8 years ago
we all succumb to sickness at some point inour lives. but some illnesses are well above others intheir tendency to inflict horrible pains to those unlucky enough to have it. here we present to you seven of the most painfulillnesses you'll never want to catch. number 7: cancercancer, the fearsome king of all maladies. it happens when a certain type of cells startreproducing without control, and causes damage by destroying healthy tissues and invadingother systems. there are hundreds of types of cancer, almostall lethal and difficult to handle. the problem with cancer is how it is usuallydetected after reaching an advanced stage,
causing it to be too late to be treated effectively. targeting to remove cancerous cells withoutaffecting healthy cells is next to impossible, and treatment involving radio and chemotherapyis associated with terrible side effects. whether it is from the disease itself, ortreatments like chemo, or a combination of the two, cancer patients - especially thosewith advanced stages suffer immense pain. an example of a recently popular case is thatof tawny willoughby. she garnered much media attention in 2015after sharing graphic images of her face covered in horrible lesions. she was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma,a type of skin cancer, due to repeated use
of tanning beds. the 28 year old nurse has to visit a dermatologistevery few months to undergo ultra painful procedures in order to remove the skin cancer. number 6: complex regional pain syndromecomplex regional pain syndrome, or crps, is a condition where severe pain is felt at anarea of the body following injury to bone and soft tissue. in normal cases, pain goes away by time, especiallyafter healing. but not in the case of crps. it typically affects the limbs, and the burningpain is excruciatingly painful, totally out
of proportion to the level of the supposedinjury. the pain starts at the area of injury, andcan spread throughout the whole limb, and even the whole body. even if the original injury is just one toefor example, the whole leg could end up in intense pain. one third of patients report symptoms throughouttheir whole body. the worst part of it is that there is no cure,and it worsens over time. physical therapy and medications might help,but the only way to get rid of the pain totally is amputation, which depending on the person,might not be the best solution.
the real cause of crps is still unknown, althoughit is associated with disturbance of the central and autonomic nervous systems. an example of a case is jess laughton, a britishformer gymnast who injured herself 10 years ago. at the age of 12 she broke her ankle in agymnastics competition, and unfortunately developed crps. since then she has been in agonizing pain,to the point of being bed bound and losing her independence altogether. she has decided for an amputation to becomepain free and regain her freedom, but the
nhs refuses to fund the procedure. she has since started a crowd funding campaignto raise â£10,000 to have part of her leg amputated. number 5: gall stonesgallstones are small hard concretions made out of bile components that are formed withinthe gallbladder. usually they are mostly made from cholesterolwhen the bile gets saturated with fat. typically this occurs in overweight people,especially women who have a higher fat percentage than men. the pain from having gallstones vary, somewithout any apparent symptom, and some experience
mild to moderate abdominal pain. but the condition could get extremely painfulwhen the stone is expelled from the gallbladder into the bile duct. this leads to what is referred to as a "gallbladderattack", a medical emergency painful enough to bring tears in the eyes of adults. some women unfortunate enough to experienceit describe the pain as much worse than child labor. in july 2013, 41 year old mark hemmings fromengland was suffering a serious case of gallstones. writhing in agony, he called for an ambulance,but they dismissed the case as an emergency,
telling him to handle his pain with a warmbath and painkillers. but the severe pain caused by the gallstonesblocking his pancreatic duct proved to be too much for him. mark eventually suffered a heart attack anddied. number 4: shinglesmost of us have already experienced chickenpox sometime in our lives. those annoying rashes with highly contagiousitchy blisters are a nightmare for pretty much everyone. luckily, it only comes once in a lifetime,granting an immunity that will prevent any
further chickenpox infections. except that is not always the case for everyone. for some people, the varicella zoster virusresponsible for the disease does not die off completely. instead, they remain inactive in the nervoussystem. it usually stays that way, dormant and harmless. but in some cases they could reactivate, usuallydue to decreased immune system. this leads to a painful condition called shingles. shingles presents itself as a rash somewhatsimilar to chickenpox, but usually far worse.
it tends to form rashes along the locationof nerves the virus was lying in. these rashes are red, painful, and erupt intoitchy blisters. it is even possible to get shingles in theeye area, leading to serious complications. the worst part is that even after these rasheshave cleared up, the damage to the nerves remains, causing long term pain. quite a few famous people are known to havesuffered the condition. richard nixon had it a few years after hispresidency, causing him to be confined at home. robin williams had it, and was sued by hisex-partner after she thought it was herpes.
