The placebo effect is an outcome where a patient takes a sugar pill thinking it is actual medicine and gets better due to mentally believing they are receiving a medicine. Now here’s the funny thing. The patient is getting better. Without paying for medicines. If it were you, wouldn’t you just like to take a sugar cube and not have to pay for the medicine itself? Well, that might be the case with a little orange pill that many Americans rely on for pain relief.
You see, in a recent study released by the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 35 peer-reviewed studies were analyzed and the results were fantastic or quite depressing, depending on which side you were on. Ibuprofen was not found to relieve back pain any more than a placebo!
More than 6,000 patients were analyzed in all 35 studies and all had back pain. These patients reported no improved symptoms for back pain compared to the placebo. They did, however, say other aches were relieved from the ibuprofen, but most of the patients still complained of back pain.
So these patients were practically throwing away money, trying to treat back pain, one of the most chronic conditions in America.
This isn’t the only surprising thing about ibuprofen. According to the FDA’s website, even the government body has changed its position in recent years, changing the labeling of the packages to indicate there is a higher risk of heart attack when using ibuprofen.
FDA is strengthening an existing warning in prescription drug labels and over-the-counter (OTC) Drug Facts labels to indicate that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke, either of which can lead to death. Those serious side effects can occur as early as the first few weeks of using an NSAID, and the risk might rise the longer people take NSAIDs. (Although aspirin is also an NSAID, this revised warning doesn’t apply to aspirin.)
That’s crazy. Not only does ibuprofen not relieve one of the most chronic forms of pain in America, but it can increase the chance of heart attack within weeks of use. If you suffer from back pain and you currently use Ibuprofen, you could switch to anti-inflammatory herbs like ginger or cayenne pepper and do just as well and risk less damage to your heart.
Another thing that many back pain sufferers should actually do is yoga. Most people don’t associate sitting all day with back pain, but the shortened hip flexors that come with being a desk jockey actually will give you anterior pelvic tilt, which could result in back pain.
Regardless of what you do for the back pain, put down the little orange pill. It is ineffective at best and dangerous at its worst.
