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Comment by azhenley | Hacker News Reader

This is terrifying. I used to take a lot of ibuprofen for frequent headaches (much better now). Military doctors were overzealous with the 800mg prescriptions (double the OTC dose).

I suppose I should just use naproxen or acetaminophen? Ibuprofen always seemed the most effective to me.

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I've been suffering from migraines since ~14yo, to the point that I can wake up and know if I'm going to get a migraine or not.

I take naproxen, if I know I'll get a migraine I'll take 1x250mg, if I have a migraine I take 2-3x250mg depending on how severe it is.

Cause of mine is generally lack of sleep when stressed so I make sure to sleep properly and don't let myself get stressed out, so I only get migraines ~once a month now, compared to several times a week when I was at school.

As someone who's had a permanent migraine since months ago, second on naproxen. Ibuprofen does nothing to relieve my headache, and so far the only drug I've found that's effective against it at least mildly is naproxen.

Don't take it every day though. Maybe once a month if I feel like the headache hurts me more than usual.

Just as a side hint: did you ever get your vitamin levels checked? I had migraines with aura a couple of times a week until I got a full vitamine check up on B vitamines and Q10. I had a huge lack of B12 plus Q10. I managed to compensate with supplements (the expensive ones from the pharmacy) and didn't have migraine now in 3 months. Might be worth looking into :)

I haven't. I have a stack of multi vitamins & B12 here so I'll take them and see how I go. Thanks for the info.

Better check with the doc first. Otherwise you'll produce expensive piss with no effect. All vitamins I bought outside the pharmacy didn't work for me so better try to go with the 'real' but more expensive stuff prescribed by a doc.

Edit: I got Sanomit q10 and Ankermann B12 (1000ug).

> to the point that I can wake up and know if I'm going to get a migraine or not.

That sounds strikingly familiar. Is it my eyes? My sinuses? Allergies? My pillow? For 15 years and countless doctors nobody could figure it out. Then I went to the dentist and had my bite corrected and have not had a migraine since. I believe my bad bite was causing me to clench my jaw in my sleep.

why aren't you taking a triptan?

When I started getting migraines as a teen the doctor tried Ibuprofen first, but it didn't help at all. He then tried Synflex, this contains naproxen, and it helped.

In NZ / Singapore I have to visit a doctor to get synflex, so I usually just visit the pharmacy while I'm in Taiwan and pick up ~50 or so Naposin pills (generic naproxen) while I'm there. Costs ~$10 usd.

Never needed to go any stronger.

The paper mentions that at issue are all NSAIDs, including aspirin, etc.

Since the OP specifically mentioned "Acetaminophen" and "Naproxen", it's worth mentioning that Acetaminophen is _not_ an NSAID like Ibuprofen, but Naproxen is.

That said, like the OP, I used to also take lots of Ibuprofen for headaches, and unfortunately, Acetaminophen never seemed to work for more than an hour or two max (tested in "isolation" for 7+ days), while Ibuprofen could stop the headache cycle for a day+.

Do you have bloodwork showing reduced testosterone levels? If not, get that first - your situation sounds complicated enough without removing a solution that may not be causing you any measurable harm.

acetaminophen damages the liver and kidneys at an alarming rate. It should have been skipped prior to today.

Only if taken in excessive doses. It’s fairly harmless if taken as instructed.

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