There is a difference between pain, inflammation, and sensitivity after an injury. Not all injuries feel the same, but they all go through these stages at different rates. After an injury you'll feel pain which includes inflammation, and as the inflammation subsides and new tissue is being formed in place of place of dead tissue, sensitivity.

The most common pain medications that you don't need a prescription for are anti-inflammatories. These are really good for swelling and pain caused by immune system responses. It's basically slowing down the increased blood flow that causes the redness, swelling, and hot feeling you get after an injury or infection.

Headaches are mainly caused by increased pressure inside the skull. the vessels in the brain increasing in size, usually due to inflammation or higher blood pressure. Anti-inflammatories reduce the swelling happening in your brain and relax and soothe vessels.

There is an enzyme that causes the release of prostaglandins , which increases blood flow to affected areas when they're injured , also known as perfusion. It's like calling an emergency services crew with mutual aid and special contractors to repair a busted dam or put out a massive fire. But the body isn't good a regulating inflammatory resposes, which is why inflammation often causes more damage to surrounding tissue. Think of how you feel during a fever, that's mainly the side effects of your immune system.

The pain you feel from trauma isn't just inflammation, but direct injury and stimulation of afferent nerve fibers. opioids and other analgesics work in different ways to affect the nervous system to either slow or block pain signals.

Some medications like lidocaine block nerve signals in the area where it's applied. It's a sodium channel blocker that also blocks the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is used by nerves to send pain signals to the brain.

When you stub your toe on the bed you’re activating mechanoreceptors on nerve endings that tell your brain you’re in pain. Simple pain medications ( paracetamol, NSAIDs) turn down nerves via reducing inflammatory markers which activate these nerves. Opioids reduce the firing of nerves so they would reduce the pain felt from banging your toe. It’s why patients are given opioids before surgery so they don’t react to the surgeons scalpel

Pain is super complicated. There are loads of different pathways and only some drugs can reduce pain in some pathways to some extent, either directly or indirectly. If you took a drug that could stop pain signals from reaching the brain, you also run the risk of stopping signals coming from the brain, or signals in vital organs. So, you could successfully stop all pain, but at the same time you'd stop breathing and your heart would stop beating. That sort of thing happens in opiate overdoses. As the user's brain gets accustomed to the weak signals to and from the brain, it overcompensates (pain gets stronger) as the drugs wear off, so the user is stuck in a cycle of pain relief until something vital fails.

First of all, it is important to remember that the brain itself does not feel any pain. This is why you can have brain surgery with the patient fully awake at times. The pain you feel is, most times, generated by muscles in the area around your head that have become tense, tight or inflamed and the nerves are responding to this.

Headache Over The Counter (OTC) medications, like Advil, are NSAIDs (Non-steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs). While part of their makeup is geared to target the pain receptors in the nerves around the muscles, they do not target only the muscles in your head. They target your entire body. At the same time, they work to relax (anti-inflamate lol) the tight muscles in your neck or head. You experience this as your headache going away. The effect can be subtle and takes time to fully manifest. This is why it takes approx 30 mins for the pill to make your headache go away after taking it.

A stubbed toe is a far sharper pain that is more localized and sudden, unlike a headache that covers a wider area, and the pain receptors are firing off a message to your brain to indicate this. The chemicals used, though similar, are interpreted differently. The signal does not say "my muscles are tense". It says "danger!"

Imagine your headache is a steady rain and Advil is an umbrella. Your stubbed toe is a tornado. The umbrella will still bring some protection in the tornado, but it is woefully inadequate compared to the severity of the wind.

Lastly, there ARE medications that would make you not feel any pain under such circumstances, but they are generally controlled substances ;-) Your body can also dump adrenaline (if it senses a life or death situation) and you will not feel pain at all for a while until the scenario is resolved one way or the other.

PRO TIP: If you have a headache and no Tylenol/Advil, run your fingers through your scalp. Dig in and there will be one spot that hurts more than the rest of your scalp. Take two or three fingers and push hard and in circles. Massage that muscle knot. Your headache should fell less painful or go away altogether after 5-10 mins.

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Normal pain medicine, such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen, works by reducing inflammation and by blocking the production of certain chemicals in the brain that cause pain. While these medications can help to relieve a headache, they do not provide immunity to all pain because they only target specific pathways involved in pain sensation. Additionally, different types of pain can have different causes, and a medication that is effective for one type of pain may not be effective for another. Ultimately, the effectiveness of pain medication can vary depending on the individual and the type of pain they are experiencing.

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