♪ Bob and Brad ♪ ♪ The two most famous ♪ ♪ Physical therapists ♪ ♪ On the internet ♪ - Hi folks. I'm Bob
Schrupp, Physical Therapist. - Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist. - And together, we are the most famous physical therapists on the internet. - Well in our opinion of course, Bob. - Again, we are honored today Brad, to have Chris, the pharmacist with us. And again we're gonna discuss-
- Hi guys. - the topic, and... of ibuprofen today.
- Great. - And the good, the bad,
the ugly, the dangers, the- - Right. ibuprofen, I think is probably one of the most commonly used over the counter drug, at
least in the United States. - I have to admit, it's probably the one that I use the most. - Right. And they sell in these big jugs, you get a thousand pills in there and see how long you can
make it last (Bob laughs) kind of thing, you know. And it actually, I think
Chris is gonna tell us the actual problems that
we face as a society with pills like this. Potential. So they're great healing properties for pain and all that kind of thing. - Promote healing.
- Promote healing. Yes. - Right. - But what are the, the
things we need to be aware of? That's the big thing. So Chris, once again, pharmacist,
where'd you graduate from? - Butler University, 1995, Indianapolis. - Where's Butler? - Indianapolis.
- Indianapolis. - Yup.
- Excellent. - Couple of trips to the
final four a few years back with Brad Stevens
- Yup. I remember that. - who's now with the Celtics. But they're doing well this year. Just beat number one Villanova. - Oh, cool.
- So it's A okay. - All right. Excellent. - Go Butler.
- So 20, over 20 years as a pharmacist, a lot of experience, and he's just, his mind is like an encyclopedia. You'll find out in just a moment here. It's fun to talk to him
and get some information. So ibuprofen, the big picture. What is it? - ibuprofen's a anti-inflammatory under the category of NSAID's. So it stands for nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drug. It's kind of a mouthful, but for many of us, when
you talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly, I think it's a go-to choice
for many, many people. It's actually my favorite choice
for pain reliever as well. - Sure. - We, it does a great job. Not only does it relieve pain,
but it relieves inflammation. And if you're, with you guys
being physical therapists, your patients are gonna
have pain and inflammation for a variety of different things. - Sure.
- And so it kind of is the jack of all trades kind of medication to really help. - I do want to ask you this. I probably use this wrong, but I, sometimes when I get
an upper respiratory issue, I'll use ibuprofen. Is that ridiculous, or
is there any help for, I think psychologically it
helps me. (Bob and Brad laugh) - Well, I mean-
- Go ahead and take 'em Bob. - I know. This is like
the lay person coming in and talking to you here on this. - If you have a cold, I think it would probably be something that I don't think there's any control studies I've ever read,
but if you have a cold you're gonna have inflammation. - Right.
- So frankly, if you have a- - And that's how I looked at it. - And if you have inflammation, I suspect you could
probably loosely translate that yeah, it's probably
gonna do you some good. I couldn't speak to any studies. I guess I'll have to research that. I feel better. Especially if you have like an upper respiratory issue and running a fever too. - If you feel better Bob, you take whatever you want.
- Thank you. - Well, I'll take the sugar pills. For fevers, it's actually one of your best anti-pyretics, which is things that reduce fever. - Sure.
- So this and Tylenol. - But we're gonna just
focus on ibuprofen more. But it is good for that. - Is there anything in particular you would say ibuprofen is good for as far as your experience
with any group categories. - I've used it for everything
from surgical recovery to aches and pains, fever, headache. It won't fix your broken
heart, but I mean... (everyone laughs) but the reality of it, is it really can be used for a variety of
different aches and pains. And so it's very, very useful. - What, okay, you wanna talk about what amounts we should take, what level. - Right. What volume? - Yeah. Yeah. So basically when
you look at the instructions on any bottle, it's gonna
suggest that you may take one or two tablets up to
every four to six hours apart. So oftentimes, as long as it
doesn't upset your stomach, and that's one of the biggest things with anti-inflammatories, it has interactions with other drugs, which we'll kind of talk to a little bit, but you always wanna make
sure that it's safe for you. So always check with your pharmacist or your doctor if it's appropriate, and going forward from those steps, if it's safe, one to two tablets every four to six hours
apart is the way to go, but you always want to
eat before you take this, because it can be a little
bit rough on the stomach. Again, we'll talk about-
- A full meal, or- - Doesn't have to be a full meal. And ibuprofen, and even sometimes people get away with something as simple as a glass of milk. I prefer a piece of toast
with some peanut butter, a little bit of yogurt, or
just something in the stomach, just so that it helps
to buffer and protect. - So I've heard of people saying, they're taking three or
four of these at a time. That's pushing the limit. Is that it?
