In this video, I explain some of the side effects anti-inflammatory medications can have, what medical problems can make these medications dangerous and much more.
Be careful when taking anti-inflammatory medications i had a patient in my office literally a two to three days ago that was telling me he was taking 2400 milligrams of ibuprofen and had been four months now we think that’s generally the upper limits of what’s safe to take on any given day but he had been doing that for a long period of time it was for an ankle injury
I think before he decided to see a doctor and that’s probably not the best idea i’m dr. david iyer orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist and i provide education and commentary on all sorts of sports and exercise injuries and injury treatments and injury prevention for athletes and active people probably much like yourself so that you can stay healthy
And perform your best now because we can buy anti-inflammatory medications over-the-counter we might think that they’re safe and generally when taking in low doses and you just take them every now and then they’re probably not a real big deal but if you’re taking a lot of it it can be a problem first thing that i’ll recommend is that you try to do it initially
After an injury to get swelling down but for a short period of time you’ve heard that acronym rice that stands for rest ice compression and elevation all of those can help decrease pain decrease swelling you know to basically help get you back to what you want to do and using anti-inflammatories for a few days as part of that is probably okay now again you got to
Watch how much you take when you take huge handfuls of them that may not seem like a big deal but those medications have side effects for some people that may be fairly mild side effects like heartburn and issues you know along those lines but you can get serious issues as well you know things like a gastrointestinal bleed or an ulcer so definitely be very careful
About those if you have medical conditions that potentially anti-inflammatories could make worse definitely talk to your doctor about that as well because those medications can interfere with medications you’re on for bleeding and and high blood pressure kidney problems things like that so definitely talk to your doctor about those the last thing i would mention
Is that if you’ve had an injury now you know that you’ve been using advil or aleve or something like that for and it’s not getting better and now it’s been a week or 10 days or 2 or 3 weeks and you don’t seem to be making much progress not just with the anti-inflammatories but the ice in the compression and the activity modification it might be a good idea to
See a doctor maybe there’s some sort of structural injury that is you know why you’re not getting better but rather than just taking medicines for long long periods of time sometimes it can be helpful to find out what the exact nature of that injury is so that you can learn a treatment plan specific to that injury that gets you back to sports and exercise do you
Take anti-inflammatory medications for injuries to get you through sports to get you through exercise i want to know your experience so below this video share your thoughts or your ideas i’d love to read it and i know viewers all over the world would love to hear what you have to say as well if you like videos like this and you want more information on sports and
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Transcribed from video
Be careful when taking an anti-inflammatory medication By Dr. David Geier