The pain relievers acetaminophen and ibuprofen are in several over-the-counter drugs. Some people even mistake the two.
But they have specific purposes and can cause problems if you’re not careful.
KERA’s Sam Baker talked about this with Dr. David Winter, an internal medicine doctor with Baylor, Scott, and White.
They both somewhat similar in that they're both pain relievers, right?
They are. They work by different mechanisms and thus the difference.
Let me also point out that ibuprofen is in the class of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAID), a large group of medicines. Many are prescription, but of the ones that are nonprescription, ibuprofen is Advil. Motrin also is the same drug. And then you've got Naproxen, which is a different drug. That's Aleve. And those all work like anti-inflammatory.
Acetaminophen is most widely known as Tylenol. It's also in Excedrin and many different cough medicines. So, if we're comparing, we should compare the acetaminophen type drugs to the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
What's the essential difference between the two?
The big difference is that the anti-inflammatory drugs fight inflammation. So, if your symptoms are due to inflammation, you would do better with that. If, on the other hand, they are not inflammatory headaches, which is the majority of them, the fever, they work for that and just general pain. Either one works.
If you should mix them up, though, somehow, if you use acetaminophen when you really should use ibuprofen or vice versa, what happens?
They can both work. Probably best to take them 4 to 6 hours apart. And the big thing with acetaminophen is you cannot take more than 3000mg in a 24-hour period or your liver will suffer and can often suffer greatly.
Do you think most people really get the difference between the two?
No. I see people go back and forth between them. If you've got, though, a back strain or you strain a knee or your shoulder gets sore, you're probably better with ibuprofen and those type of drugs. If it's a regular headache, if it's fever, then either one works well.
When should you not use ibuprofen or acetaminophen?
So the issue with the ibuprofen type drugs is they can cause kidney damage if you take them over a long period of time. And if you have kidney disease, you should not take those in lease. You should get the advice of your physician.
The other side effect from ibuprofen type drugs is stomach irritation. And so, if you get stomach irritation, you must stop taking that medication. Otherwise, it can progress to an ulcer, even to a bleeding ulcer.. In fact, it's a good idea with ibuprofen drugs to take those with food which can then buffer the stomach.
Acetaminophen in high doses causes liver disease, and that's a big deal. Now, you can take acetaminophen for years as long as you don't go above the threshold in a day period of time. The 3000mg and 24-hour period.
Do people confuse either of both with aspirin? Or just decide I'll ignore those two and just take plain aspirin?
Aspirin also works. It has anti-inflammatory properties, so you can take aspirin. If you take too much aspirin, you'll get ringing in your ears and that's a temporary thing. But every medication has its limits as to how many you should take an aspirin. You also need to limit how many of those you would take in a day.
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