How does pain medicine know where you hurt to relieve the pain?
January 25th, 2009 | by Michael |
queenofsiberia asked:
I was just wondering because they make so many kinds of pain medicines, some for your head, back, legs, tension, sinus, or other.
Why is it that some pain meds work and others don’t relieve pain like Vicotin or say Morphine and is there a natural pain reliever? Just interesting in knowing this and thanks for putting my inquiring mind at rest. lol!
SAMMY
I was just wondering because they make so many kinds of pain medicines, some for your head, back, legs, tension, sinus, or other.
Why is it that some pain meds work and others don’t relieve pain like Vicotin or say Morphine and is there a natural pain reliever? Just interesting in knowing this and thanks for putting my inquiring mind at rest. lol!
SAMMY
3 Responses to “How does pain medicine know where you hurt to relieve the pain?”
By Elise M on Jan 28, 2009 | Reply
Pain medicines do a variety of things. Ibuprofen (Advil) helps with inflammation as well as thinning your blood. So it will help with inflammation through your entire body, medicines like these don’t focus on one area. That’s also why people with internal bleeding or an open wound are not supposed to take ibuprofen, it will just continue the bleeding and keep you from clotting.
Focused meds have special ingredients, formulas, or other methods of helping the pain in that specific area go away. Inflammation in your sinuses is fixed differently than inflammation in your knee. So targeted meds are focused on how to fix a specific type. It still goes through your entire system and it can still have effects on your whole body. For example, I can’t take a decongestant because it gives me heart murmurs. It’s focusing on my sinuses but it’s through my whole system.
Morphine is just really strong and a narcotic. It dulls everything rather than relieving the problem.
There are some theories on natural pain relievers. There are different herbs and methods of natural pain relief. There’s a nerve center in your hand, that when massaged correctly, helps with the pain of migraines.
I hope that made sense!
By Laura N on Jan 30, 2009 | Reply
The medication doesn’t know “where” you hurt. It has the same effect over your whole body, but since let’s say you took Tylenol, also known as acetaminophen a fever and pain reliever for a headache, you feel relief from the headache. It would also relieve fever if there was one. Advil (ibuprofen) will do the same thing, but it also contains an anti inflammatory. So if you are treating anything that involves injury to a muscle, that would be a better choice. It is better to start with the over the counter meds, but if they don’t provide enough relief, a Doctor could prescribe something stronger. The point is , the medication goes through your your whole body, but you only notice the effect when you feel pain relief.
By spanky on Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
All pain pills do is bind to the receptors in your brain and make your brain think that you are not in pain any longer.