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Comment by mauvehaus | Hacker News Reader

One interesting non-obvious use for ibuprofen is that it'll relieve some sore throat symptoms. I discovered this when I took some for a headache while I had a cold some years back.

Or maybe that was only non-obvious to me, but I sure wish somebody had told me about that 15-20 years earlier.

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Yes, my heuristic for ibuprofen vs. acetaminophen is whether there is swelling involved. Ibuprofen helped me a bit to manage a sore, swollen throat due to COVID. (But the corticoids I was prescribed are what really did the trick.)

[Edit: IANAD]

Could that be because swelling is an inflammation and ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory drug ("AID" part of "NSAID"), whereas acetaminophen is not an NSAID?

[IANAD]

Of course, but as parent comment suggests, not everyone knows this.

My personal experience is that ibuprofen has no effect whatsoever in any situation, and acetaminophen quickly brings me back from near death when I have a fever.

Interesting. My experience is the opposite. Aspirin and Tylenol never seemed to do anything for me, but Ibuprofen will rid me of a headache usually withing about 45 minutes. I still remember thinking the first time I tried it, "holy shit! This actually does something!"

I usually just take both, and even then, I sometimes wonder if they actually do anything or if it's just a mass scale placebo conspiracy.

I use it for sunburn. Another less commonly associated ailment that it works great with.

It seems like pain killers work differently on different people. I wonder if there is data on this? For me, ibuprofen always helps with any type of pain or itching/irritation.

Most people who end up needing a lot of painkillers end up choosing one favorite. For my migraines it's ibuprofen, my dad swears by celebrex, some people prefer naproxen sodium, etc.

The frustrating thing when traveling is that a ton of countries are very heavily invested into acetaminophen. That stuff is toxic, has a nasty overdose profile, and doesn't really work at all for me, but sometimes it's all you can find.

You wanted to be told what, exactly? That an anti-inflammatory reduces inflammation?

Isn't a bit of inflammation and fever actually healthy ? By cancelling them I would have guessed that you partially disable the immune reaction ?

I wonder about this, and for antihistamines as well.

This is a well documented warning of antihistamines; if you have an infection you should not use them.

And you should definitely not continue use after 3 days with no improvementn in symptoms.

You also should avoid using steroids when you have an infection (many antihistamines are steroids) (unless you're fighting the immune response). The risks increase more with fungal infections than bacterial or viral. (So much that it was a popular trope in House MD that if it was fungal or the infection was causing sepsis then the steroids would kill the patientl https://www.healthline.com/health-news/overuse-of-steroid-me...

Fever yes. You shouldnt generally cancel it (except it goes over 40.5). If you do, disease lasts longer and there is also evidence it helps with cance.

From what I understand, inflammation is a side effect of the process.

Rarely, if ever.

There's at least some hints that short term inflammation might be good, and not something you always want to suppress with ibuprofen etc.

https://www.sciencealert.com/intriguing-study-suggests-infla...

I mean, maybe it's just me, but I always figured a sore throat was more like an itchy skin rash than a stiff swollen knee. I'd only take ibuprofen for the swollen knee.

IANAD, if that's not obvious by now: https://xkcd.com/2647/

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