if you have a headache and take a pain killer, how does the pill know its your head that hurts?

Question

why doesn't it make a mistake and try and relieve a back pain you don't have ... clever little things those pain killers!

Answer 1

little aspirin molecules are highly intelligent forms of life that have an inbuilt road map of all your nerves. They travel up and down them until they find the sore bit - it is labelled "Hurts here". This usually takes 20 minutes, but stronger painkillers that have been working out in the lab gym such as morphine, are faster and get there quicker.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

If you have a headache and take a pain medication, it doesn't just affect your headache, it also affects your internal organs, liver kidneys and so on. and furthermore, if you don't have back pain, then its not going to affect your back!
its important to keep in mind that only 10% of pain reaches the thalamus (in the brain). the rest (90%) is nociceptive input that doesn't reach the brain to be recognized as pain.
it is important to understand the cause of your headaches though, because treating the cause is better than treating the symptoms, and that is what over the counter pain relievers do. In some conditions, it is necessary for people to take pain relievers because there are conditions that are known to have detrimental effects on lives, but overall, taking a OTC med for a headache usually has more of a detrimental effect on your liver, especially Tylenol/acetaminophen. its amazing that it is allowed as an OTC med b/c if you read the back of the bottle, it even says not to take it if you have liver problems!

Answer 4

This question brings to mind the question of how a thermos bottle keeps hot things hot and cold things cold. The question is how does it know? It is not possible to answer your question accurately because there are a number of pain relief medications on the market. These pain relievers act in different ways to relieve the pain. Some are specific but most are general. Most, if not all, of the analgesic preparations available over the counter act in a general way. Aspirin, for example, is a general analgesic in that is targets no specific area of the body. If you have a headache and take aspirin it eases that particular pain and you ask "How did it know?" In fact, it doesn't know to go to your head or wherever the pain is, it is general in nature and will ease discomfort throughout your body. The fact that it is your head that hurts causes you to think that the aspirin goes to your head. In reality, it is working throughout your body and is capable of easing pain in your back, foot, head or wherever simultaneously. If you have no back or foot pain then you are unaware of its potential for relief in these areas.

If you want to know the specific mechanism of action for various pain relief medications, ask your doctor or pharmacist.

Answer 5

The simplest answer to your question is "it doesn't". The pain medication has no indication of where in your body the pain is being ellicited from. The pain is actually all "sensed" in the brain, regardless of its origin. As you've read, pain meds work differently. Narcotic pain medications work by inhibiting the neurotransmitters in the nervous system that cause the pain sensation. They will partially block these transmission regardless of when the pain is coming from, thus causing a decrease in the pain sensation. Some drugs completely block all nerve transmissions (novocaine, lidocaine, marcaine, etc.) and will eliminate all sensation of pain.

Answer 6

Pain killers like Aspirin block the receptors in your brain from receiving the transmissions that cause us to feel pain. Therefore, they don't go to the place the pain is, but to where our brain recognizes the electrical impulses as pain. That means it will numb or stop all pain.

Others like Advil are anti-inflammatories and don't stop the pain itself. They stop the swelling that sets off the pain receptors, and will reduce the swelling anywhere in tour body.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

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Answer 9

They work by acting on pain receptors not actually fixing any suffering. So they reduce the feeling of pain in the whole body rather than any specific tissue.

Answer 10

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