This post is about some surprising results I’ve gotten recently from a combo good ol’ naproxen (store-brand Aleve) and ibuprofen (store-brand Advil). I want to see if others have had similar experiences.
About a month ago, I was beset with severe pain near my heel, where the Achilles tendon connects to bone. It was so bad that my calf couldn’t flex and I had to shuffle with a limp. The heel area didn’t look red or swollen, but it could have been subtle. Anyway, I started “overdosing” on a naproxen-&-ibuprofen mix – two naproxen pills (450 mg) plus four ibuprofen pills (800 mg equal to one prescription ibuprofen) twice a day – early morning and again roughly twelve hours later. I also started icing my heel when I could – 15 minutes ice then an hour or two of rest. I only had to keep this up for two days – to my surprise, my heel healed completely.
Last week, my left knee started to feel like it was swelling “from the inside” (nothing visible externally). It got nearly to the point of locking up, which I’ve experienced with this same knee several times in the past (though no recent recurrences). Again, the same anti-inflammatory dosing as above, several bouts of icing, and by the next day my knee just healed right back up like nothing was ever wrong.
One more anecdote:
Back in 2014, I had pain at the base of my right big toe that Dr. Internet “diagnosed” as “gout”. After a few days of putting up with it, I threw a bunch of OTC anti-inflammatories at it much like detailed above. That “gout” disappeared and has never returned. I assume if if were truly gout, it would have recurred at some point.
So … have these cases been typical? If you have soft tissue problems, and you can get a handle on the inflammation, you’re better than halfway home on healing up? My surprise is about how well home care has worked. All the injuries mentioned above – and especially the most recent two – initially felt bad enough that I was sure I was going to have to see a doctor.
I’m not sure I follow. This is the purpose of these meds. If they weren’t effective, people wouldn’t be using them.
Yesterday my jaw and my neck and my upper back were completely in knots (I have TMJD) and I took 2 ibuprofen and I felt better within a half hour. As expected.
I use them for soft-tissue and joint pain all the time and yes, they work very well. We have literally thousands of ibuprofen pills from Costco scattered around the house in every room, in our travel bags, in the car… we pop them like candy and they are very good at dulling the random aches and pains we get from being old, fat, and fragile. We also alternate them with acetaminophen if things get really bad. (edit: acetaminophen isn’t an NSAID though, just a painkiller that can be rotated in with NSAIDs).
For what it’s worth, I had a “most likely gout” diagnosis (from actual doctors, who could not get a sufficient urea crystal sample but all the symptoms matched). The only thing that really helped was ibuprofen. Then the gout wouldn’t flare up again for more than a decade, and when it did, it only lasted a few days. Then the attacks became more frequent, but still separated by a few years. I saw multiple doctors for this, all of whom suspected gout but none of whom could definitively prove it (because they were unable to get a good enough sample from the joints). Ibuprofen kept helping, but the attacks would recur. Eventually one doctor just said “let’s put you on allopurinol anyway” (an anti-gout medication). I haven’t had another recurrence in 5+ years now, so either it WAS gout and that stopped it, or else I just haven’t waited long enough…
But in any case, yes, ibuprofen and other NSAIDs help a lot with all sorts of, well, inflammations. That’s their whole point: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Curious if this was a blood test that was inconclusive, or some other kind of test? My husband would get occasional attacks of gout, and his blood test convinced the doctor that that’s what it was. There was one temporary med to remove the urea crystals from the body, and then allopurinol to keep it from coming back, which has been effective for 10 or 15 years now.
Prescription NSAIDs do help me with the pain from osteoarthritis in my hip, although they don’t make the pain go away completely, and they can’t do anything about the structural issues when I walk or try to bend in certain ways, i.e. I still limp, but I can trim the toenails and put socks on that foot. I have to decide whether I want to have a hip replacement at some point, I suppose.
The blood test they can do measures uric acid levels. Mine were slightly higher than the normal range but not at a level they normally see for gout attacks.
For a definitive diagnosis, what they wanted to do was take a syringe (this was quite ouchy) and plunge it into the gout-y joint to try to extract some of the actual crystal buildup in the joint fluid. They stuck it in and poked and poked and poked and poked until I was like “okay, just go ahead and kill me now, please”. This was done twice, by two different doctors, ten years apart. They sent in the samples in anyway but got nothing, which made both doctors doubt their own diagnoses — both were sure it was gout before the test, but neither could explain why they couldn’t draw the crystals out that they usually could from gout patients.
For medical purposes, I should note that I’m Asian (and gout has recently been found to be genetically linked for Asian in particular, not so much dietary — something most of my white doctors weren’t aware of, especially back when the attacks first started). I’m mentioning this because I don’t know if that matters for testing purposes (either the blood draw or joint fluid draw) and why they had so much difficulty in diagnosing me in particular.
Yeah, those joint draws… not much fun! 5/10 at best.
Allopurinol, though, has been a miracle: cheap, effective, readily available. I wish I met the doctor I now have years earlier. She was the one who recommended it as a “why not try it” drug, since it’s a minimum-fuss once-a-day pill, something like $10 for a 90-day supply, with no side effects and a high likelihood of success.
