Eli5: How is paracetamol used for both fever and as a pain relief tablet?
In: 5
As an analgesic, it has properties that numb nerve endings. This provides the pain relief as the nerves are no longer firing to send the OW! signal to the brain, but also, it stops all signals.
Therefore the heat that we feel from a fever is a reaction that bad is happening in the body, so send lots of blood in and the heat with kill off the infection.
If the nerves that detect the bad happening are no longer sending that panic signal, then the nervous system thinks that the infection is dealt with and readjusts the system to remove that excess blood. Blood levels return to normal, so heat felt (fever) returns to normal too.
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