In 2018, the UK’s National Health Service published a list of 20 physical conditions with “disabling pain”, as they prevent sufferers from performing daily activities.
Who has never experienced physical pain?
According to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), pain is “an aggravating and bothersome sensation of any part of the body due to internal or external causes”. Even though talking about this subject is complicated because points like scales or thresholds are brought up for debate, there is actually pain that described as “the worst in the world” by those who suffered from it.
In 2018, England’s National Health Service (NHS) published an updated list of 20 physical conditions that are classified as “pain numb”, because it prevents the sufferer from carrying out daily activities. These include afflictions such as fractures or childbirth, and others that are less well known such as trigeminal neuralgia.
The notes, collected by the newspapers Independent in 2020 also consider conditions such as frozen shoulder. This, explains portal Mayoclinic, results when the connective tissue that contains the joint becomes thick and tense, and movement is limited due to pain.
Endometriosis also appears, a problem health which affects up to 1 in 10 women worldwide, says the NHS, and which usually causes experience general pain, pelvic pain, menstrual pain and pain during intercourse, and fertility problems.
Other less well-known pains include cluster headaches, which according to MedlinePlus are pain that strikes one side of the head and can include watery eyes, drooping eyelids, and stuffy nose. The attack, they said, lasts from 15 minutes to 3 hoursoccur daily or almost daily, for weeks or months.
And then there’s trigeminal neuralgia. This condition, according to IMSS, is confused toothache, caused by vascular crossing of the superior cerebellar artery with the trigeminal nerve. This is discomfort in the center of the face, similar to very high voltage electric shock affecting the eyes, jaw and maxilla area. In the past, it was considered “the most severe pain in the world”.
The 20 worst pains in the world, according to the NHS, in no particular order
- Herpes
- cluster headaches
- frozen shoulder
- Fracture
- Complex regional pain syndrome
- myocardial infarction
- herniated disc
- sickle cell anemia
- Arthritis
- Migraine
- Sciatica
- kidney stones
- Appendicitis
- trigeminal neuralgia
- acute pancreatitis
- Drop
- endometriosis
- Gastric pains
- fibromyalgia
- postoperative pain
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