What are the molecules that consitute pain?
I'm just curious since there are medicines that claim to alleviate different kinds of pain in different parts of the body. Take 'Aleve,' for example.
2007-03-23 15:53:37 · 3 answers · asked by lizb 3 in Health ➔ General Health Care ➔ Pain & Pain Management
Heheh...I'm not particularly in pain...I'm just curious.
2007-03-23 18:40:02 · update #1
Pain is related to the nervous system and brain. If you stand on a pin, the nerves in your foot send a message to your brain telling it that your foot is in pain, your brain reacts and sends a message back to the foot, telling it to get off the pin. So, pain actually keeps us from damaging our bodies too greatly. Pain killers, such as codeine etc, work by relaxing the nervous system and brain, so the pain signal being sent to the brain becomes lessened.
2007-03-23 20:31:22 · answer #1 · answered by Jimbo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is a common misconception. Pain can be caused by many different factors. Sometimes it can be a swelling in a joint, a tear in a muscle, lactid acid buildup if you workout too hard, and many many other things. You should see a doctor if you experience pain for a long period of time. How pain pills work is they don't do anything in terms of site pain per se. If you have an anti-inflammatory, it will reduce swelling. But what pain pills really do is stop the brain from recieving the total signal sent from the site to the brain. Say for example, your body is in pain that would register a 3. The over the counter aleve reduces the receptor of the brain down to a level of 1, in the previous example. Hope that helps.
2007-03-23 23:14:36 · answer #2 · answered by dancam1 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In muscles, pain is caused by the build up of Lactic acid after heavy weightlifting or strenuous cardio, where muscle cells have been torn or broken down...
2007-03-24 02:30:53 · answer #3 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