I’ve always been told that I can’t take pain meds for tummy aches because they won’t help, and I’ve found it to be true.
Why is this?
By “tummy aches” do you mean nausea? Because if so, pain meds aren’t meant to treat nausea, which isn’t exactly a type of pain but rather an unpleasant feeling of being sick to the stomach. There are meds specifically for nausea that aren’t pain medications.
Or acid reflux? Or what?
Ibuprofen helps period pain, but it certainly doesn’t help against acid reflux, ulcers, gastrenteritis, or liver stones. The issue in each of those is a different one, and none if them is linked to the mechanisms upon which ibuprophen or tylenol act.
I don’t mean nausea, I mean when your tummy actually aches.
Since this is a medical question, we prefer you put it into IMHO rather than General Quextions. You can still get factual answers as well as opinions.
samclem, moderator
Um, I’m sorry, I still don’t really know what you mean by that. “Tummy ache” could mean a hundred different things, many of which pain medication would not be appropriate treatment. How would you describe this “ache”? Is it an actual ache, like a dull ache? Sharp pain? Localized? All over? Please provide some more information about this tummy ache.
Ibuprofen can cause stomach pain, so probably not a good choice to relieve it. On the other hand, I walked around with appendicitis (unknowingly) for close to a week and tylenol did a pretty good job of masking it until the Doctors figured it out.
I am not a medical doctor, but I think the premise of the question is false. Both of them will help to relieve “tummy” pain to some degree, just as they will help with other kinds of pain.
However, ibuprofen has a tendency to irritate the stomach lining, so, if the pain arises from an irritated stomach ( as “tummyaces” often do) it is not a good idea to use it, because it is quite likely to make the underlying problem worse: it may mask the pain a bit, but there may be more pain, perhaps quite a bit more, to mask.
As for acetaminophen (aka paracetamol or Tylenol), it will help “tummy” pain and, so far as I know, is unlikely to make it worse, but it is a fairly weak painkiller, and other treatments for indigestion, such as antacids (which also have far fewer dangers and side effects), may very often be more effective.
In my experience, most stomach pain is from an active stimulus, not a residual after-effect - like bloating and gas, or an ongoing stomach cramp. Pain medication will help a little, but really, it’s like asking why getting punched still hurts after you’ve popped some extra-strength tylenol.
Take enough ibuprofen and it will give you a tummy ache.
I think “pain killers” or analgesics have a particular mechanism for relieving pain (probably by blocking neurotransmitters,) but will not work on stomach pain, which are a different mechanism.
Conversely, when I have a headache, about half the time, pepto bismol will cure it.
Are you mrAru? :dubious:
He did about the same, though what let him know it was more than a stomach bug was the appendix bursting …
And the pity of it all, his mom is a nurse :smack:
Mine ruptured too, but encapsulated in my abdomen. It was uncomfortable, but not the blinding pain that everyone who ever had appendicitis described to me.
I’m guessing it’s because, as others have stated, that stomach pain is caused by a different mechanism than other types of pain. I take ibuprofen for tension headaches which are caused by the muscles around my head tightening in a painful way. For me stomach pain is usually caused by needing to eat or having to go to the bathroom and is resolved by doing one of those two things. Other stomach pain may be caused by irritation of the stomach lining which can be further irritated by pain medications as has been stated. And of course nausea is a completely different feeling all together.
Because they’re not for tummy aches, they’re for boo-boos. Now eat your Fruit Roll-Up or you can’t watch Yo Gabba Gabba.
Get out of my head. I was just wondering if she had a case of the Tummy Grumblies, or if this was full-on Boo-Boo territory. An official diagnosis is important in this situation.