I rarely feel like it ever helps, and it’s taxing on the kidneys/liver. So, I tend to not bother until it’s bad enough.
My friend works out and takes pain meds frequently.
He also complains about yearly kidney stones.
I have never had a kidney stone. Where he’s on his 8th one.
Yeah, they’re partly genetic but you can risk it. I have a couple of friends who have had their third or fourth stone and I’ve never felt so much as a slight discomfort on my kidneys. It makes me wonder wtf they’re doing to themselves but I’m not one to judge.
Was he on narcotics? I’m finding no link between Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen to kidney stones. Just drink more water.
https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2023/june-prevent-kidney-stones.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30829133/
Ibuprofen is mostly processed by your liver as well. Acetaminophen uses a bit of both.
This appears to occur predominantly systemically in the liver [1,10], but may occur pre-systemically in the gut as well [11]. Ibuprofen is almost completely metabolized, with little to no unchanged drug found in the urine [1,9,12].
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4355401/
Acetaminophen (APAP) is normally metabolized in the liver and kidney by P450 enzymes. No toxicity is observed with therapeutic doses of APAP.
https://www.goodrx.com/acetaminophen/is-tylenol-acetaminophen-bad-for-your-liver-or-kidneys
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8669426/
Tylenol (acetaminophen) is almost completely broken down by the liver. During this process, a toxic chemical forms. Normally, the liver makes it non-toxic. But if you take too much Tylenol, the liver can’t properly process it all. The toxic chemical can then build up and poison liver cells.
https://www.goodrx.com/acetaminophen/is-tylenol-acetaminophen-bad-for-your-liver-or-kidneys
That was definitely the cause of my kidney stone, because I don’t take OTC pain meds frequently, but if you do have ways to avoid kidney stones, avoid kidney stones. They are no fun.
i’m the polar opposite, if i have a headache/migraine or cold symptoms i pop an ibuprofen and suddenly it’s completely gone half an hour later.
Weird, because I can feel the Aspirin when I take it. It makes me feel ever so slightly numb all over and gummy at my core in a strange way. Kind of similar to when I eat a lot of sugar and it feels like I have syrup for blood and it leaves me lethargic.
Aspirin is a weird drug. Stick to ibuprofen or even just acetaminophen if you have stomach issues. Naproxen Sodium, Ibuprofen and Aspirin all irritate the stomach lining, and aspirin adds a risk of bleeding since it’s also a blood thinner.
And acetaminophen is brutal on your liver if you take it often.
And do not mix it with alcohol, that’ll toast your liver in real short order.
and it’s taxing on the kidneys/liver
I hear you, I can only pretty much take acetaminophen… And yeah, it won’t pay off well.
So yall are just talking about baby meds for minor headaches. I’m up on that prescription grade headache medication for my debilitating migraines, and I can not take it more than a few times a month without doing irreparable damage to my kidneys and liver. Sometimes, dealing with headache pain is the healthier option.
You must be on a preventative, right? Rather than just managing pain when they come on?
I’ve tried Nurtec, Aimovig, and about to start Ajovy.
Nurtec and Aimovig worked pretty well, though not perfect. If you haven’t tried a preventative, I highly suggest seeing a neurologist, if you can.
My medication is just for managing the pain/alleviating symptoms. I have seen neurologists and have been thoroughly examined.
My migraines are caused by having received multiple traumatic brain injuries due to blunt force trauma and concussive shock waves from being blown up while deployed overseas in active combat. Unfortunately, nothing much can be done about this accept for trying to manage the pain.
The good news is that I seem to be getting them much less frequently than I used to, so maybe my brain is attempting to heal itself. I used to get a migraine just about once a week. Now it’s only about once every other month.
I’m really happy it’s getting better for you! Hopefully it keeps improving.
Boo hoo, someone couldn’t go 10 minutes without making something all about them. Of fucking course this is talking about normal headaches and not chronic migraines you fucking imbecile. Do you think someone’s gonna be recommending hard medication as a daily snack or something? Yeah, we all know sometimes you can’t pop drugs like it’s fucking candy. But you’re not really here to inform, you’re here to say, “look at me, everybody, I’m the 1 in 1000 people this advice doesn’t apply to, aren’t I so fucking special??”
Opiates are not medically indicated for migraines.
Triptans are.
So are injections of Ajovy.
This person is not talking about taking opiates. They are talking about medications that suck to take, but reduce the electrical storm of a migraine in the brain.
So my specifics are off. The point is still there. Choosing to suffer when you can easily stop it with near 0 downsides is kinda dumb. This guy clearly doesn’t have an easy fix with near 0 downsides. So this quite obviously doesn’t apply to that situation, does it?
