The sensation of pain partly acts as a self preservation method (i.e heat, sharpness = potential damage to the body) is it possible for the pain response to be triggered by something non damaging or vice versa?

Question

The sensation of pain partly acts as a self preservation method (i.e heat, sharpness = potential damage to the body) is it possible for the pain response to be triggered by something non damaging or vice versa?

In: Biology

Answer 1

In a way, yes.

For example, capsaicin, or the chemical that makes hot peppers spicy, isn’t damaging anything in your mouth really.

Instead what it doesn’t is interact with the nerves in your mouth that detect when you’re burning your mouth with hot food, which say typically get set off at temperature X. What capaiscin does is lower the temperature required to activate those nerves to temperature Y, which happens to be low enough that those nerves now get set off by your own body heat. Even though there isn’t any real damage going on. (Although there can be damage if capsaicin gets into sensitive places, like your eyes, at really high concentrations, which is why you always wash your hands well after cutting peppers.)