Pain and Aspirin

What causes pain and how do we stop it? This free course, Pain and Aspirin, looks at how the human body responds to the release of certain chemicals and as a result feels pain. Pain can be reduced by inhibiting the formation of such chemicals and you will learn how the molecular structure of aspirin has been formulated to help in this process.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Why does it hurt?
• 1 Why does it hurt?
• 2 How does it hurt?
• 2 How does it hurt?
• 3 The aspirin story
• 3 The aspirin story
• 4 The molecules involved
• 4 The molecules involved
• 4.1 Salicylic acid
• 4.2 The functional group approach
• 4.3 Aspirin
• 5 Some chemistry involving esters
• 5 Some chemistry involving esters
• 6 How does aspirin relieve pain?
• 6 How does aspirin relieve pain?
• 7 Enzymes
• 7 Enzymes
• 7.1 Enzymes: nature's catalysts
• 7.2 How enzymes work
• 7.3 Formation of prostaglandin
• 8 Enter aspirin!
• 8 Enter aspirin!
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements