Drug Showdown! Advil Vs. Tylenol

If you're trying to decide whether to take Advil or Tylenol for your pain, consider this:

First, I'm going to state the obvious:

Drugs work by interfering with the body's natural functioning to create a desired effect (as well as many side effects, aka undesired effects).  You cannot chemically manipulate a biochemical pathway without starting a cascade of unwanted effects.

Advil, as an NSAID (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug), interferes with the biochemical pathway that encourages inflammation.  However, this same inflammation is what triggers the anti-inflammatory cycle which is responsible for laying down new healthy tissue and repairing the area.  If you have damaged tissue and take Ibuprofen (Advil), you are actually impeding your body's ability to heal.

Tylenol (acetaminophen), on the other hand, works with a different pathway, but that pathway is also responsible for T cell production. T cells are one of our basic immune cells and are used to target invading organisms and eliminate problem cells (bacteria, viruses... even cancer!).  These are the same cells that are not being produced in those with AIDs which is why people with AIDs can be killed by something as seemingly harmless as mold spores.  They no longer have the cells to defend themselves. 

Many athletes talk about using Advil post workout, but workouts shred tissue.  Post workout, your body is working hard to rebuild and repair... is it a good idea to impede this process?  Research has shown that neither Advil nor Tylenol improve recovery time from a workout. 

So if Advil impedes the healing process, and Tylenol impedes the immune system, which would YOU choose?

Years of Knee Pain are Over...

Recently, a patient came in with knee pain so severe she could barely walk.  She had injured it about 20 years prior and it had never been "right" since.  She had been to multiple orthopedists, naturopaths, chiropractors, physical therapists, etc, but nothing seemed to help.

I examined it and found a number of things; muscle memories, trigger points, a fibular head subluxation, etc.

So what did I do?  What I always do!  My job!  I fixed what I found, helped the nervous system get balanced, and allowed her body to heal as it was designed.

And whaddaya know...  It doesn't hurt anymore. She can actually go for walks again!  (Not to mention the happy little "side effects" of better energy, less anxiety, and being able to live her life again.)

Just another day saving lives.

I love my job.

Why taking Ibuprofen could be the worst thing you could do for yourself...

I am by no means against taking medication, but we often forget, even when taking over-the-counter drugs, the reason these things change our present situation.  It's not simply that we are experiencing something undesirable, take a magic pill, and turn off the annoyance, though it may often seem that way.  What we are actually doing is turning off mechanisms and biochemical pathways that result in the "symptom" we are experiencing.  By turning off or altering these mechanisms, we also create a domino effect, turning off systems that are in place further down the line.  The processes that get interrupted are usually referred to as the "side effects," unless, of course, those effects are the desired outcome.

The reason I bring this up is because often, people will experience something in their body that they consider undesirable, like pain, and will instantly reach for Advil/ibuprofen to make it go away.  Since most folks are not biochemists, and are trained that ibuprofen and other "NSAIDs" are often the answer by medical doctors and pharmaceutical ads, they don't stop to think why it makes the pain go away or what other processes may be affected, so I'm going to teach you!

Advil and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs reduce inflammation by interfering with an enzyme in the pathway that creates prostagladins called cyclo-oxygenase.  But prostaglandins are used for a lot more than just to create pain to indicate we've damaged something.  They also help our blood clot when we get injured, promote the production of mucus to protect our stomach lining from our digestive juices, and promote inflammation. 

Why in the world would we WANT to promote inflammation? 

Because that same inflammation is what tells our body where we need to heal!  It's a message that new tissue needs to be laid down.  By taking Advil, you are turning off the distress signal, letting your body know it has work to do!  Seems a little counterintuitive, doesn't it?  So if you need to cut the cycle off temporarily just to get through a rough patch, that's up to you, but taking these medications when your body is trying to recover from exercise, injury, or overuse will simply slow down the healing process... which I'm sure was never your intention.  Instead, get checked out by a good chiropractor, learn to use ice, heat, nutrition, rest, and even Epsom salts accordingly.  You'll bounce back faster than ever!