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October 30, 2015
Q. While life without physical pain may sound ideal, in fact it can be an even bigger pain. How so?
A. Consider the people whose sense of touch is disturbed so badly that they feel no physical pain, a condition caused by a mutation of the gene SCN9A, says David Linden in his book “Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart and Mind,” as reviewed by Katie Burke in American Scientist magazine. Often they don't live beyond their teen years, as cuts and scrapes go unnoticed and lead to serious infection.
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