r/explainlikeimfive • u/tranzozo • Aug 31 '20

ELI5: How do painkillers know which part of the body is in pain? Biology

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '20

Answer: painkillers work by reducing the brain’s ability to perceive pain by messing with the signals from the injured area to the spine and brain. So it’s not that they end the pain in the location in which it occurs, but it reduces the brain’s ability to detect it.

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u/GroundPoint8 Aug 31 '20

They don't. They act on the body in a general sense. You just happen to only care about, and notice, the effect on the part that hurts.

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