What A Pain!
There are all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to cope with pain, from swearing out loud to listening to BridgeOverTroubled Water, gazing at beautiful artworks and even inhaling the scent of green apple. Studies have shown that all these things can help to dial down your agony, but we bet the next time you’re struck down with an excruciating toothache or knee injury, you’ll be reaching for your medicine cabinet, not your dusty old Simon and Garfunkel CD.
You may even have a selection of over-the-counter (OTC) pills to choose from – and they all work differently.
Ibuprofen brings down painful inflammation. Paracetamol isn’t fully understood but seems to keep pain-inducing hormones called prostaglandins in check. Codeine alters your brain’s perception of pain, but is only available in over the counter medicines as an add-on to other painkillers, ie paracetamol.
It’s safe to take all three together, but experts recommend starting with either e paracetamol or ibuprofen t then adding the other drug if needed.
“We’re all different in the way t that we respond to pain medication. m If you go straight into mixing m the drugs, you won’t know w which one really worked for you,” explains e Dr Martin Johnson, co-chair c of The Chronic Pain
Policy P Coalition.
Most of us only need to medicate for a few days to get over something like toothache. But what if – maybe for the first time in your life – you suffer a severely painful injury that is not going to repair itself any time soon? What may have started out as a short-term (“acute”) pain may soon drift into a long-term (“chronic”) pain condition. What are your options now?