Popping Pills — How Much Ibuprofen is Too Much?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008 18:28A friend of mine broke his arm a while back and told me he was on a lot of ibuprofen — 600 mg doses.
I had to laugh, because back when I was suffering regular pain from repetitive stress and tendonitis, I took 800 mg of ibuprofen on a regular basis, sometimes a few times a day. I got it free from my workers’ comp doctor. It didn’t really make me feel much better, but he said it would help reduce the inflammation. (Now I wonder….)
In fact, many women regularly take heavier doses of ibuprofen for PMS-related symptoms. Over the counter meds like Midol offer 600mg or 800 mg doses. Taking these once or twice a month is no big deal. However, there can be high risks to taking that much on a regular basis — everything from vomiting or dangerous weight loss, to ulcers. Ibuprofen’s called a “non-steroidal anti-inflammatory” or NSAID, and it’s related to other drugs like aspirin and acetaminophen, which can also have similar detrimental affects if taken too much.
Headaches can also be caused by taking too much ibuprofen or other over-the-counter drugs, according to a new Consumer Reports article in October 2008.
The American College of Gastroenterology has a more detailed description of the potential damage, along with a list of the related drugs.
If you want even more information on the nasty things too many pills can do, read the book The Stress Effect. The first section talks about how stress hormones can get out of balance in your system, and cause serious health problems. It’s rather troubling, especially from the perspective of someone already in chronic pain.
However, the second half of the book does provide good information about ways to counter stress in your system by taking supplements and eating nutritously. The book contains some good information on vitamins, healthy food, and what types of diet can cause a hormonal imbalance. (I learned, for example, that the reason some women crave chocolate around their periods may be due to magnesium deficiency.)
If you need to pop too many pills, it’s clear that you’ll need some other therapy to solve the real problem — and the longer you wait, the harder it will be to recover. If it’s stress and chronic pain, try acupressure, yoga, meditation, and make sure you’re getting healthy sleep and nutrition too.
Also, make sure to talk to your doctor and do some further research on how it could affect you. If it’s your doctor who’s prescribed the constant pills, consider that according to the recent study I posted about, many doctors give out these drugs as if they were placebos, because even doctors don’t know what else to do sometimes–they’re trained professionals, but that doesn’t mean they know everything or are perfect. (Consider that in the middle ages, using leeches and bloodletting were common practices, as were prescribing alcohol and placebos). Be honest with your doctor about your concerns, and ask him or her to be honest with you too.
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