It seems like there would be a market for it. In fact there is the exact process for doing it on the web including specific ingredient amounts, mixing times, temperature for various stages, etc. And the results of testing to ensure the enteric coating worked in stomach acid.
One thing I have learned is that “film coated” ibuprofen is the exact opposite of what it sounds like - it is rapid release.
Dennis
One reason might be that it would delay absorption which would delay the effect of the drug. If this delays the release by 90-120 minutes, some people might rather deal with the stomach issues for the quicker activation. But I agree that some people would prefer such capsules and there is probably a market for it. I’m guessing the real reason is that the market for such pills is too small to be profitable.
You can get empty enteric capsules on Amazon and other places. You can put the normal ibuprofen in the capsule if you want it to get past your stomach before being released.
I imagine that that’s the big reason.
While aspirin is, indeed, a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, it’s fallen out of favor for those uses, due to its side effects. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of (most?) people who take it these days are taking it for heart health reasons, at which point you don’t particularly care if it takes 90-120 minutes before it finally releases.
Yeah - typically you’re taking ibuprofen for an acute condition - pain or injury-related swelling - and if I’m treating pain I don’t want a four hour lag before relief kicks in. I don’t think ibuprofen is used much in chronic conditions such as arthritis, where gastric protection is more important and speed of effect less so. (But I stand to be corrected).
j
Where I live, the pills are not coated with anything. And they have a real nasty taste. Maybe the active ingredient?
You learn to get them down fast.
They do make enteric coated ibuprofen, but it doesn’t do a lot to reduce the risk of GI bleeding. That’s because most of ibuprofen and other NSAID drugs mechanism for causing GI bleeding is via its ability to inhibit prostaglandins, NOT because the physical drug wears a hole in the stomach (tho for some people, NSAIDs do cause contact irritation also).
But for most folks, taking the drug with an enteric coating makes no change in how it’s tolerated nor for the risk of bleeding internally (GI, intracranial, nosebleeds, etc.)
Thanks for that explanation, Q-t-M.
Aww, that sucks. I’m used to Advil that’s so tasty, kids occasionally “get a headache” if they can’t get their candy fix any other way.
… wait, what’s all this about ibuprofen causing intercranial bleeding?
I had thought one of the benefits of ibuprofen is that it didn’t cause stomach upset the way aspirin can. Wasn’t that one of the ways ibuprofen broke into the market in the first place?
I realize individuals can differ and all that. But I had thought stomach upset with aspirin occurs in something like 1 in 3 people (maybe more), whereas with ibuprofen it approaches zero.
Do some people experience stomach upset with virtually any OTC pain reliever? If so, is it thought to be a general pain-reliever sensitivity issue or else something physiologically wrong with the stomach itself?
Any NSAID (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, like aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, indomethacin, meloxicam, piroxicam, sulindac, and at least a dozen others) can cause GI upset and promote bleeding. There are some that seem a bit more likely to cause this effect, but any one of them can do it, and the differences between different NSAIDs regarding causing these effects are not all that marked. Even the so-called GI friendly Cox-2 drugs like celebrex have been shown to cause just as much bleeding as the other NSAIDs.
As noted earlier in the thread, this is all due to the NSAIDs working by inhibiting prostaglandin production. Prostaglandins are vital in keeping the stomach lining intact, and when their production is inhibited, stomach bleeding is all the more likely. Some folks seem to tolerate the NSAIDs better than others, and perhaps they still produce enough prostaglandins to keep their stomachs intact, or perhaps it’s something else. But anyone who takes an NSAID is at risk for this effect. Sometimes sooner, sometimes after taking it for years.
Tylenol (APAP, acetaminophen, ‘non-aspirin’, and whatever they call it in the UK) does not promote bleeding nor cause stomach upset in the typical user).
Ignorance fought.
Yeah, back in the day, Tylenol was the “take a handful, no stomach pain!” alternative. No drawbacks known or noted (except maybe in ERs?). These days, the layman’s party line about Tylenol is “Two pills does nothing. Three pills brings relief. Four pills shuts down your liver IMMEDIATELY and you die.”
I get the feeling that while acetaminophen apparently does have negative effects on the liver (only in sufficient quantities?), those effects are poorly understood by the general public. Accordingly, we rarely buy Tylenol anymore, but always have a big bottle of Walgreen’s ibuprofen on hand.
I do note that my doctor prescribed Protonix after three non bleeding ulcers were discovered. And Tylenol doesn’t do anything for my knee pain due to lack of cartilage.
I had been taking a normal aspirin a day for 19 years and 600-800 mg ibuprofen daily for several years.
Dennis