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Pain can be a warning that your body is injured or infected. The doubled-over pain of a ruptured appendix will send you straight to the emergency room; without this warning, you could die. This type of acute pain usually lasts until your injury or infection heals. But not all pain serves a purpose. Pain that lasts long beyond the normal recovery period, such as lower back pain, is called chronic pain Disabling chronic pain—the type of pain that keeps you from working and enjoying life—should be treated.

Certain otherwise normal people are born incapable of feeling pain. And while you might think living without pain sounds like a good deal, it’s really not. Pain is protective; if you don’t have it, you could die because you aren't able to care for yourself.

Brain scans show that even patients in comas may be aware of their environment and of pain. How much pain a patient feels may depend on the type of coma he or she is in. Patients in a minimally conscious state are more likely to feel pain. Patients who are brain dead or in a persistent vegetative state are not likely to feel pain.

Everybody gets a simple headache now and then. The National Headache Foundation lists several common types of headache that affect millions of Americans annually.

Migraine headaches cause a severe throbbing pain, usually on one side of the head, often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, or dizziness. Millions of Americans suffer from migraines. Women suffer migraines about 3 times as often as men, possibly because of hormonal causes.

It depends on the person, not the person’s gender. What may feel like agony to you might be perceived as mild discomfort by your next-door neighbor.

The phenomenon of pain is a perception. Your brain can, in effect, amplify the pain experience or turn it down to a whisper. This is how some people can stick needles into themselves or walk on a bed of hot coals. With sustained concentration, they are able to override the discomfort.

But there was a time when doctors believed babies were unable to feel pain and even operated on them without anesthesia. That view has changed; there is no question that newborns can feel pain and respond to it.

A heart attack, for example, can manifest itself as pain in the left arm. Or tooth pain can be felt as an earache. This is known as referred pain.