Relationship Between Injury and Pain in the Human Skin
F. B. Benjamin · 1953
This 1953 study established foundational principles about how external energy sources cause tissue injury and pain in humans.
Plain English Summary
This 1953 research by Benjamin examined the relationship between tissue injury and pain sensation in human skin, focusing on heat-induced damage and temperature thresholds. The study investigated how the human body detects and responds to thermal injury at the cellular level. This foundational work established important principles for understanding how external energy sources cause biological damage and pain responses.
Why This Matters
This early research represents foundational work in understanding how external energy damages human tissue and triggers pain responses. While focused on thermal energy rather than electromagnetic fields, the principles Benjamin established about injury thresholds and biological detection mechanisms remain relevant to EMF health effects today. The science demonstrates that our bodies have sophisticated systems for detecting harmful energy exposure, whether from heat or electromagnetic radiation. What this means for you is that pain and cellular damage often occur through similar pathways regardless of the energy source. Just as your skin can detect harmful levels of heat before serious injury occurs, emerging research suggests our bodies may have similar detection mechanisms for electromagnetic field exposure, though these signals are often more subtle and delayed compared to immediate thermal pain responses.
Figures from the Original Paper
Diagrams extracted from the original research document.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
To determine whether pain can be produced without tissue injury and whether tissue can be injured without producing pain
Ten medical students who had previously been trained for accurate perception of the pain threshold s...
The results show that the time required to reach the threshold for pain and of skin flare are very c...
The findings reported here naturally raise the question of whether there is a common physiological basis for flare and for pain. The time-energy curves do not exclude the possibility of some common (histamine like) metabolite being responsible for both. Even if the essential stimulus for both phenomena is the same, the mechanisms for their production are distinct and may have different thresholds. Flare according to Lewis occurs via an axon reflex with the release of an unidentified vasodilator substance at the minute arterioles of the skin, whereas the pain impulse travels via the peripheral pain nerve to the spinal cord and brain. The question of whether the terminal ramifications of the pain nerves in the skin provide also the nervous pathway for the axon reflex generally considered to be responsible for flare is still unanswered. There may be two different metabolites, an H substance for skin flare and a P substance for pain. These two substances could either affect the nerve endings at a different threshold, or each stimulate a different type of nerve ending. Still another possibility is that pain may be due to direct stimulation of nerve endings by the irritant, heat, and the skin flare may be caused by the release of some chemical substance which stimulates the nerve endings. In this latter hypothesis is the quickness of the pain response and the delay of the appearance of skin flare. We do not believe that we have any basis to accept or reject any of these theories on the basis of the evidence presented.
Show BibTeX
@article{relationship_between_injury_and_pain_in_the_human_skin_g4590,
author = {F. B. Benjamin},
title = {Relationship Between Injury and Pain in the Human Skin},
year = {1953},
}