Can my Favorite Anti-inflammatory Drugs Actually be Making me Feel Worse and be Putting me at Risk?

"Overuse of pain relievers, including such as Advil, Aleve or Motrin IB, can over-sensitize brain receptors and cause pain."

Dr. Joel Saper is director of the Michigan Headache and Neurological Institute and past president of the American Association for the Study of Headache. He has long been concerned about rebound headaches resulting from overuse of pain relievers, including anti-inflammatory drugs such as Advil, Aleve or Motrin IB.

If such medications are used more frequently than once or twice a week, they can sensitize brain receptors excessively.

You should consider nondrug approaches for your arthritis pain.

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According to a 2011 publication of study results, Doctors found that ibuprofen (sold as Advil and others) carries the highest risk of stroke, etoricoxib (Arcoxia outside the United States; not sold in the U.S.) has the highest risk of cardiovascular death, and rofecoxib (previously sold as Vioxx in the United States, but it has since been withdrawn) carries the highest risk of heart attack.