Pain is healthy in so far that it indicates injury or sickness. It helps to tell you to give your body more rest. But if pain is chronic or gives you stress even during rest you do need medication
Pain is not always an indicator of injury or sickness, such as OP’s migraines or people with nerve disorders. There are many causes of pain, including unknown causes.
Yes, that’s what “in so far” means
First try drinking a glass of water though
Water, apple, handful of nuts, Walk around for at least 15 minutes. If a headache isn’t on the way out then maybe try to shift the problem to your liver with some ibuprofen or Tylenol but it shouldn’t be the first thing people try.
and eat some salt
And just eat in general. My goodness sometimes I’m so surprised, I’ll be feeling terrible (usual for me) and I’ll realize I haven’t eaten in a long time and take like one bite of something and instantly my headache and possibly fatigue are significantly better.
Video games should have taught us this. Food is a healing item.
I keep drinking blue liquids and my mana’s still at zero.
Plus now I don’t have any coolant for the car.
No, no, no, you got it all wrong. What you do is you get somebody else to drink the blue liquid and then steal their mana once they’re dead.
Cue the “Chicken Dinner” sound on Wolfenstein 3D…
Holy shit people. Don’t take medical advice from some Internet forum filled with memes.
Is this advice? Discarded.
Why is everybody taking a meme so seriously? Lol
Kids these days.
I follow that anime logic where I just need sleep and a massive buffet to get back to 100%.
does it work
Normally? Yes. Acetaminophen and a glass of water doesn’t hurt either.
Yes, most of the time, not recommended for internal bleeding or alike though.
Are you Naruto
Most headaches are caused by blood sugar imbalance, which in turn are often caused by changes in diet or sleep habits, and/or dehydration. If the meals help then yours may tend to be from low blood sugar.
It’s almost guaranteed that it’s mainly because of dehydration. SO MANY people these days are constantly dehydrated (myself included, though I’m trying) because they’re drinking nothing but sodas, coffees and teas.
If everyone could drink at least 2 liters of water a day, they’d feel much better.
I was going to say 2 liters is a lot… But then I converted into funny units and it’s pretty close to what I drink on the average day (sometimes twice that, sometimes half).
Maybe also contributing to my lack of kidney stones?
… but not too often.
If you have regular headaches, see a doctor. Could be hay fever or other allergies for example and there’s stuff that works much better for that than painkillers.
Yeah even OTC drugs aren’t necessarily safe to take daily and indefinitely. Depending on the medication, you can end up with things like stomach ulcers or even liver damage. Once in a while is fine, but if you’re needing to take something daily, you might want to get checked out and/or try some sort of other methods.
the thing is, medicine specifically comes with instructions for this reason. Stay within the written limits and you should be fine.
Usually it’s tension headaches. The solution to that isn’t meds, either, but chilling the fuck out and better posture. Yoga, callisthenics, actually pretty much any kind of sport should help. In acute cases, try a hot bath. Or some good Indica wait no that’d be meds. Valerian is probably as far as you should go, it’s not a downer as such but makes it harder to forget that chilling out is an option, needs a regular schedule though if you’re wired up. Eat healthy. Avoid hangovers by not getting drunk. Make sure your sleep quality is good. You know, basic shit.
just make sure to read the information slip, and at least here in sweden the recommendation is to not treat headaches with pain relievers more than 9 days per month or it can just cause more headaches.
what i go with is just doing what i can to handle the headache/migraine without medicine, but feel 0 guilt about popping a pill if needed. Especially if i’m going somewhere or have something at home i want to actually enjoy i’ll not hesitate to medicate.
Excuse me I would rather not build up resistance to painkillers and then be screwed once I REALLY need painkillers.
The headache sucks, but it’s not wisdom tooth level pain.
Edit: I’m not taking about opioids or stuff. I’m talking about simple over the counter meds that aren’t addictive but you can still build up resistance to. I already managed to have that happen and have one type become useless
There’s a VERY big difference between “pain relievers”, NSAIDs, and “pain killers” which are opioids. NSAIDs are effective and safe if used properly.
Not all pain killers fit into those two categories.
The normal headache pill, paracetamol (most notably sold as “Panadol”), is neither NSAID nor opioid.
That’s Tylenol (acetaminophen) for the US folks.
Oh yeah, that’s right. That’s a weird one. Not sure why they have two such different names.
It’s para-acetyl-amino-phenol vs para-acetyl-amino-phenol.
So basically, scientists suck at coming up with shortened names everyone can agree on.
Oh neat. Thanks!
Very cool way of getting across the information, too!
