Glossary

Allodynia: having a pain response to things that are not usually painful.
Mechanical allodynia (pain to light touch or pressure)
Thermal allodynia (pain from mild skin temperatures)
Movement allodynia (pain from normal movement)

Genotype: genetic makeup of an organism

Heritable changes: changes in phenotype but not genotype – affects how cells read the genes

Hyperalgesia: having increased sensitivity to pain stimuli
Primary hyperalgesia (pain from damaged tissues)
Secondary hyperalgesia (pain in surrounding undamaged tissues)

Nociceptors (pain receptors); nociception (the ability to perceive pain)
cutaneous, somatic, visceral (skin, joints/bones, organs)

Oxidative stress: “essentially an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants.”

Pain threshold: “predominantly reflect muscle nociception”
Pain tolerance: “additionally involves a strong psychosocial and behavioral component”

Phenotype: characteristics resulting from the interaction of genotype with environment

Psychosomatic: Psyche = mind; soma = body
http://patient.info/health/psychosomatic-disorders
Disorders that are not necessarily all in your head but can be made worse by stress or other mental factors.  Fibro falls in this category, but so does psoriasis, eczema, ulcers, high blood pressue, and heart disease, none of which are dismissed as all in your head.