my first choice has always been an aspirin, but most of my coworkers tell me I’m wrong and I should use ibuprofen first.
What’s your take?
Naproxen is my number one go-to answer for any sort of minor aches and pains. Headache? Cured. Muscle pains? It doesn’t get rid of them, but it does make it a lot less noticeable. Hangover, stomach ache, stubbed toe, hurt feelings? Naproxen has you covered. Love that stuff.
It will, however, cause internal bleeding if you drink alcohol while on it. So maybe don’t do that. I don’t drink so I love the stuff.
Ibuprofen for tension headaches, acetaminophen for the rest.
I prefer paracetamol since ibuprofen can create secondary effects in the gastric system.
Excedrin = Aspirin + Tylenol + Caffeine
Mine is excedrin and a big ass cup of coffee
95% of the time, a headache for me means I’m dehydrated. So I drink water + electrolyte drops.
It depends on the cause, and your own biology.
Aspirin reduces pain signals but also reduces blood clotting, If your headache is from vasculature issues in and around your brain it’s extra insurance.
Acetaminophen just reduces pain signals in the nervous system. It doesn’t have any secondary advantageous effects but it is easier on your stomach.
Ibuprofen reduces pain signals and also as an anti-inflammatory. So if your headache is caused from minor swelling in the head it’s the obvious choice.
I feel like at least in the US most people tend to overtake ibuprofen when they’d probably be better suited with Tylenol or aspirin.
Ibuprofen if I’m at work, but at home I usually take a short nap and have some coffee after, which works better for me.
If it’s early and I’m under caffeinated, then I drink more coffee. If that doesn’t help or apply, then I assume I’m dehydrated and drink water. If that doesn’t help I try to take a nap. Usually by the time I run down the checklist it’s close enough to bedtime that I just turn in early. If none of that helps and/or I have stuff to do, then I reach for ibuprofen just because we are more likely to have that on hand than Tylenol.
I’ll go plain old paracetamol which works for me most of the time. If that fails then ibuprofen would be my next choice.
Paracetamol is acetaminophen (Tylenol) for those of us in the States.
Cheers!
I try to figure out what’s causing it, then treat. I get headaches from eyestrain (so I take addition and focus on something else), allergies (antihistamine/decongestant), sunglare (eyerest), overexertion/dehydration (drink water and take it easy), caffeine withdrawal (drink cola), etc.
Motrin(Ibuprofen) because it works better for me, assuming the migraine doesn’t cause me to puke it up right after.
Aspirin has never been of value to me and I would only take it if I had a heart attack.
Whichever is closest.
Acetaminophen kills your liver. Ibuprofen melts the glue holding your guts together.
What matters right now is your headache.
I’m in too much chronic spinal pain to register a headache. I don’t know why, but the question made me realize I haven’t had a headache in a decade since my broken neck and back. I get to a point where I can’t focus on anything. The anti inflammatory Tylenol Arthritis formula is the most effective by a considerable margin. I don’t have arthritis and am 40. I’ve been on most available pain meds over the last decade, and honestly this one beats most others for me. I used to have headaches, my issues are different but my family basically switched to the same thing too after trying it.
Meloxicam has been a major help in managing my back pain. It’s not recommended to take it regularly since it can cause digestive ulcers like high doses of ibuprofen. But I get bad flare ups with travel and meloxicam is very effective at helping me avoid a flare up.
It might be worth asking your doctor about if they haven’t had you try it before.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) if I can’t get it under control without meds but I agree with the other posters about trying to figure out the root cause! For me, the main causes of headaches used to be hormones from the pill until I switched to a different form of birth control (IUD). Nowadays my headaches are mostly dry eye or allergy related so I keep eye drops on hand and take allergy meds and I’m down to headaches once every week or two. Staying hydrated and taking fish oil supplements has also helped my dry eyes.
this is the only thing i found that knocks out a persistent migraine. 1 asprin 1 tylenol 1 aleve and a cup of coffee. about a half hour later the pain and nausea finally stop.
1 asprin […] 1 aleve …
That combination of two non-steroidal anti-inflammatories is probably knocking out more than you think.
One acetaminophen and one ibuprofen. My headaches tend to turn into migraines if I don’t nip them in the bud.
If they’re happening frequently I agree about looking for base causes though.