How Much Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen Can I Take Together
Whether you're dealing with an injury, illness, or chronic condition, chances are you've reached for a bottle of Advil or Tylenol at some point. Both drugs are extremely helpful when information technology comes to keeping hurting (and a fever) at bay.
These OTC meds are especially useful in the midst of influenza flavor and the COVID-19 pandemic when y'all may find yourself sick and struggling with symptoms like a fever, body aches, and a sore pharynx. In general, people with a mild case of common cold, flu, or COVID-xix should be able to recover at home.
While y'all're resting up and drinking plenty of fluids, you might be wondering which OTC drugs will help y'all feel better faster. At the summit of the list? Ibuprofen and acetaminophen (a.k.a Advil and Tylenol).
Doctors say these meds will keep your fever and pains under control until yous recover—merely what's the best style to take them? And is information technology safe to alternate the two, or even have them together? Hither's what you demand to know.
Ibuprofen vs. acetaminophen: What's the departure?
Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that's often used in its nonprescription form to reduce fever, swelling, and minor pain from headaches, muscle aches, arthritis, menstrual cramps, and the mutual cold or influenza, according to the U.Due south. National Library of Medicine. Ibuprofen works by inhibiting your torso'south production of substances that can cause pain, fever, and inflammation.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is essentially used for the same reasons as ibuprofen—information technology's just in a different class of medications chosen analgesics (pain relievers) and antipyretics (fever reducers). The verbal mechanism for how acetaminophen works isn't entirely understood, just it helps absurd downwardly the body while altering the way your trunk senses pain.
Is it safe to take ibuprofen and acetaminophen at the same time?
If you're having small-scale pain or discomfort from a respiratory virus, injury, or chronic condition, information technology'south best to start by taking just one medication to meet if it helps, says Richard Watkins, Thousand.D., an infectious disease physician and a professor of internal medicine at the Northeast Ohio Medical Academy.
You should e'er read the label to find out how much you lot should take. If the recommended dosage of ibuprofen or acetaminophen doesn't help, you could attempt alternating the two. This is "an old flim-flam of family doctors and pediatricians to subtract fever, since information technology allows more drug to be taken within the dosing limits," says John Sellick, D.O., an infectious disease adept and professor of medicine at the University at Buffalo/SUNY in New York.
Information technology's totally prophylactic to exercise this, every bit long as you carefully follow the dosing instructions on the bottle (or talk to your pharmacist beforehand to ensure you're cycling properly).
Here's how information technology works: "Once you take a dose, you lot have a rise in the levels [of the item drug] in your body and so a gradual fall in the levels," explains Jamie Alan, Pharm. D., Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology at Michigan Land University. "Once the levels start to fall, symptoms of fever may re-emerge. However, the levels of the drug [in your body] have not fallen enough to safely take some other dose."
Taking a dissimilar medication—acetaminophen if you took ibuprofen first or vice versa—will help "ward off the symptom using a dissimilar mechanism," Alan says. "Past the time you are set up to have the showtime medication again, the levels have fallen to a condom dose, and the cycle continues."
Merely again, you have to keep a close centre on your doses hither. "You should not exceed the maximum daily dose of either product because of risks of toxicity," cautions David Cennimo, Yard.D., an infectious disease expert at Rutgers New Bailiwick of jersey Medical School. "People sometimes forget that acetaminophen can be in other things—similar cough/cold medications—and so they inadvertently accept too much."
He too notes that if your symptoms aren't also bad, you don't have to accept medication at all, fifty-fifty if you have a fever. "In my personal practise, I merely advocate treating fever if it is causing a deleterious effect or making the person uncomfortable," he explains.
What nearly drugs that combine acetaminophen and ibuprofen? Are they safe?
Terminal year, Advil released a new drug called Advil Dual Action that contains 250 milligrams of acetaminophen and 125 milligrams of ibuprofen. The company says it can help relieve modest aches and pains for upward to viii hours.
Before y'all attempt it, brand sure you're non already taking a drug (like OTC cold meds) that contains acetaminophen or ibuprofen since taking besides much of either drug can be dangerous, says Dr. Alan.
If you have a fever or body aches and cycling through ibuprofen and acetaminophen in advisable doses isn't helping, you technically tin can have both medications at once as long as you "dose the drugs advisedly and on the correct schedule so that toxicity will exist minimized," Dr. Sellick says. "Too much acetaminophen is liver toxic; ibuprofen can be kidney toxic."
Bottom line: Always read the labels on the bottle for dosing instructions. And when in doubt, talk to your prescribing doctor or chemist to ensure you're taking all of your medications safely.
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Source: https://www.prevention.com/health/a35202945/can-you-take-ibuprofen-acetaminophen-together/
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