system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: when you take pain meds like aspirin or ibuprofen, does it go treat the pain at the location or is it a general dulling of pain in your whole body?

Edit: Thanks for all the great answers guys!
gpt
Once NSAIDs such as aspirin are absorbed, they are widely distributed throughout the body. The drug doesn't all localize to the site of inflammation, and it's not as though there is some substance that binds the drug and carries back only to the injured cells. Unlike opioids which act centrally, however, NSAIDs act locally to reduce pain and inflammation by inhibiting an enzyme (COX-2) which produces inflammatory compounds. COX-2 itself isn't a prostaglandin precursor, but rather an enzyme.