Too much medicine?

For the last year or so i have been having very bad headaches and various body pains ( hurt shoulder, bruised knee etc) and i have been going though pain killers very quickly. On average i say I will go though a 40 bottle motrin in about a month. I am taking about 1600 millograms for my pain to go away- I am in my early 20's . Is this dangerous? If I do not take the medicine, the headache will not go away.

I was a chronic pain sufferer for many years starting in my early 20's. Mostly headaches, but I've had an onslaught of mouth problems for the last 4 years.

I was taking about what you were with motrin (8-12 200mg pills/day) plus about 3000 mg tylenol plus 400 mg asprin daily for a long, long time. Then they started adding the dangers of prolonged usage of these pills -

It can lead to heart disease & intestinal problems:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/02/b...
http://heartdisease.about.com/od/reducin...

As a nearly 30 year old individual I would suggest that you go to a doctor (a good doctor) & find out the underlying cause of your headaches. If you're active you'll have the bumps & bruises - but there's probably a reason that you're having frequent headaches or a non-stop headache.

I had ulcers because of my continual heavy use of these drugs & I've changed my medication (with the help of a doctor) to something that works & is less dangerous until we can figure out why I have what I have. I still take pain medication daily, but it's much, much less than I was taking before & there are some days that I don't need the ibuprofen.

Also, I've personally found that the liquid ibuprofen (pills, not a drinkable solution) works better (faster) than the tabs, gelcaps & pills. Advil makes them & now store-brands are starting to come out with them as well. While they're actually quite a bit more expensive than the tabs (about 150-200 pills for $15 around here) - they have worked much better for me.

I suggest going to a doctor & getting them to look for the underlying cause of your issue - not just somebody who will give you pills to pacify your problem. As I'm getting older I am paying for my youthful ignorances & the things I put off cuz I could deal with the pain through pills. It's a cheap fix, it works but it's become apparent that there are long-term risks of prolonged usage of these types of pain medicine. Hopefully you'll have more sense than I did at that age.

Good luck.

That is a lot of Motrin for your stomach. I had a doctor that was trying to save me money. He told me that I could take 1000mg of ibuprofen/Motrin every 6 to 8 hours. The only difference between the over the counter ibuprofen and the prescription was the dosage.

Alternate between taking motrin and tylenol for the pain. therefore you do not have take as much of Motrin or tylenol.

That is alot----probably not very good for u at all-----motrin when taken in large amts can raise our blood pressure and also is not good for the liver.
I am really surprised that it helps with headache--it is not really a headache type med--more so for back ache and it is an anti inflammatory-----------if your headaches are that bad thy could be migraines and you should see a dr for a pres.med.for your body aches you can try using ben gay or something like that and see if it helps you cut back on the motrin.

A 40 count of Motrin for the month is not a lot, only if the ibuprofen was, lets say, 1000mg each. Standard Motrin I believe is 200 mg per tablet. If you spread those 40 tablets over a period of 30 days, that is about or less than 1 and a half tablets a day. If you feel uncomfortable taking that, there are other OTC medicines for headaches and body pains. For the headaches themselves, caffeine is a drug that is used to treat them. It will basically open up the blood vessels in the head area to increase blood flow. You can find these labeled as Excedrin headache, and there also is Excedrin back and body used for all around body aches which will get you away from ibuprofen. Prescription medications such as
Dolgic Plus, Blocadren, are used for Migraines. There is also a prescription called Fiorcet which contains caffeine, and Fiorcet w. Codeine used for headaches. Anyways, try to stay away from the Motrin too much. Over several years or even months, long term use of it will cause ulcers and stomach bleeding, then you will have to worry about taking tons of Zantac and Prilosec.