At what point do you take otc pain med (phobia, cold, bleeding)
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I am typically one who waits until I'm out of commission with pain before I take an Aleve....I sit there and say "am I in enough pain to take something"...I'm in my 40s and have been a strength athlete my whole life...I am now dealing with foot and knee pain primarily that gets kicked off by my training and also think I've been dealing with gout(have a phobia with docs so nothing confirmed)
None the less at what point will you take an otc pain med? Any little twinge?
It isn't quite this simple OP. I'd suggest that the underlying cause of the pain matters. Some longer standing/chronic pain from a muscle/tendon/ligament injury or a tension headache? Stomach pain versus a surgical incision? A big bruise or eyestrain? Some formulations of OTC pain relievers are well known to work better on different types of pain.
Some OTC pain meds work better if you take them at the onset of pain. If you wait too long, it may require MORE of the med to get the same degree of relief an earlier dose might have provided. I'm a proponent of minimizing how much medication I take, so one dose of Tylenol earlier on may do a better job helping me get past whatever is hurting than trying to tough it out and ending up needing dose after dose.
Anecdote: I get migraines. They are debilitating. I haven't used any of the newer prescription meds to treat them, just OTC med like Excedrin Migraine. I know if I wait to treat one in its earliest stage I'll be miserable and fairly non-functional for part or most of the day. If I jump right on it, the amount of medication necessary to keep me comfortable will be much lower. It makes no sense to tough one out just because I don't like taking an OTC analgesic.
There's also some psychology at work here too. If you know some pain reliever will work, you relax and stop focusing on the pain you're feeling. That "trust" and subsequent relaxation plays a part in relief. There are other things that can amplify pain, so addressing those can enhance relief. Sometimes without any medication at all. Dehydration, stress, anxiety, etc. If you don't rest, ice, don't warm up, stretch out properly, or are careless about technique/form that can all play into how much pain you feel from a chronic injury.
Also, consider that some meds achieve their effects through reducing inflammation. If you take them earlier on and keep up a more continuous level, they can be more effective than waiting until you reach breakout pain levels and decide you want relief. There are other ways to ease inflammation: cold packs, anti-inflammatory foods, avoiding inflammation triggers like refined sugars, alcohol, high fat, refined carbs, etc.
You may or may not have a complicating metabolic situation that influences how and how much pain you feel from a sports injury. Confirm/rule out the gout to get out from under that anxiety. Discuss your sports injury with a PT or trainer.
Last edited by Parnassia; 06-15-2023 at 04:36 PM..
Thank you for the response...I have always been overly weary of taking meds(wrongfully so I'm sure)...I agree with you on everything you have said. It's my own fault as I have a bad phobia with docs and haven't been diagnosed. But it's pretty obvious and it also can be quite debilitating.
Also as one who strictly sticks to the dose instructions on the side of the medicine, I know if I went to the doc and was prescribed it would be double or triple. Does anyone have any trouble taking what the prescribed dose would be if in serious pain?
Also as one who strictly sticks to the dose instructions on the side of the medicine, I know if I went to the doc and was prescribed it would be double or triple. Does anyone have any trouble taking what the prescribed dose would be if in serious pain?
That may not be true at all. An RX formulation of some analgesic chemical an OTC medication contains may simply be different. However, you wrote that you don't go to docs...so how would you know?
As for trouble taking what some doc prescribes, if my doc doesn't volunteer it (and IME most will) I ask for information about any medication they give me: potential side effects, important adverse reactions that may need attention, whether it tends to play well with other meds or supplements I might also be taking, and whether its OK to reduce or increase a prescribed dose.
If something the doc prescribes doesn't work or causes unwanted side effects (drowsiness, stomach irritation, etc.), the first thing I do is call the practice and discuss it. They may or may not recommend changing the dose. They may also try another medication. They do call it the practice of medicine, right? There's a reason. Every patient is an individual.
"None the less at what point will you take an otc pain med?"
i take a baby aspirin every day.
"Any little twinge?"
Advil is my magic pill.
i take one after i mow the lawn
(push mower, 1.5 acres, weekly)
or something similar like running
the chain saw for an hour or two.
The only OTC pain reliever that works for me is aspirin. Unfortunately, if I take it for a few days it causes hemorrhaging. So when I get pain I just have to endure it. It really becomes a drag when it causes me to go several nights without any restful sleep, then I'll pop an aspirin so I can get enough sleep that I can function. Then I have to wait another week before I can do that again.
The other NSAIDs make my stomach feel like I swallowed a bunch of broken glass that feels way worse than whatever pain I took them for. Tylenol is good for lowering fevers but it's never done anything for pain for me.
I am typically one who waits until I'm out of commission with pain before I take an Aleve.... At what point will you take an otc pain med? ...
Never. . . . I use natural methods of pain relief instead. For example, Organic Virgin Coconut Oil is a wonderful natural anti-inflammatory . . . as is MSM, as well! Whole Leaf White Willow Bark works very well for some things, & is much safer than Aspirin (which causes bleeding in the stomach with each dose).
The following website shares people's experiences with several more natural options, as well:
If pain keeps me awake at night or keeps me from doing something I really want to do I will take an aleve and a 500mg tylenol both at the same time. Never more than twice a day and never more than 3 days in a row.
I figure a little pain is just part of living.
To help mild arthritis pain I try to take a turmeric supplement regularly. It’s formulated for maximum effectiveness. Seems to do a decent job as long as I remember to keep up with it.
However, if that fails or I get slack, I will take one ibuprofen if my back has been aching and preventing me from getting restful sleep. Or I’ll take it if something hurts more intensely.
Ibuprofen hurts my stomach so I save it for special occasions. Aspirin, Tylenol, and Aleve do nothing for me.
Gout responds to diet. A friend with it would do fine until he went off his diet and ate stuff like shellfish. The medication he then had to use made life interesting for him for a couple days.
Exercise related pain was something I generally treated with a single aspirin, a couple magnesium asporotate capsules and a big glass of water. The magnesium and water did as much as the aspirin, painwise.
I rarely take an NSAID. If I do it is more likely because of inflammation than pain.
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