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?
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
I default to ibuprofen. Feels a little more effective to me than acetaminaphen. I’ve never taken aspirin for pain.
Whichever is closest.
Acetaminophen kills your liver. Ibuprofen melts the glue holding your guts together.
What matters right now is your headache.
I prefer paracetamol since ibuprofen can create secondary effects in the gastric system.
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.
I have never in my life heard “medicament” before. Is there a particular reason that word was used here? Is it used often across the pond or something and I just never heard it somehow? Or is it somewhat seldom used and you just decided that was the word you wanted to use?
French?
I just deal with it unless it’s a migraine.
How do you recognize your migraine? And what do you take for it?
Many people have auras before and during migraines. These can be visual (seeing colors or black spots or colors/lights look brighter or dimmer), sensory (sensitivity to light/sound), speech-related (difficulty speaking or understanding speech), motor (impairment to movement), and brainstem (vertigo, tinnitus, ataxia, decreased consciousness, etc).
I get sensory, speech related, motor, and possibly some brainstem aura symptoms. You kind of just learn to recognize when a migraine is coming on and not a regular headache.
My migraines are actually usually without headache, just a lot of aura. That might sound not so bad, but it’s pretty bad.
They tend to start a bit insidiously, with a little bit of sensitivity to light and sound and, even more so, frequently changing or bright light and fast sound.
That’s when things start to feel overwhelming in my head, so if I’m not being obtuse, I recognize that it’s time to take medication. Sometimes my partner realizes it before I do because I’ll start covering my eyes and just mildly complaining about things being too bright or too much.
Anyway, at that point I take sumatriptan. It requires a prescription, but it’s not expensive. It works like magic for me.
Before I found sumatriptan, I would have to be in a dark, silent room with my head in a pillow.