Although probably not the last word on the subject, an editorial this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) sounds a cautionary note concerning the widespread prophylactic use of ibuprofen among endurance athletes. Prophylaxis is the use of ibuprofen for pain prevention: taking it before exercise. The author claims that not only does prophylactic use of ibuprofen not reduce pain but, in fact, slows tissue healing.
The BJSM editorial was picked up by and introduced in a recent New York Times blog article, which provides a section for readers’ comments.
Neither article is a difficult read. Both provide hot links to abstracts or in some cases to the original research they quote.
2 comments:
This debate makes my head hurt. Lemme pop an aspirin.. D'OH!
I've never thought it was a good idea to preemptively take pain relievers. In my particular case, I use pain as an indicator to tell me when something is wrong. I've always felt that dulling that pain before it even happens is eventually going to be a recipe for disaster.
Then again, I'm one of those folks who don't like taking drugs to begin with. I will take prescriptions at their required dosage, but I typically take half of any OTC dosage. Instead of 2 Tylenol I usually take 1. I think I got that from my grandfather - just being stubborn I guess.
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