How to Survive the Top 5 Most Painful Things

5 min read

What is the most painful thing the human body can experience? Is it the sting of a bullet ant, which packs so much punch that its victims feel like they’ve been shot? Or the bite of a Gila monster, whose sharp teeth can clamp onto you for minutes at a time?

While these are good guesses, they don’t even come close to the levels of agony we’ll be discussing today. If you think animal attacks are painful, just wait until you see what your body can do to itself.

Whether it feels like stabbing, aching or pinching, the human body can endure a wide variety of excruciating pains. Today we put together a list of the five most physically painful things you can experience. And trust me, you’ll want to pay a lot of attention. Which agonizing disease could a vaccine prevent? Could you walk the pain away? How could drinking water prevent one of the worst pains imaginable?

Number 5. Cluster Headaches

A headache can ruin anybody’s day, but this is not the type you’d cure with Advil. Cluster headaches are one of the most extreme types of headaches. They happen when a cranial nerve on your brain gets triggered. It’ll cause an excruciating amount of pain everywhere that the nerve reaches, and that’s almost everywhere on your face.
For 15 minutes to three hours, it would feel as if a screwdriver was piercing through your skull. If you’re a cluster headache sufferer, the last thing you should be doing is smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, as these activities could trigger an episode.

Number 4. Childbirth

Some say that the day your child is born will be the happiest of your life, but it can also be one of the most painful things you experience. As your uterine muscles begin contracting, you’ll feel severe cramping in your abdomen, groin and back. Or, as some have described it more accurately, it feels like your insides are being twisted, pulled and squeezed.

Chances are, this is not your ideal scenario for taking a walk, but it might help you get through the suffering.
In 2014, a study published in The Journal of Perinatal Education found that women who walked around during their labor and gave birth standing up experienced less pain and required less pain medication than women who gave birth lying down.

Number 3. Kidney Stones

If you think that pushing a tiny human being out of your body is intense, imagine rocks coming out of one of your vital organs. Kidney stones form when you have too much waste dissolved in your urine and it crystallizes. The pain comes when these hard stones get stuck in your ureter. As the rocks put pressure on it, the urine gets backed up. You’ll feel a sharp, stab-like pain or extremely severe cramping on your side or lower back, where your kidneys are.

The best way to endure an agony like that might be if you never feel it. To reduce the risk of getting a kidney stone drink lots of water, about 12 glasses daily. Munch on fruits and vegetables as they’ll reduce your urine’s acidity.

Number 2. Tetanus

Tetanus is a nasty disease caused by the Clostridium tetani bacteria in soil, dust and manure. It enters your skin through wounds, usually when you get cut by a contaminated object. Once it’s inside you, these bacteria produce a toxin that blocks nerve signals traveling from the spinal cord to your muscles. It impacts almost all your muscles and nerve endings.

In 2017, a six-year-old boy in Oregon got tetanus after cutting his forehead. He experienced a clenched jaw, muscle spasms and involuntary arching of the neck and back. When he couldn’t breathe, his parents took him to the hospital. He spent 47 days in intensive care and another 10 days in the hospital. He survived, but the vaccine would have prevented the ordeal.

Number 1. Broken Femur

Breaking any bone of your body can make you howl in agony, so imagine breaking the longest and strongest bone you have. The large, important arteries in your leg surround your femur, so it’ll be a bleeding mess. Actress Brooke Shields stated that when she broke her femur, she screamed like she never had in her life, not even during childbirth. She was in such an enormous amount of pain that she feared that she’d never walk again. After two surgeries, blood transfusions and over four months she slowly recovered and received physical therapy. Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut to healing a broken femur. Your best bet is to take the pain relief medication your doctor prescribes.

Oh, wow. This was a tough one. But you endured the most painful experiences ever. Oh, wait. What’s that, gentlemen? We missed one? Right, how could we forget? And if you think these guys are just being dramatic, wait until you hear how one kick to the family jewels could change your life forever.