actress anne heche talked about her experiencewith shingles in her book call me crazy. number 3: trigeminal neuralgiaon each side of a person's face is the trigeminal nerve responsible for both touch sensationand chewing movements. in some people, when they get older, the nearbyblood vessels start pressing on it. this results in intense pain, a conditionknown as trigeminal neuralgia, and it has been described by many as one of the mostpainful conditions known to mankind. some patients have even resorted to takingtheir own lives to escape the pain, giving trigeminal neuralgia the nickname "suicidedisease". symptoms typically start around 50 years ofage.
the attacks are described by those affectedto feel like shooting or exploding pain, similar to being crushed, burned, pressed, or shockedby electricity. the pain can be felt throughout the wholeside of the affected face, since the trigeminal nerve branches into 3 main nerves supplyingthe areas around the eye, upper jaw, and lower jaw. the affected area can become so sensitivethat a slight touch or wind blow can be enough to trigger an episode. the character and location of the pain itselfcan lead to misdiagnosis, often mistaken as severe tooth ache.
for example in 2013, a 71 year old englishwoman named ann eastman suffered an intense attack of pain from her temple to lower jaw. she screamed with pain, and immediately wentto her dentist who after finding nothing wrong with her teeth, decided to remove a crownshe had. when the pain did not subside after a fewdays, another doctor removed the remainder of her tooth, and then another one. it was only after losing 2 teeth over nothingthat she was properly diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia by an expert. number 2: kidney stonespassing kidney stones is awfully painful,
and said to be the greatest pain a man canfeel without dying from a shock reaction. it strikes without warning, and is describedas being worse than labor, broken bones, or getting burned or shot at. sufferers describe it as having a lightningbolt strike the abdomen repeatedly or being stabbed over and over again. the reason behind the pain is that the patienthas to pass jagged uneven stones a long way from their kidneys all the way out the urethra. not only is this painful as the stone forcesits way through small tubes, it results in internal lacerations and bleeding, and oftenaccompanied with nausea and fever.
the pain is enough to tempt someone to tryself-surgery without anesthesia, to remove the stone from the outside. a lot of factors come together in the formationof kidney stones, such as genetics, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance. since the past half century, cases have becomemore common in the western world. although excruciatingly painful, only an extremelysmall percentage of sufferers actually die from the condition. patients sometimes keep kidney stones thatthey've passed out as a token of what they went through.
actor william shatner who portrayed captainkirk in the star trek franchise sold his kidney stone for 75,000 dollars and donated the proceedsto charity. gene simmons of the band kiss sold his kidneystone on ebay for 15,000 dollars, and like shatner gave the money away to charity. number 1: cluster headachepain is something difficult to quantify or measure accurately, but cluster headachesdefinitely deserve a place as one of the worst pains known to man. women who suffer the condition and have undergonechildbirth usually say that they would prefer the pain of childbirth over cluster headachesany time.
among the descriptions of the pain are; likegetting shot in the face, like having a hot poker jabbed into the eye socket for an hour,lightning strikes behind the eye, and like a sharp paper cut in the head. the worst part is that the attacks are recurrent,and there is no definitive treatment for it. although called headaches, clusters are verydifferent than migraines, which seem much tamer in comparison. pain from cluster headaches is usually onesided, and centered over an eye. patients usually experience the attacks atcertain times each day, reaching max intensity in a few minutes, and continues for up toan hour.
the pain is so agonizing, patients sometimesscream to try getting it out, they walk or run outside to "escape" the pain, and sometimeseven bang their heads against a wall. the real cause behind cluster headaches isstill unclear, and it often comes spontaneously with no apparent trigger, although alcoholconsumption generally brings on the pain. it is known to be a neurological disorder,particularly affecting the trigeminal nerve in the face. because of this, autonomic symptoms appeartogether with the attacks in the form of watery eyes and a blocked nose. about 0.2% of the population get affected,mostly white males, often starting somewhere
between 20 to 50 years of age. daniel radcliffe, star of the harry potterfilms is reported to suffer from cluster headaches, and takes blood pressure medications to controlthe disorder. find out more about fatal entities that willkill you by subscribing or clicking on one of the links below.
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