When I have a headache or toothache, my first reaction is to pop a couple Advil or Aleve and the pain mostly goes away within an hour. I never thought that I may be taking too much, though. Sometimes if I’m incredibly stressed out I’ll take painkillers several times a day, every day for sometimes up to a week. It just never occurred to me that I may be overdoing it because it’s not a prescription drug and people take it so casually all the time. After reading this article, though, I realized that the effects of taking too much ibuprofen can be really bad for you, even dangerous at times.
Taking too much at once can be incredibly damaging to your intestinal tract, and the effects of that include nausea, vomiting, and severe stomach pain, and sometimes the stomach pain can be a cause of internal bleeding in the stomach or intestines. Taking too much can also cause an increase in acid production, which can lead to heartburn. Lastly, another common effect of taking too much ibuprofen can be severe diarrhea, which is safe to assume no one really enjoys.
Some more things that you can experience include difficulty breathing, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, confusion, drowsiness, and convulsions. Ibuprofen may seem relatively harmless, and in most cases it is, but you still want to be careful about your intake to avoid any possible serious health issues.
This is definitely a problem in America, and I can attest that my family is way too quick to take advil when something is wrong. However, I think that there needs to be more science behind your claims because what you failed to mention is that the side effects such as an upset stomach, vomiting, and damage to the intestine actually stem from taking ibuprofen on an empty stomach and can be easily avoided. (Here’s some information on that). Also, you do not state how much really is too much which I was hoping to hear at the end of the article, because that would be really helpful for people who find themselves taking many a day. Another interesting study would be to see if people build up an immunity to ibuprofen from taking it so much, leading them to take it more? Anyways, this is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed.
This is an interesting topic because so many people over use pills like Advil or Ibuprofen. I have heard that taking too much can cause problems but I have never really taken it too seriously because of how many people take so many of these pills. They seem harmless. You research has definitely made me second guess this and think about it more. It also raised the question for me of how much is too much? Here is an article that I found that talks about when you should stop.
http://www.drugs.com/advil.html
It seems like you’re talking about a major overdose of ibuprofen. This made me wonder if people could accidentally overdose on drugs without trying. Here’s an interesting article/video I found on the ambiguity of drug labels. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2011/06/can-you-read-this-drug-label/index.htm
I’m the exact same way, when I have any kind of pain: a headache, soreness from a run, cramps during that time of the month, or even just any unexplained aches or pains– my first reaction is to take some ibuprofen. Your post left me with a couple of questions. Is taking too much one time enough to cause the intestinal damage you mentioned, or is it recurring abuse of the dosage that leads to the damage? A personal anecdote, I usually take 3 ibroufoen once a month when my cramps are really bad, even though the dosage is only 2. However, I have never experienced the side effects you mentioned in the last paragraph. I would assume recurring abuse of the ibuprofen dosage is required to cause severe intestinal damage. It would be difficult to prove this, considering an experiment that would give people severe intestinal damage would be unethical.
My doctor once told me that Ibuprofen is actually not good for headaches because it causes bounce back head aches meaning the headache will come back eventually.