Ellie Kemp
A study has pinpointed what’s believed to be the most intense pain a person can experience, and it’s not what you might expect.
While many of us would argue that biting your tongue, catching your finger in a door or accidentally touching something scorching hot ranks among the most unpleasant experiences, none of these even came close to making the top ten.
Neither did stepping on an upturned plug or accidentally stubbing your toe. Surprising, I know.
For years, kidney stones have been widely considered one of the most painful conditions.
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In fact, one study found that more than 78 percent of women and nearly 89 percent of men ranked them as the worst pain they’d ever experienced.
However, a more recent study published in 2020 challenges that idea.
Researchers asked over 1,600 people who suffer from cluster headaches to compare that pain with other severe conditions, including broken bones, stab wounds, and migraines.
Turns out, cluster headaches were rated the most painful overall, with an average score of 9.7 out of 10.
If you're not familiar with cluster headaches, then consider yourself fortunate.
As per Mayo Clinic, these aren't any ordinary ailment and are described as 'a very painful type of headache' that 'occurs in periods of frequent attacks known as clusters'.
Such cluster periods can last as go on for weeks, or even months, on end.
Symptoms include sharp pain behind one eye that spreads to other areas of the face, head and neck; pain on one side of the head; restlessness; stuffy or runny nose that hurts; and skin color changes on the side of the face that hurts.
Coming in second on the study was childbirth with a mean score of 7.2, with the third most painful condition being pancreatitis, with a score of 7.
Kidney stones, meanwhile, came in fourth place with a score of 6.9.
Other conditions to score above five included a gunshot wound, gallstones, slipping a disc in your spine, migraine attack, fibromyalgia, and a bone fracture.
Surprisingly, a heart attack was only scored 5 out of 10 on the scale, despite heart attacks being one of the most fatal conditions listed in the study.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 805,000 Americans have a heart attack each year and heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the country.
Cluster headaches, however, are not life-threatening.
They're extremely rare and affect around 0.1 percent of the global population, says Cleveland Clinic.