There’s more than one way to ease headache pain. Discover how Excedrin® tackles it on all fronts.
When your head hurts, you want to do everything you can to make it stop. But headaches are complex—there are many causes and contributors to the problem—and finding a way to ease the pain may require medication that takes a multi-pronged approach.
Excedrin Extra Strength quiets head pain on three fronts, thanks to a specialized, triple action combination of ingredients.1 The components—acetaminophen and aspirin, along with caffeine as an amplifier—work together to relieve your headache and let you get on with your life.2 Here’s how it works.
Acetaminophen Elevates the Pain Threshold
Acetaminophen has both pain relieving and fever reducing effects, but minimal anti-inflammatory activity. While the mechanism of action of acetaminophen is complex and not fully understood, it is believed to exert its pain reliving effect in the central nervous system and blocks the production of chemicals that might increase sensitivity to pain. The resulting effect of Acetaminophen is an elevation in the body's overall pain threshold, so you feel less pain.3
Aspirin Reduces Inflammation
Like acetaminophen, this time-tested painkiller is an effective headache reliever. However, it also works by reducing inflammation.3 Aspirin works in the peripheral nervous system to inhibit the production of inflammatory chemicals that cause swelling of the blood vessels and activation of nerves that transmit pain signals to the brain. The resulting effect helps ease the inflammation that contributes to your pain.4