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Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

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Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#151
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As pointed out in the article, naproxen is an NSAID like Ibuprofen, though slightly more COX1 selective. It likely has a somewhat lower risk of serious renal and cardiovascular events, but higher risk of GI bleeds. There are some studies that show little to no increase cardiovascular risk, but most do show some or even comparable to ibuprofen. Convenience vs ibuprofen is a thing given the longer half life, but it sti…

The higher risk of GI bleeds is could be somewhat balanced by not having to take as many. There are also slow release forms of naproxen. (Which make sense given its long action: lets people fade in the next one while the previous dose slowly fades out). That could also help make it easier on the GI tract.

> The higher risk of GI bleeds is somewhat balanced by not having to take as many!

Unless I am missing something, the data really doesn't back that up. naproxen is much more longer lasting and has a higher chance of causing ulcers. Hence why its not over the counter in the UK and is prescribed with omeprazole to reduce the risk of issues.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#152
Interesting! In the UK the common wisdom is paracetamol is the safest. Ibuprofen is available but not the first choice. Aspirin is considered bad.

I wish people would stop saying "drinking" to mean alcohol consumption. I genuinely thought it meant after drinking any fluid until I read the description and realised it meant alcohol. I also don't like how alcohol is singled out as a "special" drug. What about other drugs? Is alcohol special in this regard?

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#153

> But if acetaminophen is safer, then why don’t official sources tell you that? Guess it depends on country. Here in Norway official sources[1][2] do say acetaminophen (paracetamol here) should be the default for treating fever and pain in kids, adults, pregnant women and elderly, and have for some time. Ibuprofen they say should be used with caution. [1]: https://www.dmp.no/nyheter/behov-for-smertestillende-slik-ve.…

Really? I get headaches semi-frequently and my first line of defense is ibuprofen, I use acetaminophen sporadically as a last resort

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#154

I went from introvert only-child to married with kids. As they hit daycare, I was perpetually riddled with disease for about 15 months. I still had to take care of the kids though, so I was liberally taking Ibuprofen. At some point, I started to get horrible heartburn. I tried all kinds of dietary restrictions until I realized it was probably the Ibuprofen. Now, if I take even one pill, the heartburn comes back. I sw…

Yeah our son became eligible for creche just when covid came. All at home but we couldn't take full time care for him forever so eventually he started going in (they can start at 6 months here in Switzerland if you are lucky and get the spot, we did it gradually since 9 months). Then daughter came and same cycle.

Needless to say we had covid at least 12 times at this point, all with positive tests so no mistake there. Plus few other questionable cases without tests. Some were brutal, like first and second one, that was before vaccines, and then a recent one when we seem to have lost most of immunity. Back then I lost taste for few weeks completely and smell didn't fully come back till 6 months after (sniffing bottle of vodka did smell like forest air, even later my perfume smelled rotten). Weird times, eating nice looking gunk and trying to imagine how it tasted before.

I don't think I had flu that many times over my whole life, hate that shit with fiery passion and having small kids in creche/school is just a 24/7 virus importing service. None of our peers had it as bad as we did, no idea why the 'luck'.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#155
post #5

This is some of the most useful information I've received in a while. Like the author, the low overdose threshold of acetaminophen made me avoid it, even though I always take low doses anyway and ibuprofen gives me acid reflux almost every time.

Still take it with a huge grain of salt. Even official advice usually has severe limitations due to its broadness or straight politics, so medical analysis from random blogs truely isn't the best.

Acetoaminophen also has issues for people with weaker stomachs (I can attest), and will come with additional medication to cover these effects as needed. The whole "Is it safe yes/no" table has many asterixes and might be outright false depending on the how you look at it.

As usual, it's just complicated.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#156
post #5

This is some of the most useful information I've received in a while. Like the author, the low overdose threshold of acetaminophen made me avoid it, even though I always take low doses anyway and ibuprofen gives me acid reflux almost every time.

Still take it with a huge grain of salt. Even official advice usually has severe limitations due to its broadness or straight politics, so medical analysis from random blogs truely isn't the best. Acetoaminophen also has issues for people with weaker stomachs (I can attest), and will come with additional medication to cover these effects as needed. The whole "Is it safe yes/no" table has many asterixes and might be o…

Is the salt supposed to offset hyponatremia or something?

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#157

My father, who is otherwise in very good health for a ~60 year old, has severely reduced kidney function from taking an ibuprofen+antihistamine most days of his early life to deal with allergies. I'll second the claim that no doctor at any point in his life had told him the risks of doing that, and many encouraged the use of ibuprofen over any other alternative (including the alternative of not using OTC painkillers…

If there's one thing I'm hopeful for regarding all this AI hype, it's that some day we might actually get the Expert Systems we were promised decades ago. Then, finally, we can stop expecting human doctors to know everything. There's just so much going on inside our bodies and it's unrealistic.

I had a relative with a different story in the same theme. It sucks and I want to see this technology do something truly beneficial for a change....

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#158
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have taken 4-5g in a day while suffering from intense pain before. There is a limit to the amount of opioids they will prescribe you, even if you are in mind shattering pain. For instance while attempting to get your dental insurance to actually cover a treatment you may find yourself between risking organ damage or risking $5000+ in ER visit bills only to have them refuse to give you anything but Tramadol.

Whenever people here mention to my critique of US healthcare how its now mostly solved problem now, its 'good' to see the other side and reality. It certainly doesn't seem solved unless you have a million or two just laying around on the account, while mortgages and kids tuitions are paid. And I can easily imagine a long term condition or 10 which, if unlucky in terms of treatment cost coverage can wipe out that sum…

I don’t know a single person in my life who thinks US healthcare is good, so that’s weird. And many my peers a have good jobs with good health insurance. Everyone I know has at least one bad story about insurance, if you’ve ever had more than really basic checkups.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#159
post #95

I've known people who've overdosed on Tylenol and died. I'm not saying that ibuprofen won't give you acid reflux and won't damage your kidneys, but due to I tend to take a lot of ibuprofen and also for take another medication that constricts my arteries and for get a lot of blood/urine work done... and my kidney function is good and despite everything I'm generally healthy. So I would say, like many things, what medi…

My mom fell (88 yo) X-rayed, nothing broken but ignored her history of ulcerative colitis (tough to do, given the colostomy bag she’s worn for 50 years). Sent her home with Motrin. Ended up in the hospital for two weeks with bleeding ulcers.

How the hell did the attending physician not see a colostomy bag during the exam?!

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#160

I lived with an ICU nurse for years and one of the things he emphasized was the risk of acetaminophen overdose. He's more than once treated the liver failure (and death) from it and by his words, it's one of the worse ways to go. The positive of it is it got me in the habit of logging whenever I take it, either in a note on my phone or just a sheet of paper I place on my dresser under the bottle. This helps make sure…

I'm not disagreeing with you or trying to be disagreeable, but how do people accidentally exceed 3-4 grams daily? That's 6-8 pills!

Hot Coldrex (Tylenol) + Pills. People don't read.
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