Hell, at this point, even if it isn’t gout, I might still keep taking the allopurinol anyway just to keep the joint jabbies away
My brother played football and then was in the military, so his body is beat up accordingly, and he deals with tendonitis and arthritis. Ibuprofen is his go-to medicine, and it works well for him. It even works for bursitis, but you have to treat that for several days on most occasions. Just be careful not to exceed the maximum dosage because, if abused, it can damage the kidneys.
Another thing, if you are having trouble with inflammatory flareups, the natural ingredient, flavonoids, eaten on a steady basis help. Flavonoids can be found in fruit, especially berries. There are six of them, but only one fruit actually has all 6 flavonoids, and that’s blackberries.
My former doctor told me that while the Naproxin dosage is one every twelve hours, what that really means is that you can take two at night and then one 12 hours later. I never exceed that, and usually just a single dose will calm the arthritis flare-ups when the weather changes.
You’re right. I simply didn’t think the OTC anti-inflammatories could make much of a dent in pain & inflammation sufficient to limit mobility (especially that knee-locking thing). I thought of naproxen and ibuprofen as occasional headache medicine, not as truly effective tools to fight what I was dealing with.
I will add that what I’ve probably done was hit upon the proper dosage for my body size. I am roughly twice the weight of the average man (probably a little more than twice, actually), so maybe the dosing on the back of the bottle was too little for me.
Yet another data point: I discovered a few years back that I could purposefully overdose on Extra Strength Tylenol (3 x 500 mg? I forget) + ibuprofen (5 x 200 mg) to temporarily relieve even bad toothache pain. Yes, I got into the dentist’s office for proper treatment. The dentist told me that in lieu of prescription painkillers, it was OK to “overdose” on those medicines for a few days to get relief until I could come in for treatment. Yet again, I’m sure my body mass helps me tolerate the dose – I am aware of the risks of high dosages of acetaminophen (Tylenol).
Is the maximum dosage the same for all adults? Body mass makes no difference?
FWIW, for naproxen, I haven’t had to take more than four 225 mg pills in one day. IIRC, the back of the bottle says three - the directions allow taking two for a first dose and then a single pill ~12 hours later.
You’re good. I think with OTCs it’s more of a lots of pills over a long period of time that can start to affect your organs. Chronic over-use. With NSAIDs your stomach will probably crumble before your kidneys do. Always try to take them with food if you can.
The dosages and comments given are for adults in general. If you have stomach issues like ulcers or bleeding, don’t take it. Don’t take it if you are taking any other medicines with NSAIDS such as aspirin or naproxen. Do not exceed maximum dosage. That’s pretty much it.
I enjoy blueberries in oatmeal, and have that for breakfast three days a week. We eat our fair share of strawberries in our household as well (lots of local growers). Thanks for the tip on flavonoids – will seek out other foods that contain them (crossing my fingers for kiwis).
From a purely anecdotal standpoint, I’ve found ibuprofen remarkably effective for occasional back pain, and also for the occasional toothache. For both of which acetaminophen (even prescription Tylenol with codeine) has been useless. The only thing I’ve ever found more effective than ibuprofen in cases of severe pain is Demerol, which is a potentially addictive narcotic. But it helped me through a difficult period with a fractured rib.
IANA doctor or medical professional, but at one point in my career I did work in healthcare IT for a VERY large occupational health clinic chain.
And at one point I was involved in a project to change up the pharmacy software for the company across 40-some odd states and several hundred clinics.
I did a bit of data analysis one day out of curiosity, and our clinics prescribed ibuprofen, naproxen and diclofenac (all NSAIDs) far and away above anything else. And most of the other stuff we prescribed was antibiotics for cuts/scrapes/injuries, and steroid creams for skin inflammation, along with a relatively small amount of tramadol for when NSAIDs weren’t considered appropriate.
I’d think that if it wasn’t effective or appropriate for joint pain and minor orthopedic injuries, I wouldn’t have seen them be so disproportionately represented in our prescription records.
Oooh, thank you! I’ve got bursitis/arthritis in my shoulder & hip and because I walk funny my back hurts too. I’ve been taking 600 ibuprofen when I get up in the a.m., just so I can bend over to feed the cats, then 2 naproxens before bed to get a couple hours sleep. I didn’t think of combining them, but will try now & report back.
Yeah, I’ve been trying not to think about hip replacements (have you ever seen a video of one?). I had a steroid shot last week which helped in the past, but didn’t take this time. My doc has referred me for physical therapy, but I haven’t signed up yet. Have you tried that & did it help? I have to lie down to put a sock on my left foot. When I can no longer do that, maybe it’s time to call the surgeon.
I’m interested in anything non-invasive you all can recommend that I can do to become more mobile.
IMO acetaminophen is a great example of the triumph of marketing over good medicine. For some people, the liver-damaging dose (~12 g) is awfully close to the max therapeutic dose (4 g).
And yet Tylenol replaced aspirin (which was no longer trademarked/patented) because aspirin could cause stomach damage. If faced with a compromised stomach vs liver, I’ll take stomach any day.
). I had a steroid shot last week which helped in the past, but didn’t take this time. My doc has referred me for physical therapy, but I haven’t signed up yet. Have you tried that & did it help? I have to lie down to put a sock on my left foot. When I can no longer do that, maybe it’s time to call the surgeon.