Fourth Grade
Worksheets
How Does Aspirin Work?
You might have taken an aspirin to stop a headache or ease the pain of an injury. You take a pill. It makes you feel better, but why? How can one pill do so much? It makes your foot feel better when you sprain your ankle. It also helps stop a fever when you are sick.
Aspirin helps because it stops pain before it begins. To understand how, you have to look at your body's cells. Your body is made up of millions of cells. They are the smallest pieces of your body. When you stub your toe, some of your cells are damaged. The cell sends out signals to the rest of your body. It is asking for help to repair itself. Your body makes different substances that will help you to heal. Prostaglandins (pros-tuh-GLAN-dins) are one of those substances. Prostaglandins do many things. .....
