Is pain a warning to ourselves that we should not overstress certain parts ?

-Say pain in a foot- is a warning to need to rest, lay down, be gentler in use of such foot, or worse conditions will develop ? Or a dislodged articulation; or a cactus spine stuck in the flesh... or...

 

Physicians prescribe pain medicine so the -foot- pain is not felt and keeps you walking/running/abusing the ailment... but is ignoring the nature sign of 'need to rest' and worse conditions can easily develop ?

 

Can pain medication promote worsening by masking/ignoring a symptom ? Does it make sense ? When I asked that to a doctor pushing me for pain killers, his jaw dropped and ignored my 'stupid' question.

Some people are born with a congenital insensitivity to pain. They have a very low life expectancy.

Physicians prescribe pain medicine so the -foot- pain is not felt and keeps you walking/running/abusing the ailment... but is ignoring the nature sign of 'need to rest' and worse conditions can easily develop ?

 

Can pain medication promote worsening by masking/ignoring a symptom ? Does it make sense ? When I asked that to a doctor pushing me for pain killers, his jaw dropped and ignored my 'stupid' question.

 

Before modern medicine, I think the idea was to keep you off the wounded part that's causing pain, to force you to do all the things that will aid healing. Now though, the wound is treated and dressed appropriately by medical professionals, so the need to be reminded to stay off it is less important.

 

I also remember hearing that modern painkillers aren't going to mask the kind of pain you'd expect from something like a burst appendix. It's doubtful you would be unaware of the pain leading up to the moment, but you may misjudge the severity and not get treatment in time.

 

There are certain parts of the body's recovery process that actually hamper modern doctors. When you get a wound, some of the early steps after hemostasis are designed to flush the wound of any dirt that may have gotten in, but modern procedures do a better job. If the wounded tissue didn't become inflamed from being flushed with fluids, it wouldn't be such a pain trying to suture the wound.