How do painkillers work?

Question

How does your body localize the pain medication (ie, Tylenol, Advil, whatever) to help the area that's hurting?

Answer 1

Aspirin and ibuprofen block a chemical called prostaglandins that carries the pain signals from the point of inflammation to the nerve. If the message doesn't get to the nerve, our brain won't receive the pain signals anymore.

Tylenol, however, is a bit of a mystery. It does seem to work well to reduce pain and fever, but it tests out as a very weak anti-inflammatory. not exactly sure what the mechanism is with that drug.

Answer 2

The mechanism of action for Tylenol is not known. All they really know is that it relieves pain and reduces fevers, but they don't know how. Science has been trying to figure that out for decades. It is correct that Ibuprofen and Aleve are NSAIDS and reduce pain by reducing swelling. Opiates and Barbituates block nerve receptors in the brain preventing the nerves from working so you don't feel the pain, but whatever is causing the pain has not been fixed. Other localized pain relievers like novacaine are simply anesthetics that block the receptors from receiving pain sensations and sending them to the brain.

Answer 3

Common drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen (Advil, Motrin) are known as NSAIDs - non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Pain is caused by inflammation of the particular system, which is essentially an immuno-response. NSAIDs work to prevent the inflammation specifically by inhibiting the membrane attack complex (MAC) of the immune complement system.

Answer 4

really not sure bout the local, but with narcotics , opiates, and such, what happens is the drug just numbs those sensors in your brain. and when say pain from your leg shoots up to your brain to tell u its hurting, well those sensors are numb and message doesnt get through. thank goodness for pain medicine. but wonder how tylenol works is it the same

Answer 5

by preventing the passing of pain impulses

Answer 6

I think the brain makes them work.