- That that becomes prescriptive type dosing. So from that standpoint, if your doctor is comfortable with it, it's probably more than
appropriate to use. - But I would just double
check with your physician to make sure it's okay. - Cause I've had patients who
have said, they've come in, and the doctor said, they're giving me- - Yeah. And doctors
will oftentimes tell you to take three or four of these every six to eight hours apart. But again, you'd want do that under your doctor's guidance just to be on the safe, to make sure they're not causing stomach issues like ulceration. And we have to be careful
with long term use too because there are some
complications with blood pressure. So we have to be careful because it's how it's
metabolized in our body, and where it works in the kidney, that it can kind of-
- raise blood pressure or lower it?
- Raise blood pressure. So we can actually have some pretty serious cardiovascular events. - Now I'd like to talk a little more about some of these serious problems that we have in our society with this and how we can get away with it. But before we go on, I just wanted to mention, some of our viewers are
new to this channel. - That's right.
- And if that's the case, and you're not aware of subscribing, we have videos like this. We put one out every day, and we've got over 900
of 'em out there now. So subscribe to keep up with the- - And the subscribe button is
right there on the screen so. - Yeah, go ahead, point Chris. You got it, Chris.
- Right there. Right there. (everyone laughs) - All
right, let's move on. - Okay. - So we're talking about the, some it can affect your heart, you said? - Correct. - So-
- How does it, ibuprofen get to you heart? - Well, yeah, ibuprofen, when we take it, it doesn't just go to your heart. It goes all over your body, and it kind of works
through your blood stream, but the things that you
wanna be careful with, is what it can do in the kidney, is that it can actually make it a little bit rough on the kidneys and how they metabolize things. And so as a result, sometimes it, you kind of clog up your kidney, then it makes work harder on your heart to push blood through, 'cause your kidney's a filter. And so basically-
- You plug up the filter. - You plug up the filter.
- And then the heart just- - Yeah. You got any old
filter in your house. So yeah. It's something you
want to be real careful with. And again, if you have kidney conditions, you want to talk to your
doctor about reduced dose, or if it's even appropriate for you, If you have blood pressure issues, if short term versus long term use is gonna be safe and appropriate. - Sure.
- So again, it's definitely something you wanna work closely
with your physician with. Or you have a quick question, hit up your pharmacist
at your local pharmacy, and they'll certainly be
able to help you with those. - Okay. Now I've got a friend, he keeps these with him all the time, and he seems, he doesn't take, 'em like three, two times a day every day. - What's he use 'em for? - Oh, he has a headache, he takes one, or he has something else, or... But if he takes it for years, it's like get an ibuprofen
out for this or that, is that kind of usage where
it's not 10 pills a day or four or five pills a day, but it's, on a week you may take three or four or five on an average. - Yeah.
