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No pain...

No pain... till today, science has not been able to develop a powerful analgesic or painkiller that is universally accepted. The most common painkiller used to treat unrelenting pain, like that caused by serious injury or in many cases of cancer is morphine. This drug, the virtual "king' of all analgesics, is one whose reign has lasted for centuries. Despite its monopoly on killing pain, morphine can lead to several problems for its users. From minor ailments like disturbance of digestive movements leading to constipation to more serious ones. Morphine, for once, is addictive. Moreover, it causes severe side effects such as breathing problems in patients. All these factors keep most doctors away from putting it to extensive use, especially in those who suffer from respiratory problems.

But now, researchers are all excited about this obscure frog which could provide doctors with a painkiller so effective that it could well threaten morphine's continuing reign. Researchers have isolated a deadly poison from the skin of the Latin American frog Epipedobates tricolor that promises a new painkiller which uses a different mechanism to suppress pain and has none of morphine's side effects. And what is more, it can block pain 200 times more effectively than morphine.

A team of researchers

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