception of a painful stimulus to make it seem like it should not hurt, it will hurt less (and sometimes not at all!) 

This concept can also apply to adults.  An experiment was done in which a piece of metal was place on the back of a subjects hand.  The subject was shown either a red light or a blue light.  The subject was then asked to rate how painful the stimulus was.  Though the stimulus was the same, the red light was felt to be more painful (red associated with hot) than the blue light (associated with cold).  This goes to show how our perception of pain can change how we feel about pain.

Now, I definitely do not recommend you give every toddler a high five after they take a tumble, but it does go to show how effectively we can modify pain based on our perceptions and responses!