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Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

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Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#341

Post by merlindru »

about once a month since my childhood i get an awful, slowly ramping headache that makes it unable for me to think or function.

it seems to happen more when i'm overweight, making me think it's blood pressure (BP) related, but then doing the valsalva maneuvre, which spikes BP, doesn't cause any problems at all.

i've tried acetaminophen, even 1.2g of it, to no avail. it doesn't help.

i've also tried every other remedy, such as curcumin, fire/ice locally, hot and cold showers, neck massages, working out muscles that may be involved in it, everything. nothing helps.

except for ibuprofen. 400-600mg kills it every time.

at least for me, there seems to be a definite difference, as ibuprofen can anecdotally help in some situations that acetaminophen can't. i wonder what exactly it can / can't treat and why.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#342

Post by sidewndr46 »

markovs_gun wrote: post #253
vanderZwan wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is one of those things where Europe and the US are very different, culturally speaking - I've lived in the Netherlands, Germany and now Sweden, and the amount of painkillers used and prescribed here seems much lower than what Americans tell me is normal in the US. Pain a warning signal from the body. It's something one should listen to, not just try to ignore and overrule. If I sprain my ankle it onl…

Perdue Pharma/The Sacklers went on a huge campaign in the 90s convincing doctors and the general public that pain was bad and worth stopping at any cost and even though they were pushing opioids, I can imagine this also increased the cultural tendency to use NSAIDs as well.

Weren't the Perdue Pharma products sold in combination with Acetaminophen?

My assumption was this was always required to get regulatory approval to make abuse have harsher side effects. Liver toxicity of acetaminophen is pretty bad compared opioid abuse from what I understand

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#343

Post by acidtechno303 »

magicalhippo wrote: post #110

> 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.…

perhaps it's got to do with packaging sizes. i think an acetominophen od is much worse. most of these countries regulate package size for these drugs, yes? US does not

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#344

Post by ubercore »

magicalhippo wrote: post #110

> 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.…

American in Norway, it's always amusing when I buy some Ibux at the pharmacy, and get questioned about it and steered towards Paracet instead.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#346

Post by Insanity »

nbaugh1 wrote: post #313
Insanity wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might just be an artifact of the broken healthcare system. Painkillers are cheap and over the-counter. Going to a doctor is not. Additionally, in EU you can just take a sick day to rest and recover pretty much any time you need it. In the US you have limited “sick days”. E.g I now only have 6 “sick days” per year.. (and I’m fortunate to work in tech, I just WFH when I’m under the weather. But people who are less well…

Like I just mentioned in another comment, they're also a way to get you back to work ASAP. Just about everyone NOT working a comfy white collar office job needs to be working in order to make money. Time off is less income, people can't afford that so they do what they need to do to get back to work. Sprained ankle? Injured back? Headache? Broken bone? All things that people work through everyday with some NSAIDs bec…

Yup exactly, that's what I was getting at. In the US you can't afford to _not_ work. Not to mention that if you do have actual longer-term health concerns, you also need to pay for the actual treatment, and your insurance depends on your employer. The entire system is really quite flawed.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#347

Post by alistairSH »

spzb wrote: post #263
vanderZwan wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is one of those things where Europe and the US are very different, culturally speaking - I've lived in the Netherlands, Germany and now Sweden, and the amount of painkillers used and prescribed here seems much lower than what Americans tell me is normal in the US. Pain a warning signal from the body. It's something one should listen to, not just try to ignore and overrule. If I sprain my ankle it onl…

AIUI one of the many quirks of the US health insurance system is that a lot of people have only minimal cover which doesn't include things like physiotherapy and rehabilitation treatment. That means that they often can't treat a painful condition at source so their only option is to mask the pain with painkillers.

It's worse than that - there is also no job protection. Hurt yourself and miss a few days of work and you are possibly unemployed on top of injured. And then you lose your health insurance, so you can no longer get/afford any treatment.

I'm convinced it's designed this way on purpose. Can't have people relaxing, ever. Must extract every ounce of productivity and blood while they're alive.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#348

Post by eth0up »

Unfortunately, both of these medicines have substantially adverse effects on me. Ibuprofen destroys my stomach, often affecting me for days after a single dose. Acetaminophen leaves my stomach fine, but has subtle, but noticeably negative affects on my cognition and general energy levels. Both are often ineffective for bouts of significant pain, which is frequent for me.

To mitigate this, I supplement with NAC (N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine) anytime I'm forced to take acetaminophen. I will also sometimes take Betaine Anhydrous.

I do the same for ibuprofen, but sans betaine and instead take aloe, probiotics (bacillus subtilis/coagulans, Mastic Gum and experiment with other things.

For acute pain, neither does anything. And though I'll get attacked for this here, I find a stout dose of quality, lab tested Kratom (red strain) to be far more effective than both acetaminophen and ibuprofen combined. However, for regular pain, this is not a good plan, as the withdrawals can exceed the nature of the problem itself.

I sure do wish we'd get over the anti opiate [1] craze someday, or at least discover and make available an effective alternative.

1. Aside from constipation and obvious risks of dependency (or abuse), opiates have none of the deleterious effects of ibuprofen or acetaminophen, and the constipation is easily mitigated, and a bit of agmatine sulfate for saying adios when the pain subsides.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#349

Post by thenthenthen »

pikminguy wrote: post #336

Something I'm surprised this article didn't mention is that sometimes the anti-inflammatory is the point. If you have swelling along with the pain then ibuprofen or any other NSAID is going to be much more effective. That would be the main reason to go with ibuprofen in my opinion. But again if you take medical advice from an internet comment you're already doing it wrong.

I had a swelling and even mild fever from an infection and what really helped was Loxoprofen, Ibuprofen did not do anything.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#350

Post by SkyeCA »

dncornholio wrote: post #283
apatheticonion wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why? Does ibuprofen work better? It's bad for your stomach walls.

> Does ibuprofen work better?

In my experience it works far better at managing headaches/migraines.

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