• Question: How does anesthetic work? How does it "knock you out"?

    Asked by petsrcool to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 22 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Steven Gardner

      Steven Gardner answered on 22 Jun 2013:

      I have heard that no one actually knows why anaesthetic works. Perhaps one of the others knows if this is the case?

    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 23 Jun 2013:

      Hi,

      I had a look at the NHS website and it says that anaesthetic works by blocking all signals from your body to your brain… your brain only knows what’s going on through nerve signals and so blocking the signals means your brain is shut down for a bit…

      You know, in China they do operations using acupuncture (needles placed at specific points in the body) – these needles also block the nerve signals (but only the pain/discomfort ones) and so you remain conscious during surgery! It does work but the drugs used here work more reliably than acupuncture…

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