The advantages of taking a pill before a race has been found to not be worth the risk. A women named Stephanie Ehret landed herself in an emergency room following a 24-hour track run win in record time after taking pain pills. She was throwing up her digestive tract lining. According to her, she had never felt so bad and was sure she was dying. What she had was diagnosed as rhabdomyolysis, which is a precurser to kidney failure. And she was not in this state solely because of dyhdration and overexhaustion from the race, but because she had downed 12 ibuprofen pills during the course of the race. Of course this was from overuse because when used properly pain medication can be very helpful. Many pains can be eased by an acetaminophen drug such as Tylenol, and non-sterodal drugs such as ibuprofen and aspirin can reduce both pain and swelling during the first few days of an injury. The problems come with overdose. Many runners think that because they're exerting their bodies the more ibuprofen pills they take, the better they will feel. This is definitely not the case. Overdose does not have to be as extreme as in Stephanie Ehret's case either. Even just one pill before a race doesn't outweigh the risks. The drugs can inhibit hormones that help regulate blood flow to the kidneys, raise your blood pressure, block enzymes that normally protect the heart, lessen protection in the stomach lining from digestive acids that can cause nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and intestinal bleeding, and increase the risk for hyponatremia that can cause swelling in the brain that can even lead to death. Also, studies go against the belief that pain meds cause an increase in pain tolerance. David Nieman, Dr. P.H., from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina did a study on ibuprofen use in Western States. He found that 70% of the runners said they took the pills to have less discomfort while racing. What he found was that when measuring pain and muscle soreness in both the pill takers and the nonusers that there was, in fact, no reduction of pain. The ibuprofin takers actually had more inflamation. What has been found to be the most helpful and safe for pain is acetaminophen drugs such as Tylenol since they work differently than drugs such as ibuprofen. Still, however, with overdosage there is a risk of liver failure. These pill should also not be used to treat long-term injuries because it slows down the healing process for soft-tissue. Bottom line is that more is not better in this case, and dosage instructions must be followed very carefully.
I found this article very interesting because I am a runner. I mostly run just to stay and shape and for fun, and usually only go somewhere between 3-5 miles. I've never done any big races, but I have had my struggles with injuries and pain medicine usage. One year when I tried distance track I soon found myself with terrible shin splint after about three weeks. Mostly likely the cause was from almost doubling my usual weekly mileage right from the get-go and not stretching as I ought. After spending another three weeks corss-training on the elliptical with no improvement, I decided I had to quit and just give my legs rest. During this cross-training time and when I first began running again, I relied on pain medicine quite a bit. What I usually used was Aleve, which after I looked on the back, is a NSAID drug like ibuprofen. That kind of scares me. I never experienced any scary side-effect, but I was also careful to follow the dosage instructions too. I would think a lot of it also depends on how much you are running because I'm sure with more exertion, the higher the risks of the high blood pressure, nausea, internal bleeding, brain swelling, etc. At the time I was "taking it slow," so that's probably why I didn't experience any of what was mentioned in the article. I do think it's important for every runner to read this though, because pain meds are used all the time and it's important that we know how to use them properly so that they can help us, not hurt us.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37341523/ns/health-pain_center/
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