if the colon has no pain receptors, why does trapped gas hurt so much?

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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

16 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are muscle fibers on the outside of your colon that help with peristaltism. A gas filled colon makes this fibers stretch and that’s where the pain is coming from.

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