Personally, for muscle type pain, I find ibuprofen (Advil) works better than aspirin or Tylenol. And when my back hurts or, worse, I've got a touch of sciatica, it's naproxen (Aleve) all the way.

Aspirin for headaches and that's about it for me. Never use Tylenol. Unless it's prescribed w/codeine.

I wish I could take ibuprofen cuz I'd a dropped a couple of those puppies without thinking. However, it doesn't mix well with my heart meds. So, I'm stuck with the above choices.

Thanks, though, wd!

aspirin for muscle pain works for me very well. Tylenol for headaches only.

Everyone's different though. Just combine them, they don't act on the same liver enzymes.

Heh, no. Don't combine them. And don't drink any booze with Tylenol. Ever. Unless you like liver failure and death.

They might not work on the same liver enzymes, but they'll fuck up your stomach.

I'll never take Tylenol, unless it's with codiene for a real issue.

Ibuprofen is much, much better for muscle pain. When I was re-learning how to skateboard vert skateparks, I'd often take a few tablets of Advil/Ibuprofen before skating, along with stretching and getting enough water. It works marvelously.

Plus you can take it with beer, and beer while or after skateboarding is practically required.

/me is still a few months away from taking up skateboarding

heheh

Sorry, I missed the interference w/ heart meds info. Guh!

That's ok, loq, I appreciate the effort. Besides I found a darvon.

Just in case anyone thinks that loquacious is exagerating, it is very easy to OD on acetaminophin. A surprising number of people every year die from acetaminophin poisoning. Reported lethal dosages for healthy adults start somewhere in the 14,000mg within 24 hours range. One tablet is 500mg and the recommended dosage is two tablets every six hours. So what you normally are taking is 1,000mg right there. It destroys your liver which means unless you're going to get a translant, you'll die painfully.

But all drugs have side-effects and risks. Taken as directed, acetaminophin is a very safe drug.

You can combine acetaminophin with an nsaid (non-steroidal antimmflamatory drug), for example Exedrin Migraine is acetaminophin, aspirin, and caffeine. Nsaids are aspirin, ibuprofen, there's another OTC I can't remember. You should not take nsaids with another nsaid. Nsaid's primary side-effects involve the stomach and the rest of the GI tract. Aspirin has an anticoagulant side-effect (which may be a good thing for preventing strokes--thus the one aspirin a day thing), ibuprofen doesn't (IIRC).

Nsaid's are especially good for joint and muscle pain, it's probably more effective to take Tylenol for other kinds of pain. Yours is muscle pain, so an nsaid would be good and probably ibuprofen would have been best, if you'd been able to take it.

Water aerobics kick ass (and other body parts). I used to teach classes. Guys would routinely come by to laugh at the wimpy women in the pool. Then they'd try it, and it would bring them to their knees ;)

Well ok I worked them extra hard, but they deserved it.

If you could find someone to give you a nice rubdown, that would really help.

Oh and a hot bath and some peppermint tea - really. I'm going to just say here that I'm a huge advocate of not taking drugs for things like this, but of course, it's your choice. The hot bath will ease the pain, and the peppermint tea will calm your stomach. If you don't have peppermint, use ginger.

So - a massage, a hot bath (not a shower), and tea. If you have fresh or powdered ginger, add a small handful to the bath water.

Good idea, iconomy. My health club has a massage area. I think I'll try that tomorrow after my next class.

Good info, kmellis. I'll remember that.

As and adult, I've only ever taken painkillers when I a) had my motorcycle accident b) had my wisdom teeth out.

In other words, I am of absolutely no help to you. Sorry! But now you know just that much more about me.

And don't drink any booze with Tylenol. Ever. Unless you like liver failure and death.

Yeah, it's not the best idea, but it only really applies if you're an alcoholic. Your liver can take the odd hit now and again.

(this is to de-stress anyone that may have worried about liver damage after a glass of wine and a tylenol).

