Originally published at: Mutation causes woman to live virtually pain, fear and anxiety-free, with ability to heal rapidly | Boing Boing
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Damn…honestly this might be the most impressive of those powers. I can’t even imagine what that would feel like.
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I remember reading about a little girl who literally felt no pain, and that actually was not a good thing at all.
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The combination of physical and psychological items under one genetic change certainly points at, though doesn’t prove, some intriguing possibilities in terms of existing features being reused to implement newer ones.
Definitely not a combination of features you’d expect from a clean sheet implementation; which an evolved one isn’t.
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After six years of searching, they identified a new gene that they named FAAH-OUT
Far out, indeed!
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Unusually high pain tolerance and low levels of sadness/anxiety/fear are also frequently cited as common features for people with high levels of psychopathy. Interesting to think they may have found a genetic factor that comes into play in some fashion.
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I’m getting anxious just thinking about it.
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Aw. My mutation just makes me grow worthless tumors 
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This implied connection between pain and anxiety/fear reminds me of the findings regarding the pain reliever acetaminophen and risk taking.
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Is she ticklish?
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We’ve used that case as a discussion point for our five year old, who has very sensitive skin to touch, pinching, pulling, stinging. She actually seems to have responded well to learning why pain is important as a messenger for taking care of your body.
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there’s a documentary… somewhere… about the condition. it’s very rare, and kids used to not live very long because they fatally injure themselves even as infants. 
it’s apparently gotten somewhat easier as parents have been able to connect more with each other to share strategies ( see, the internet isn’t all bad )
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That’s what I would think. I wonder if she was somehow wiser or luckier than the kids who didn’t make it. At least a little fear of reasonable hazards would seem to be essential to negotiate life.
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yeah, i was thinking she must be on some particular spectrum of pain, rather than no pain. from the post it sounded like the doctors were surprised by her experience. if she was like one of those people who have no pain at all, i’d think she and her doctors would have been very aware of that even before her surgery.
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“Virtually” is probably doing a lot of heavy lifting here. As was pointed out, congenital analgesia (often paired with inability to sweat) is a very dangerous condition with a high incidence of morbidity and mortality. “Virtually” pain free sounds like a very different thing, maybe?
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To live anxiety-free…what a dream! I experienced that once (but only once) while nomming on some brownies, and yet, countless batches later, I’ve yet to experience it again. Bliss.
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Mine gives me brittle bones, which definitely doesn’t help with the anxiety. Yay us.
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Isn’t the inability to feel pain one of the symptoms of Hansen’s disease, aka leprosy too? I wonder if they are related in some way.
… our friendly neighborhood mad scientists can combine it with this one
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I mean, doctors already treat us though our pain is imagined and fear is unfounded. 
Yes, I’m mad. No offense intended for our lovely doctors on the bbs who don’t treat women this way.
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