Why does the body produce both pain and pleasure (endorphin) responses upon being injured or consuming things like spicy food, rather than producing just one of them, or neither?
In: Biology
Pain is caused in order stop the person from doing that action again or let the person know that there is damage to their body.
After the initial pain response the endorphins and enkephalins and other pain response mediators are released to help taper the feelings of pain and it’s actions in the body.
It’s really important to know that pain isn’t just a feeling, it actually does a lot within the body by activating the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response). This means your heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure will rise in response to pain. There are also many other bodily responses. However these effects are not healthy for prolonged periods and the body will try to balance itself (keep homeostasis) by releasing the natural pain killers.
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