万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-02-27&28, 我们为什么会痛苦？

Pain, it can be acute or chronic¹, sharp dull throbbing² or burning. It can be physical or
emotional, even phantom³. Just seeing pain in others can causes distress⁴, but what is pain,
why does it affect us, why is it so difficult to treat, how much is actual discomfort⁵, and
how much is in our minds?

To find out, I'm heading to London's Dana Center where you eat, drink, socialize and learn
in an atmosphere that's both relaxing and unintimidating. Science in the news and on the cutting edge has discussed with experts. Most events are free. Tonight's event in pursuit of pain is organized by Elaine Snell.

The Dana Center is part of a science museum and where is the science museum has gone for this Fabulous⁶, only these wonderful items and exhibits. There isn't touch your place to talk. More and more issues are coming out now in medicine and science. Well, we actually have to kind of make quite an important life choices things like stem cells and genetics. So er, this is how the Dana Center came about, if we wanted to break down all the barriers, we wanted the speakers to be in the most of the audience and relax that atmosphere very informal. And for that to be a real dialogue.

Back to, pain.

In a nutshell, what, what is pain?

Pain is whatever you want really. It is quite difficult to come to fight pain.
How much of pain is, is in your head?

Some of this, some of this in your head are, obviously, most of it is because you are in pain and you know the reasons for the pain. I think most difficult pain to explain is where you haven't injured yourself there's obviously nothing wrong with you, but you are in pain. That's neurogenic pain, because your nerve system is misbehaving in some way and producing pain sensations.

What about the, er, phantom pain, I mean people with, with missing limb to their hand hurts, but they don't physically⁷ have a hand there, I mean, how, what, is this a similar type of pain?

We still have a map in your body of where all things are, so people who've lost their legs can still feel pain in the missing leg, in the missing toe and say it's really painful there because the central nerve system only has that map with the, the leg still there even though it's missing.

With so many variations of pain, how do you treat it? There are a number of traditional medical remedies and more are being developed every day. However, many people are looking to alternative therapies to treat pain.

How does acupuncture⁸ help pain?

You know, by medical sets, and they took about acupuncture, blocking certainly in nerve pathways. All the pathways which are responsible for transporting pain to the brain. So they are actively⁹ blocked by the acupuncture stimulus¹⁰ and there's another theory where by, um, giving acupuncture to our patients. Eventually used to the release of more thing like chemicals in the brain which also, kill pain and that's a nice very powerful painkiller¹¹.

Maggie Heywood deals with chronic bad pain every day. But here could be an answer. Michael
H, from University College London, presents his research into using plants to treat pain. He
is paving the way to use plants such as cannabis and devil's claw to alleviate¹² various types
of pain.

My daughter is a student nurse, and we felt that this talk tonight was deeply appropriate.

I've seen people first time to appreciate the pain, so um, you have just wanna know how to
treat it, really.

It is a valuable aspect of human body, I think it's also on that, if you don't have pain, you are in trouble. We need pain.

1 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

2 throbbing   

a. 跳动的,悸动的

参考例句：

• My heart is throbbing and I'm shaking. 我的心在猛烈跳动，身子在不住颤抖。
• There was a throbbing in her temples. 她的太阳穴直跳。

3 phantom   

n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的

参考例句：

• I found myself staring at her as if she were a phantom.我发现自己瞪大眼睛看着她，好像她是一个幽灵。
• He is only a phantom of a king.他只是有名无实的国王。

4 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

5 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

6 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

7 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

8 acupuncture   

n.针灸，针刺法，针疗法

参考例句：

• Written records show that acupuncture dates back to the Song Dynasty.文字记载表明，宋朝就已经有了针灸。
• It's known that acupuncture originated in China.众所周知，针灸起源于中国。

9 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

10 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

11 painkiller   

n.止痛药

参考例句：

• I shall persuade him to take the painkiller.我将说服他把药吃下去。
• The painkiller only provides him a short respite from his pain.止痛药仅仅让他在疼痛中有短暂的疏解。

12 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。