Thursday, April 26, 2018

Ibuprofen helps me sleep, but is it safe to take regularly?

I am a bad sleeper. I do have excellent sleep hygeine, and am pretty careful about things like caffeine, alcohol, late meals, screen time, etc; it's just a genetic thing, and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it. I have tried all the ususal safe remedies - melatonin, various herbal teas, etc - and nothing much seems to help.
I don't want to get into prescription sleep medications if I can help it, although I do take an antihystamine product called Sleep-Eze (or its generic equivalent) from time to time when I get desperate, and that usually works for me, even if it leaves me a bit groggy and hungover in the morning.
Recently, though, I have been taking an extra strength Advil (or the generic equivalent: ibuprofen) pretty much every evening, mainly because I'm recovering from an ankle sprain and Advil/ibuprofen is supposed to be a good anti-inflammatory (along with other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, like Aleve, Motrin, Celebrex and other brands). Now, I don't know what it's doing for my ankle, but I do know that I have been sleeping until 5am or 6am, which is a good long sleep in my world, and I am tempted to continue taking it for that reaons alone. But, knowing that there is no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to medications, and to health in general, I figured I should check whether there is any good reason why I should not be taking it so regularly. For example, I know that it is no longer recommended, as it was for decades, that aspirin be consumed on a daily basis, because it tends to rip your stomach lining to shreds over time. And I had heard that regular consumption of Tylenol/acetaminophen can kead to liver damage. But surely Advil is pretty benign, isn't it?
Well, apparently not. The US Food & Drug Administration concludes that NSAIDs in general can increase the risk of heart attacks or strokes: "NSAIDs can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke in patients with or without heart disease or risk factors for heart disease". Well, that's me, so I guess it's back to the drawing board. **sigh**

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