How Do Painkillers Work? 💊

Morning Doctors!

How do you go from this:

To this:

Just by swallowing a little tablet?

Lemme explain.

So if you gently touch the tip of a needle…

You feel some pressure, but not any pain, right?

But if you push harder…

And harder…

You get closer and closer to triggering something called the nociceptor threshold…

Uh oh… you just hit it!

Basically, once you pass this threshold, tiny little cells in your fingertip called nociceptor cells start ringing alarm bells to alert the brain to this problem.

But there's a BIGGER problem…

Nearby enzymes start producing these chemicals called prostaglandins.

And these guys are BAD…

So bad they actually start to lower the nociceptor threshold.

Meaning even just a touch in that area can cause pain.

This is where painkillers come in!

Once painkillers are broken down in the stomach, they get pumped all around your body, including to your fingertip!

They then immediately rush over to those enzymes from earlier and JAM themselves inside them…

Temporarily clogging them up.

And eventually this starts increasing the nociceptor threshold again…

Look!

Leading to less pain.

Thanks painkillers!

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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