- No problem with that? - Yeah, I mean, you can. Yeah. I use ibuprofen
almost on a daily basis, but again, I've checked with my doctor, and he's comfortable with that. But the reality of it is, is that when you have, you never know when you're gonna get an ache, or a pain, or a
headache, or a cold, or a fever. So it's got a variety of different uses. So yeah, I think it's a great go-to drug. I think it's appropriate to use in the prescribed amounts, or what's your recommended
OTC at that point. - Okay. And as far as your view, and from what you see as a
pharmacist behind the counter, and what you read and stuff, what kind of problems do we
have in the United States as far as maybe overuse of this? Is that something that's present? - Yeah. Yeah. I think overuse in a lot of, like I think I alluded in the other video that we did, a lot of runners call it vitamin I. So people take it prevalently. And so it's one of those things that, long term use, the most common thing that we're gonna have are GI
bleeds or ulcerations. So it's certainly something that we wanna be very careful with. - So this can help. You're not gonna take this
if you have a GI bleed. It could cause them. - It can actually cause them. - So yeah. It actually
erodes away at your stomach. Not to get into it. - I want to just go off and veer off into a little bit
different direction here. So the argument sometimes, is that after you've injured
a muscle or injured something, you take this. But they'll say, "Well that's
the natural healing process." Don't we want it to be inflamed? Don't we want it to be... - That is-
- So... - That's true. And so usually it's kinda one of those things where if you have a sprain or a break, the inflammatory calvacade that occurs, actually, even though it hurts, and it causes lots of swelling, is a good thing to promote healing. And there are some orthopedic circles that suggest staying away
from anti-inflammatories for at least seven days
from that point in time. - They do? Interesting.
- So that is true. And certainly something. So, and then, then you have that comfort versus healing battle.
- Sure. - Which is a real battle. - Right.
- So it kind of comes down to, well, what do we do? Is it ice and elevation and
just kind of suck it up, or do we take something to
at least mitigate the pain so that we're comfortable, so we can do our day to day
and improve quality of life? So holistically, if you want to heal, if you could stay away from it, I think it's probably ideal
for the first seven days from an acute injury,
particularly a break, because it can slow the healing process. I am not in depth to- - Your fracture of a bone? - Yeah. I couldn't say, to a degree - Yeah. That's gonna be a pretty tough... - That would be a question for your doctor to see if they're comfortable with that. And they might say, "Yeah, "after seven to 10 days, go ahead." And that's usually what I hear at least when we have people
coming in post surgically, or if they've had a pretty bad injury. - Sure.
- I wonder, with a common weightlifter, who's trying to tear down muscle, build it up again. I wonder if that affects
that process or not. - You mean on a long term use? - Well, yeah. I mean, let's say every time you lift, and you get sore, you take ibuprofen. Is that affecting the
ability to build muscle? I don't know. I don't know. - I think if you went from a
pure theoretical standpoint, - Yes. It probably does. Because again, that inflammation, that tearing of the muscle tissue is creating growth and development for that muscle to get
bigger and stronger. So if you take the anti-inflammatory, it probably slows down the process. The, if you probably- - I knew there was a reason
why I wasn't getting big. - Yeah. (everyone laughs) - Using too much ibuprofen. I hate it when that happens. - You don't wanna be strong like bull, Bob - But I think that
there are many athletes, average Joe's and professionals alike that probably use this regularly because it helps them get
through from day to day to the next event or the next exercise. - I think a lot, probably like
you said, the osteoarthritis. Wouldn't you guess? I'm assuming that a lot
of people take this- - Oh, very much so. - Arthritis-
- I think so. And it's certainly something
that does pay its dividends. So I think it's appropriate to use. And again, with osteoarthritis,
that's a chronic condition. That isn't getting any better. Once that genie's come out of the bottle, you're not putting it back. - Right. (laughs)
- So the reality of this, is what do we do? Well, you can suffer with it, or you can try and do something about it. - You can go to therapy too. They've got some options. (everyone laughs) - But, that's we're not gonna fix it. - Yeah.
- So, but again, I think as long as your doctor's
comfortable with it, you don't have any conditions that preclude you from using this, I think it's appropriate to use as long as your doctor's comfortable with the length of time
that you have to use it for, and it's not creating new problems. - All right. Again, our thanks
to Chris for coming today. What a great honor, and- - More than you wanted to
know about ibuprofen probably. - I think it's very interesting, so. It is. It's very good. - Thanks a lot. - Thank you.
