How does acetaminophen relieve pain

Your body is full of nerve endings in your skin and tissues. Some of these nerve endings can sense pain, like from a burn or a blow to a body part like your friend's foot hitting your shin. When cells in your body are injured or damaged, they release chemicals called prostaglandins say: pross-tuh-GLAN-dinz.

The special nerve endings that sense pain are very sensitive to this chemical. When prostaglandin is released, the nerve endings respond to it by picking up and transmitting the pain and injury messages through the nervous system to the brain. They tell the brain everything about the pain, like where it is and how much it hurts. The brain then responds: Yow! Pain is painful, but it isn't all bad.

It's your body's early warning system that something is wrong, so you can take steps to correct the problem. For example, if you couldn't feel pain, and you had your hand on a hot stove, you wouldn't know your hand was burning. Acetaminophen Tylenol is known as a non-aspirin pain reliever. Aronson JK. In: Aronson JK, ed. Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs. Waltham, MA: Elsevier; Dinakar P. Pain management. Bradley and Daroff's Neurology in Clinical Practice.

Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; chap House SA. Conn's Current Therapy Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Updated by: David C. Editorial team. Over-the-counter pain relievers. Other tips for taking pain medicines: If you take pain relievers on most days, tell your provider. You may need to be watched for side effects. Do not take more than the amount recommended on the container or more than your provider tells you to take. Non-opioid analgesics work by inhibiting an enzyme known as cyclooxygenase COX.

COX is a catalyst for the conversion of a fatty acid contained in cell walls—arachidonic acid—to substances known as prostaglandins. Prostaglandins serve a number of protective functions in the body, but they can also produce pain, inflammation and fever. They cause pain and inflammation after cell injury by a number of mechanisms, primarily at the site of the injury in the peripheral nervous system, that is, nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, but also in the central nervous system.

They elevate body temperature by affecting the heat regulating center of a region of the brain known as the hypothalamus.