Your distinction is correct, but I simply listed NSAIDs as an example, not an exhaustive list of pain relievers. You also make assumptions on “the normal headache pill” based on your locale. In the US paracetamol/acetaminophen/Tylenol is very common, but so is ibuprofen/Advil, naproxen sodium/Aleve, and aspirin/Bayer. In fact, I’d argue ibuprofen is far more popular here based on how much larger the ibuprofen section is compared to acetaminophen in pharmacies. Granted acetaminophen is a bit more common in compound OTC meds like cold and flu medicines.
That being said, paracetamol functions extremely similarly to NSAIDs, but it’s not anti-inflammatory, and works on the nervous system only, whereas NSAIDs affect the brain and body as well.
Absolutely, the risks of addiction are monumentally different and should not be conflated. That said, my sister definitely did get addicted to Advil in her teens and had to go through withdrawal. On the other hand, I haven’t had an Advil in over ten years and in that time have only experienced a handful of headaches, each only lasting a few minutes. Chances are, I’m just very lucky. But there’s also a good chance that if I resorted to Advil before meditation and hydration, my luck would run out more frequently. YMMV.
Just like anything, they should be used according to directions and in moderation. I rarely take them as well, but they are safe and effective when used as directed or prescribed by your doctor.
So much medical misinformation in this thread but it looks like there’s some merit to acetaminophen tolerance.
Less so NSAIDs. They definitely need more studies that take human populations into account because there aren’t any I could find that weren’t in rats.
Acetaminophen resistance:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18468992/
NSAID:
Not sure why you were downvoted, this a quality comment with academic sources.
Because the people using Lemmy are no better than the people using Reddit lol.
AKA my personal experience always beats science. Even if it’s placebo or nocebo.
Also unless you’ve already beat that vote threshold when initially posting, it’s hard to turn it back. And if you’re posting something contrarian to what’s already upvoted despite it being misleading or false, then chances are whoever’s agreeing are going to be reading it more than the people disagreeing.
In circumstances like this, there are some very rare cases that don’t apply to 99.999% of the population, but it DOES apply to them. Biology be fucked like that. However you could never have a conversation on the internet if all you did was cite exceptions or anticipate personal anecdotes lol.
Pain is usually a message, often that message is “This body part is damaged, try to modify how you are moving to not aggravate the wound” In those instances I dont actually WANT to remove the pain because its helping me heal faster and correctly. When its bedtime and its stopping me from sleeping? THEN I’ll take some pain meds, as lack of sleep is also bad for my health
It would be nice if it was that simple for everyone, but it isn’t. Migraines especially are debilitating for me and I will 100% take my pills over trying to ride the pain.
Sometimes, I know why I have a headache, but most of the time, it pops up for no apparent reason. Always had been since I was 10 years old. So fuck that noise, after a certain threshold, I take ibuprofen and acetaminophen instead of suffering for hours.
Oh yeah, I’m definitely not arguing against pain meds for when its extreme or not helpful, the human body isnt perfect, and our body systems dont work with computer like precision. I’m also pretty sure I have a dulled sense of pain.
Hey this is what I think too!
I just saw a doctor about this, turns out chronic headaches are not normal. It turned out I have an allergy giving me congestion even though I’m breathing normally but enough to induce pressure on my head. Go see a doctor if you’re having daily headaches.
If you have chronic trouble breathing through your nose, go see an ENT. That surgery changed my life.
medicine on other side of room tho
I just sent this to my wife lol. She needs to hear it.
I’m bad about this myself.
The pain is stressing your cardiovascular system and will shorten your life. You’re also taking your suffering out on us and it’s not really fair tbh.
I don’t take the headache medicine because it never actually helps with my headaches. 🤷🏻♂️
have you tried different kinds? apparently it really varies what the standard pain reliever is depending on where you go, i believe what i’ve always taken is ibuprofen here in sweden and that is basically a miracle pill that dissolves any sort of pain and cold symptoms within half an hour for me.
however do remember to not mix different pills.
however do remember to not mix different pills.
What? Whenever I’ve needed pain relief enough where I’ve been to the doctor, they tell me to use both ibuprofen and paracetamol, as they have different active ingredients, and that precisely because of that it’s perfectly fine. They stress very much to not take too much of one at a time though.
my pack of ibuprofen very very explicitly says to not mix pain relievers without a prescription from a doctor
Yes, but any time I’ve mentioned that to a doctor they’ve said that that’s just a legal disclainer, and it’s not an issue as long as you don’t take more than the normal dose.
I’ve tried everything you can get OTC, including Midol. None of it works.
As someone has had a headache since 1986… take the medicine.
And if you don’t have any to take, keep talking to doctors until one of them listens.
