my first choice has always been an aspirin, but most of my coworkers tell me I’m wrong and I should use ibuprofen first.
What’s your take?
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Aspirin is an NSAID
but ibuprofin is the worst of the two
Tylenol is scary! But I’ve started using it because naproxen is fucking up my stomach.
I pretty much always go ibuprofen, but aspirin is fine.
I’m pretty sure acetaminophen is snake oil though (this is a joke but I can’t recall ever having it resolve a headache for me like ibuprofen does).
Might not be snake oil, but that shit is bad for you. If it came out today it wouldn’t be sold OTC.
Yep. Got diagnosed with a genetic liver issue and the immediate rule from the doctor was “Nothing with acetominophen ever again. You can probably get away with a (alcoholic) drink or two a week, but don’t even think about acetominophen.”
My dumb ass had been practically living off Day and Nyquill.
acetaminophen is my go to for that.
I’m in too much chronic spinal pain to register a headache. I don’t know why, but the question made me realize I haven’t had a headache in a decade since my broken neck and back. I get to a point where I can’t focus on anything. The anti inflammatory Tylenol Arthritis formula is the most effective by a considerable margin. I don’t have arthritis and am 40. I’ve been on most available pain meds over the last decade, and honestly this one beats most others for me. I used to have headaches, my issues are different but my family basically switched to the same thing too after trying it.
Meloxicam has been a major help in managing my back pain. It’s not recommended to take it regularly since it can cause digestive ulcers like high doses of ibuprofen. But I get bad flare ups with travel and meloxicam is very effective at helping me avoid a flare up.
It might be worth asking your doctor about if they haven’t had you try it before.
Used to be ibuprofen but I gained an allergy to it so now it’s acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Ibuprofen but in ideal conditions cannabis
As other comments have said, deal with the origin of the pain first, THEN…
If it’s bad enough to take meds but not too bad, then one 500mg paracetamol and 200mg ibuprofen (my go to for pain). The paracetamol will generally be one with some caffeine in it.
If it’s a BAD headache, then 900mg aspirin.
I do have a headache hat which is kept in the fridge.
Dipyrone. It’s OTC here in Brazil, but it seems to be restricted in other places.
It depends on the cause, and your own biology.
Aspirin reduces pain signals but also reduces blood clotting, If your headache is from vasculature issues in and around your brain it’s extra insurance.
Acetaminophen just reduces pain signals in the nervous system. It doesn’t have any secondary advantageous effects but it is easier on your stomach.
Ibuprofen reduces pain signals and also as an anti-inflammatory. So if your headache is caused from minor swelling in the head it’s the obvious choice.
I feel like at least in the US most people tend to overtake ibuprofen when they’d probably be better suited with Tylenol or aspirin.
95% of the time, a headache for me means I’m dehydrated. So I drink water + electrolyte drops.
Somewhat in order of action:
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check if I am clenching jaw/grinding my teeth, relax shoulders and neck, center my thoughts, lower blood pressure and pulse
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thoroughly flush sinuses (like spend 20 minutes or more at least)
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drink lots of water/electrolytes and caffeine
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reduce sensory input: dark quiet room with comfortable seating
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double dose of Sudafed and Diclofenac sodium
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jump into traffic
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Not OTC: water and exercise. But hey, keep searching for the “easy” way out.
How unnecessarily condescending.
Are you feeling ok? Do you have a headache that’s making you grumpy?
It’s easier to block the sentient skid marks so they only have one another to argue with.
That’s my take. Take it or leave it.
depending on severity, advil extra strength liquigels for a quick onset headache. If it won’t go away then another advil with a Tylenol at the same time, I call it Advenol.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) if I can’t get it under control without meds but I agree with the other posters about trying to figure out the root cause! For me, the main causes of headaches used to be hormones from the pill until I switched to a different form of birth control (IUD). Nowadays my headaches are mostly dry eye or allergy related so I keep eye drops on hand and take allergy meds and I’m down to headaches once every week or two. Staying hydrated and taking fish oil supplements has also helped my dry eyes.
Well, I’m not in a situation where I can go otc for headaches. I’m already using acetaminophen (paracetamol for the brits) non stop for chronic pain, and I have to save ibuprofen for stuff that never responds to other pain control methods because I’m an old fuck and I’m not supposed to take it at all, and it causes problems when I ignore that and take it anyway.
Luckily, my headaches almost always stem from stress and/or muscle tension in my neck, so it’s very rare they don’t respond to non chemical methods, and I happen to have prescription meds that are prn for those things if I want/need.
But, for headaches, I used to find caffeine more effective than analgesics, nsaid or otherwise. Even when I wasn’t drinking caffeine regularly (which means I know that it wasn’t just caffeine withdrawal causing the headache to begin with), a cup of coffee usually got rise of a headache faster and more thoroughly than NSAIDs.
But it was usually acetaminophen that would be my first pick when I went the OTC pill route. Less likely to irritate my already irritating bowel syndrome issues.
Tbh though, none of the OTC analgesics are great at getting rid of a headache. Some of the older studies and double blind tests I saw put them about the same as placebo for headaches, though that’s been years since I looked up anything about it.