I have to take large continuous amounts of NSAIDs for arthritis. My doctor advised rotating asperin, ibuprofen and acetominephen to minimize the potential bad effects -- i.e. ibuprofen in the morning, asperin at noon and acetominiphen at night. Now I take prescription naproxin (cheaper than OTC) and it doesn't seem to have a downside.

Vioxx worked much better than any of them until it gave me a mild heart attack last year.

eeek, not a heart attack! Been there, done that, have the cardio-ward t-shirt.

"I have to take large continuous amounts of NSAIDs for arthritis."

Tell me about it. It's a drag, huh?

I had been taking Celebrex for the last few years, but it was helping me less and less and, also, I was concerned about any problems it might have. So we switched to indomethacin, which is an older but strong nsaid. Vioxx worked pretty well for me--better than Celebrex--but I had some stomach problems with it. Indomethacin is supposed to be very hard on your stomach, but so far I've had no problems. My grandmother and my dad, both also have the disease I have, weren't able to tolerate indomethacin. Vioxx worked well for my sister and it's been the only thing she's been able to tolerate. So the Vioxx thing was a problem for her, but in the end she realized that heart problems like yours were a serious problem with Vioxx. But this year she had her second hip replaced, and it's done wonders. I'm amazed at what she can do. She had her first hip replaced at 28, this second one at 30.

When I don't have anything else available, I'll take around 2800mg of ibuprofen every six hours or so. Which isn't good.

But what's working pretty well is that this year we added an opiate to my regime, which I take regularly. Which isn't good in a variety of ways, but I can walk around the house and stuff. I just need to get my hips replaced like my sister and father have.

The heart attack must have been terrifying.

Mayo Clinic guide to non-prescription pain relievers.

Personally, barring ibuprofen 200s, I find I get the best inflammation relief from naproxen sodium (Aleve-type). Mixing with heart meds, though, I know not of, IANAMD.

I don't get anything at all from naproxen.

Jeez I think of jon's kidney problems at 35, and it makes me hope all you folks are older than me because you're scaring me if you're younger. Actually, you're scaring me if you're not-too-much-older too. You're just scaring me! STOP IT!

Sorry, wolfie, I was 40 when I had my first heart attack and the quadruple bypass.

Wolfie, relax. I'm older than Quansar. And hypertension runs in my family.

There is a huge variability in people's responses to NSAIDs.

It all has to do with picking the right parents. Choose yours carefully.

Maybe. A lot of it has to do with what you eat. Most of it has to do with what you eat. I used to have arthritis (it started when I was a teenager) and asthma and a bunch of other stuff, until I realized that the white devils (flour and sugar) were killing me. I stopped eating them, and I honestly feel 15 years old again, and don't take any medications for anything. All the stuff I had wrong with me just sort of...went away.

And I spoke to my rheumatologist and my lung specialist and all of the other docs I was seeing, and they all told me that there was nothing I could do about my a + a, and to just suck up and take the medicine. Why did I have it? They didn't know and they didn't care...just keep taking the medicine, honey.

I can't stand doctors. (western medicine) But that's another post.

Yeah, my health improved dramatically around 25 when I quit putting tabasco AND red pepper AND jalapenos on nearly everything I ate. I had an experience with a fiber optic camera down my throat and me not being fully sedated I'd don't think I'd care to repeat.

"tabasco AND red pepper AND jalapenos on nearly everything I ate."

You stole my scrambled eggs recipe!!!

Know what's really good? Red pepper jelly.

Mmmmm ... buttery cheesy peppery spicy scrumbled eggs ... with toast and jalapeno jelly.

*dies*

My mouth is watering! Now I'm going to have scrambled eggs with hot peppers for dinner. With lots of cracked black pepper and some of that there Frank's Hot Sauce on them....MMMMMMM.

No, wolfie, come back, come back!

iconomy is my kind of mealmate. ;-P