Over-The-Counter Pain Relief
Tip #16: Aspirin
Aspirin is one of the oldest medicines available for pain relief and it’s the most widely used drug in the world today. Willow bark has been used as a medicine for thousands of years and salicin is its effective ingredient. Aspirin is a salicylate that works to reduce substances in the body that can cause pain, fever, and inflammation. It can even be used to prevent heart attacks, strokes and chest pain or to treat those conditions. It was synthesized by the folks at Bayer at the end of the 19th century. Today, aspirin is available from baby aspirins to coated aspirins to prescription aspirin which is used to relieve the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and other rheumatologic conditions.
It is often recommended to take aspirin with food to prevent it upsetting your stomach. The Mayo Clinic website lists over 60 side effects of aspirin. You shouldn’t take aspirin if you have hemophilia or intestinal bleeding. Avoid aspirin if you are allergic to an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) such as Advil, Motrin, Aleve or other similar drug. Also avoid drinking while you’re taking aspirin since it can increase your risk of stomach bleeding.
Never give aspirin to a child or teenager with a fever, flu symptoms or chickenpox. Taking aspirin late in a pregnancy may cause bleeding in the mother or baby during delivery. Aspirin can also pass into breast milk and harm a baby.
To make sure aspirin is safe, be sure to tell your doctor if you have asthma or seasonal allergies, stomach ulcers, liver or kidney disease, gout, heart disease or high blood pressure.
Tip #17: Alcohol
there has been alcohol almost since the beginning of human history, and sad to say, it seems to be a pretty effective pain reliever. Science doesn’t know why it works, only that it works, so well that an estimated 28% of chronic pain sufferers turn to alcohol for their symptoms. Not that scientists haven’t tried to figure out why it’s even better than some painkillers, in fact recent research examined 18 different studies on pain showing how effective it is.
Many drinkers turned to alcohol for pain relief for its ability to depress the central nervous system, or in other words, pain relief. The issue is, how much and how often. It appears that after three drinks for men and two drinks for women, the painkilling effectiveness can be described as “moderate to large.” Unfortunately, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 recommend only two drinks per day for men and only one drink per day for women. However, booze is cheaper than most prescription drugs, which makes it very attractive. However, eventually you’ll have to drink more and more to get the same amount of pain relief. That’s how an alcoholic is created. Being in chronic pain leads to alcohol abuse, which is basically trading one problem for another.
Using alcohol and opioids together can cause an overdose because it depresses parts of the brain that control breathing. In fact, research seems to suggest that alcohol is involved in about one in five deaths from opioid overdoses. But the dangers of alcohol aren’t just with opioids. If you’ve ever taken an over-the-counter pain reliever like Tylenol, Advil or Aleve after a night of drinking to treat your hangover, you may also be creating an ulcer, stomach bleeding, liver and kidney damage and more. Withdrawing from chronic alcohol use can not only increase pain sensitivity but it’s frequently a motivation for some to increase their drinking.
Tip #18: Hempvana™
One of the newer over-the-counter (OTC) pain solutions is Hempvana, which is a pain relief cream with hemp seed oil. It relieves both pain and inflammation. One of its advantages is that it treats the pain and not the entire body like a drug. The key to its effectiveness is that it contains CBD from the oil of the seeds of the Cannabis Sativa plant, but it does not get you “high” because it does not contain THC, which is what causes psychotropic effects. This topical pain relief product is produced in America in an FDA-registered facility. Warnings on the jar say not to use more than three times each day.
Tip #19: Biofreeze
Biofreeze is the brand name of a menthol topical medicine that’s been around for over 25 years. It’s made from extracts of mint oil and provides a cooling sensation when applied to the skin. This feeling of cooling helps to relieve pain te