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Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

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Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#421

Post by dbg31415 »

farseer wrote: post #134
dbg31415 wrote: post #6

Both of these pills are really dangerous for dogs. Ibuprofen damages the kidneys -- and that damage is often permanent. The little filtering devices inside the kidneys don't grow back once they're destroyed. A dog who survives the poisoning can end up with lifelong kidney disease, which means special diets, more frequent vet visits, and a shorter life than she should have had. (I watched this happen to my own dog aft…

Most human medicines would be dangerous to dogs, what is your point?

Mine was awareness.

Yours is just rudeness. (=

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#422

Post by SirMaster »

arethuza wrote: post #171
watwut wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only issue with treating pain with paracetamol is that it does not work at all against the pain. It works against fewer or maybe mild inflammation and what not ... but it does absolutely nothing with actual pain. It is placebo at best.

Many years ago I had 4 surgical procedures done around my nose/throat at the same time - straightening a deviated septum, turbinectomy, enlarging the openings into my sinuses and removing my tonsils. This meant I couldn't breath through my nose for about a month - and breathing through your mouth when you've just had tonsils removed is quite painful. Soluble paracetamol literally turned the pain off like a switch - o…

Yes, I had a herniated disc and had severe nerve pain. While waiting for a time when I could get surgery to fix it acetaminophen reduced the pain even more than opioids! ibuprofen and an oral steroid like methylprednisolone did nothing...

Acetaminophen is like a wonder drug for me while ibuprofen doesn't seem to ever do anything for me.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#423

Post by usefulcat »

wincy wrote: post #302
huhkerrf wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we're talking about acetaminophen and ibuprofen, in France you're liable to end up with a medicine cabinet full of acetaminophen, because almost anytime you go to the doctor with any type of pain, they add it to the prescription.

Interesting, in the US they often do that too but I’ve personally never filled it because insurance doesn’t cover over the counter medications. So I’d have to pay cash for it.

> insurance doesn’t cover over the counter medications

It depends on the insurance. I have pretty crap insurance and didn't expect them to cover a prescription for Omeprazole (aka Prilosec) since it's available OTC, but to my surprise they did.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#424

Post by SirMaster »

fc417fc802 wrote: post #295
user_7832 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally get it, I too only understood it "theoretically" till I had a (fairly minor!) dental operation. ... Suddenly I'm maintaining a continuous note of when I'm taking which medicine to avoid crossing safe limits (which I anyway was crossing most days). I was only told to take 2 paracetamols a day (bullshit dose, I'd be waking up from the pain even with more pain meds). "Diclofenac for rare use" - well, if nothing…

Pain management can be crazy but in your case it sounds like they simply didn't prescribe the appropriate medication presumably due to the anti opiate hysteria that has taken hold.

I had severe nerve pain due to a herniated disc. While awaiting a surgery, I was prescribed an opioid (Tramadol) but it didn't seem to help much at all. Acetaminophen actually worked better than the opioid for me...

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#425

Post by lapcat »

marcosdumay wrote: post #413
lapcat wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The previous commenter appears to argue that you need to diagnose every headache, which sounds absurd to me. Occasionally I have a headache. Not frequently, and I don't necessarily know why. These things just happen. I take a painkiller, and problem solved. I've been seen by doctors over the years for physicals or other reasons, and there's no indication of any underlying medical condition. An occasional headache is…

Unless you have migraines, that headache is caused by something and you'll be much better taking an anti-allergic, or a sinus cleaner, or whatever else actually solves the underlying issue or make the specific symptom go away. The same goes for muscle aches. There is also specific medicine for them. And you are probably better with an anti-inflammatory for a bump. (It's not normal for cuts to hurt for a long time.)

> that headache is caused by something

Thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Internet Rando.

> you'll be much better taking an anti-allergic, or a sinus cleaner, or whatever else actually solves the underlying issue or make the specific symptom go away.

You can't even say what I should take. X or Y or... whatever else? That's not helpful at all.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#426

Post by tshaddox »

vanderZwan wrote: post #245
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.…

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…

> Pain a warning signal from the body. It's something one should listen to, not just try to ignore and overrule.

That's a pretty apt explanation for why pain probably evolved via natural selection, but you can't therefore conclude that all or even most pain is a genuinely actionable warning sign.

Presumably the vast majority of OTC painkiller usage is for short-lived and low-severity pain. I don't think it's a hubristic affront to biology to feel a bit of soreness, note it, then take the painkillers.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#427

Post by SirMaster »

wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #123
topham wrote: post #89

The right tool for the right job. When it comes to medication, in the right dosage. I'm aware of acetaminophen's down sides, and yet recently I was taking it combined with 2 other medications at the time. Why? Because all three medications are recommended for dealing with the issue I had. (Alone and in combination) The moment it wasn't helping further? Done. There is this broken idea, particularly apparent in North A…

Try dealing with a herniated disc, more ibu is definitely better. Too little wont do anything, proper dose and you feel healed

I had a herniated disc and severe nerve pain. I took 16 ibuprofen a day, 4 200mg pills every 6 hours, it did nothing that I could tell. I also used a methylprednisolone dose pack, also didn't seem to help. I also tried prescribed opioid (tramadol), didn't seem to help much.

Acetaminophen worked far, far better than all these. It worked so well, but i wanted to be careful to limit myself to 3000mg a day, so I took 1 500mg pill every 4 hours for a few days while awaiting surgery. It's the only thing that got me through it. Even a epidural lumbar steroid injection didn't help...

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#428

Post by SirMaster »

e40 wrote: post #162
wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try dealing with a herniated disc, more ibu is definitely better. Too little wont do anything, proper dose and you feel healed

Spine issues are the single thing that pish me to ibuprofen or naproxen over acetaminophen. The latter does nothing for my issues.

Anecdotally: ibuprofen, methylprednisolone, epidural lumbar steroid injection all did little to nothing for my herniated disc nerve pain.

Acetaminophen worked wonders, even better than an opioid.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#429

Post by pavlov »

KacharKhan wrote: post #417

Doc here. One thing every single member of the general public needs to get drilled into them: Medical science is NOT intuitive. You cannot just read the mechanism of action of a drug and infer a dozen things from it. A drug's mechanism of action, its indication (when it ought to be used) and its adverse effects CANNOT simply be inferred logically from each other. Biology is orders of magnitude more complex than SE/CS…

One of the greatest Silicon Valley tropes is when boring software guys get rich, lose the plot, and start reinventing physics from first principles because they think the universe is like computer science.

The solace of made-up physics is there for every mediocre dude, from Uber founder Travis Kalanick down to any random guy who made $10M as the CTO of a third-rate video conferencing app and immediately broke up with his girlfriend.

Re: Acetaminophen vs. ibuprofen

#430

Post by Salgat »

isoprophlex wrote: post #72
justinc8687 wrote: post #66

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!

My mother in law did this. There are a lot of ignorant and uneducated people out there. They think "take this for pain" = "take more for more pain", popping one an hour not really understanding how insanely dangerous it is since acetaminophen has such a subtle effect until it's too late.
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