Ibuprofen: An everyday drug might offer protection against cancer | Hacker News Reader

Ibuprofen: An everyday drug might offer protection against cancer

medicalxpress.com

23 pointsOutOfHere16 comments

Is it possible that people who take so many painkillers succumb to something else before they get a chance to develop the cancer?

No, because if they had died, they would not have been counted in the study.

Heart disease is in general one of the risks.

That’s exactly my point. They’d be removed from the study before they got the cancer.

That doesn't seem to truthfully represent the situation. Some people without cancer do rely on painkillers more than they should, but it is during cancer that many people start taking a lot of painkillers.

Be careful, even for prevention, because even a single use of ibuprofen can very easily leave one with a gastrointestinal ulcer, even if taken with food or on a full stomach. Taking omeprazole at +0 hours and again at +12 hours lowers this risk, although I wonder if vonoprazan would be better suited. If care is not taken, healing the ulcer can take several weeks via glutamine, vitamin C, fresh cabbage juice, collagen hydrolysate, etc. Also, it doesn't really seem to make sense to take ibuprofen if one isn't struggling with inflammatory pain.

There's always a risk with any intervention. The vast majority of people don't get ulcers from ibuprofen, aspirin, etc. To suggest taking it with omeprazole is crazy! DGL and vitamin C alongside aspirin almost fully eliminates the risk of stomach bleeding, so, I assume the same applies to ibuprofen.

If one doesn't get an ulcer from ibuprofen, then obviously there is no reason to take it with omeprazole, etc. One can take it for decades and not get them, then suddenly something changes and one start getting them. That's when the co-protection starts to be needed. There is nothing crazy about it.

As for low-dose aspirin, its safety is dose, formulation, and frequency dependent. There is a reason why many doctors don't suggest its casual use anymore. Low-dose aspirin often also leads to bruising, sometimes very large black bruising, in random regions of the body.

Vitamin C alone won't eliminate the risk. As for the combo of DGL with vitamin C, I will have to try it.

The study is not about combining vitamin C with DGL, but that could be an even better option. Anyway, unlike antacids or PPIs which neutralize or block acid, DGL is considered a "cytoprotective" agent—meaning it directly protects the stomach cells.

In those vulnerable, protection is needed continuously for 24-48 hours when taking ibuprofen, even while sleeping.

I don't know how long DGL works for, or how often it has to be dosed. I suppose it could be useful more generally as a baseline supplement, just like vitamin C.

Ibuprofen is pretty good at reducing inflammation, but it primarily works by reducing COX-1 & COX-2. Those do lots of things but also play a role in muscle development. My personal observation is Ibuprofen seems to inhibit muscle growth for me.

There's also naproxen with similar GI challenges to mitigate, like perhaps with omeprazole but with a list of conditions and caveats.

Even vitamin C supplements inhibit muscle growth. You might make up for it a bit with whey hydrolysate.

All antioxidants counter the benefits of exercise.

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