Are you taking too many otc pain pills?
Many people take otc NSAIDs for pain or fever relief. NSAIDs are abbreviated for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. OTC NSAIDs include Ibuprofen with common brand names as Motrin® and Advil®, Naproxen with the brand name as Aleve and Aspirin.
NSAIDs are widely used to relieve arthritis pain, muscle aches, toothache, back pain, menstrual cramps, fever etc.
These seemingly harmless otc pain relievers can cause serious side effects if they are taken for long term or at higher than the recommended daily dose. In this video, I will discuss the maximum daily dose for each of the otc pain relievers for adults.
The maximum daily dose for ibuprofen, Motrin or Advil is 6 tablets or 1200mg. The daily limit for naproxen or aleve is 3 tablets or 660mg.
In contrast, aspirin can be taken up to 4000mg a day, which is the equivalent of 48 tablets of baby aspirin, 12 tablets of regular strength aspirin or q 8 tablets of extra strength aspirin.
In general, NSAID are meant for short-term use. Therefore, it is not recommended to take an over-the-counter NSAID continuously for more than three days for fever, and 10 days for pain. Consult your doctor if you need to take NSAIDs for longer period of time
To minimize the side effects, older people and people with kidney impairment should lower the dose of NSAIDs.
To decrease the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, long term NSAIDs users should consider taking acid suppressants such as Omeprazole, lansoprazole, esomeprazole or Famotidine for stomach protection
Finally, I would like to point out that the prices of different brand of NSAIDs vary significantly.
The Equate Aspirin costs 1 cent a pill while the regular Bayer aspirin costs 6.4 cents a pill.
Similarly, the generic Naproxen costs 4.2 cents a tablet.
The brand name Aleve costs 8.0 ¢/tablet
The Equate Ibuprofen is priced at 2.0 ¢ per tablet
The brand name Motrin is priced at 6 cents a tablet
Advil costs even more at 7.5 ¢ per tablet.