How can you understand pain?

Welcome to What's Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken explore the ideas shaping our health and wellbeing.

In this episode, they turn their attention to pain - one of the most familiar, yet least understood, experiences of being human.

Joined by Dr Cathy Stannard, Consultant in Complex Pain at NHS Gloucestershire, they explore what happens in the body when we feel pain and why two people with seemingly identical injuries can experience very different levels of pain.

They also explore the difference between acute and chronic pain, and what happens when pain persists beyond the original injury. Along the way, they discuss how doctors measure something so subjective, and why some pain treatments work better than others.

If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk.

Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Guest: Dr Cathy Stannard
Producer: Maia Miller-Lewis
Researcher: Grace Revill
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
Editor: Jo Rowntree
Visual Producer: Leon Gower
Technical Lead: Reuben Huxtable
Digital Lead: Richard Berry
Composer: Phoebe McFarlane
Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby

At the BBC:
Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4