How Many Advil Can I Take at a Time

February 16, 2022 Post a Comment

If your head is pounding, you might pop a couple of Advil. If your calves are sore and swollen later an intense pickup game of basketball, you may take a few Aleve. For arthritis pain, you might accomplish for an aspirin. All iii nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, are excellent over-the-counter painkillers and are more often than not quite safe as long equally you don't overdo it. And so how much Advil is as well much? If y'all aren't reading taking the prescribed dosage, or would describe your NSAID-intake as a regimen, you're probably taking too much.

Men are notorious for not post-obit the instructions on the bottle. Research has shown that guys tend to either take also-loftier doses — swallowing four ibuprofen tablets instead of the recommended two, for example — or use two unlike NSAIDs meantime. Both scenarios are super risky, potentially causing stomach bleeding, ulcers, heartburn, and easy bruising. Long-term NSAID overuse can pb to liver damage, kidney injury, or heart complications.

A recent study of ane,326 regular ibuprofen users, both male and female, confirmed how mutual NSAID overuse really is. 30-7 percent of people took a second NSAID such as naproxen (Aleve) or aspirin along with ibuprofen, though less than half realized they were doubling upwardly on the aforementioned type of drug. Another 15 percent just took besides much ibuprofen, exceeding the maximum daily dosage of one,200 milligrams. Only when the results were broken downwards past gender, men were a whopping 50 percentage more likely than women to overdo it on NSAIDs.

So what gives, guys? According to lead researcher David Kaufman, Ph.D., an epidemiology professor at Boston University, many men misuse NSAIDs out of sheer ignorance. They may exist unaware of the dosing guidelines, not know that taking two NSAIDs too close together carries health risks, or have no inkling that these painkillers are NSAIDs in the beginning place.

"If you don't realize that at least 1 of those drugs is an NSAID and you accept the maximum dose of both on the same 24-hour interval, you lot'll go too much total," Kaufman says. "Combined dosing can take adverse furnishings, the near common issue existence stomach bleeding, which can be life-threatening. Cardiovascular risks have likewise been documented, though they are less common, or there could exist kidney damage with prolonged overuse."

As a practicing pharmacist for 23 years, Jason Varin, PharmD, now a professor at the Academy of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, is not surprised by the written report results. "This is a generalization, simply afterwards seeing thousands of patients over the years, I can say that women tend to exist more concerned about dosage and more particular-oriented in looking at directions," he says. Men, on the other hand, assume that whatever amount they accept will exist fine, Varin notes, "or they think, 'the directions say to take two 200-milligram pills, so plainly three pills volition work amend or faster.'"

Now, it is truthful that 600 milligrams of ibuprofen will provide a stronger anti-inflammatory effect than 400 milligrams, which is why doctors prescribe 600- to 800-milligram doses for torn tendons, sprained ankles, and other acute injuries. "If you have trauma, you want to go the inflammation knocked down equally quickly as possible because information technology can crusade damage," Varin says. The loftier dosage does dilate the negative side furnishings of NSAIDs, he adds, but information technology'south a reasonable tradeoff in these situations.

It is not a reasonable tradeoff for your boilerplate aches and pains, nonetheless. "Y'all don't actually demand high anti-inflammatory levels to get relief from a headache," Varin says. The recommended dose of 400 milligrams should be powerful plenty to work, and if you exceed that, the health risks offset to outweigh any additional benefit.

But what happens all too frequently, says Varin, is that someone will get injured in one case, get prescribed a loftier dose of ibuprofen, and so mistakenly call back they should take that same dose any time they use ibuprofen. "Whether for a mild headache or muscle aches, they only assume they should take four pills considering 4 worked well when they had that injury," he explains. "But the higher the dose you go, y'all become diminishing returns."

The Right Fashion to accept Advil and Other NSAIDs

To use these painkillers safely and smartly, you've got to read the characterization. "If you follow the instructions, yous volition be less probable to arrive trouble," says Kaufman. Sounds unproblematic enough, but given guys' penchant for non looking at labels, this bulletin needs to be hammered dwelling house.

Along with how many pills to take, an of import teaching that ofttimes gets overlooked is to take NSAIDs daily just for a certain number of days. "I would not recommend beingness on either ibuprofen or naproxen for more than two weeks without consulting a physician because the NSAIDs could be masking a bigger trouble," Varin says.

As for which NSAID to accept when, both ibuprofen and naproxen work similarly to target headaches, backaches, muscle soreness, joint pain, and toothaches. The main difference is that ibuprofen is quicker-acting than naproxen simply has a shorter duration—you may need to re-up later four to six hours. "When y'all're looking for relief as rapidly as possible, ibuprofen tends to work better," Varin says. "Naproxen, on other manus, is ameliorate for when you lot need [a painkiller] to terminal all 24-hour interval long." If you popular Aleve in the morning, for instance, you won't have to take a second dose during the workday as you might with ibuprofen.

Though aspirin is also an NSAID, it has cardioprotective properties at low doses whereas ibuprofen or naproxen do not. It can prevent blood platelets from sticking together, which may end the germination of blood clots that lead to heart attacks. This is why doctors oft advise people who've survived a center attack to take a depression daily dose of aspirin to aid forestall having another one. However, if you're not at high run a risk of a center attack, the blood-thinning effect isn't necessary and could fifty-fifty be detrimental. Therefore, unless a dr. has ordered it, Varin cautions against using aspirin.

"Another thing I don't think is made clear enough on the packaging is that all NSAIDs, except for enteric-coated aspirin, tin can affect the breadbasket in multiple ways," Varin says. Along with irritating the stomach lining, he says NSAIDs hinder the germination of chemicals chosen prostaglandins, which cause pain, swelling, and inflammation but too protect the stomach. Therefore, past stymieing prostaglandins to atmosphere pain, NSAIDs as well leave the tum more vulnerable to ulcers and bleeding.

The all-time way to protect yourself against digestive woes is to just have NSAIDs with food. "I'll go 1 step beyond that and say to have it at the beginning of a meal, when the digestive procedure starts," Varin says. "If you take it after you swallow, it can go trapped in the stomach until digestion occurs. Simply if food is coming into the body on top of it, information technology'll likely be the first matter that gets through the gut." Once it moves past the stomach, he says, you lot're in the safe zone, digestively speaking.

For this same reason, Varin also cautions against taking NSAIDs before bed. "Motility and digestion slow downwards when you lay down, and y'all don't want that medication sitting in the stomach longer than usual," he says. "Don't take it with alcohol either because alcohol is besides a tum irritant. Just if you lot take ibuprofen earlier dinner with vino, that's fine."

As with any drug, prescription or over-the-counter, there are both benefits and potential side effects to NSAIDs. In order to get the max gains with minimal downsides, just swallow your pride and follow the directions before you swallow any pills.