I’ve had a colonoscopy (without pain relief) where they took biopsies. The doctors said the biopsies wouldn’t hurt because the colon couldn’t feel pain, and they were indeed painless. The amount of air they pumped in was horrifically painful however.
Trapped gas sounds trivial, but can also be extremely painful. Ulcerative colitis also hurts. So does diarrhoea.
So how do these pain mechanisms work? What causes the pain, if the interior of the colon is unfeeling?
In: Biology
Nocioceptors are the sensory neurons that we call pain receptors. There are several different types. Not all types of receptors are present in all places of the body. The ones in the colon can sense mechanical stress (i.e., distention from gas), inflammation, and ischemia (tissue death). Gas can cause pain because it’s physically putting pressure on your colon, and inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis cause inflammation, which will also trigger those nerves.
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