What makes pain meds work better

Pain relievers work with your cells, your body's nerve endings, your nervous system , and your brain to keep you from feeling the 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. Talk to your doctor about side effects, risks, and addiction — and make sure that you watch for them too. Things to look out for include unusual moodiness or outbursts of temper, cravings and unusual risk-taking.

Take your medication as prescribed by your doctor and make sure you store and dispose of your opioids carefully:. Naloxone should be administered as soon as possible by someone witnessing an overdose to quickly restore normal breathing. Opioid overdoses are usually accidental but can happen to anyone. If your doctor prescribes you opioids, ask if you should also get a prescription for naloxone. This report is for you to use when talking with your health care provider.

It is not a substitute for medical advice and treatment. Use of this report is at your own risk. Alfred Clavel Jr. Pain is common and we all experience it. Chronic pain is different. Your body hurts even when there is no obvious injury. And it lasts for months, sometimes years.

You really do feel pain. But the fix is not in a pill. Instead, below are five reasons why opioids can cause your pain to actually worsen. Opioids do provide relief by blocking pain. But then, your body reacts by increasing the number of receptors to try to get the pain signal through again.

So when the drug wears off, a person will experience more pain for about three days. If they continue to take opioids, the pills become less and less effective. The pain keeps increasing not because of an injury, but due to the opioids themselves. In addition, our bodies have natural opioids called endorphins.

If your body becomes used to opioid pain medication, its ability to create and use natural endorphins will decrease. This makes you lose the ability to reduce pain on your own.

Opioids can mask emotional pain and trauma. Pain is often a mixture of physical pain, emotional pain and suffering.