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Allergic to ibuprofen

Posted , 7 users are following.

youngatheart1
youngatheart1

I have been posting on various forums since January about chest pains. and sore area down oesophagus. It started when I got tonisilitis followed by a chest infection. As many of you regulars may have seen from these posts, I have had various tests and all have come back clear. I am now waiting for even more detailed ones ie 24 hour monitor and CT scan. The main symptoms were the sore rough feeling down into my oesophagus and the radiating pains across chest. Well I may have accidentally stumbled on the cause. Since January I have lived on ibuprofen and antibioticics. Followed by even more ibuprofen for sciatica. Anyway having just returned on Tuesday night from a 2 week holiday, having had no chest pains, palpitations or anything also managing well on 20mg esomeprazole with the occasional rantidine, having eaten lots of rich italian food, prosecco and icecream without any effect whatsoever, I came home and took 2 ibuprofen for my numerous mosquito bites and within 1 hour the chest pain, the breathlessness, thumping heart all back, yesterday the pain travelled all down into my stomach and for the first time in 2 weeks I felt sick and had porridge for dinner. Could it really be something as simple as ibuprofen causing months of agony. If not, I must be allaergic to something at home. The pain in chest is now subsiding and I am feeling better, but this is 36 hours after taking those stupid tablets.

1 like, 10 replies

10 Replies

  • debbie89808
    debbie89808 youngatheart1

    Posted

    Ibuprofen is known to irritate the stomach and can lead to inflammation and even ulceration and some of the symptoms you have had may relate to that effect, particularly in light of the fact that Omeprazole helped to relieve the symptoms.  Irritation of the vagus nerve may account for the other symptoms such as thumping heart and breathlessness althought it would be a good idea to speak to your gp about these symptoms.  If I were you I would definitely stop the Ibuprofen - if you need pain relief then paracetamol is not as harsh on the stomach - if you need stronger pain meds then you would have to speak to your doctor.

    Hope your symptoms disappear soon.

    • youngatheart1
      youngatheart1 debbie89808

      Posted

      Thanks for you reply, as you can see from my answer to birdy I got into a real cycle of ill health and took all the tablets believing they helped, not realising that they could be the culprit. No more ibuprofen for me. I will mention this to GP when I next go as he was getting rather intrigued by my symptoms as everything kept coming back clear. Have a good day.
    • debbie89808
      debbie89808 youngatheart1

      Posted

      Hope that your symptoms and general health improve very soon. I notice by one of your replies that you have had issues with Diclofenac too - this is the same family of drugs as Ibuprofen - there are many others too - it may be a good idea to steer clear of this family of drugs in the future - if any doctor should want to prescribe any of them it may be a good idea to tell them that you can't take non steroidal antiinflammatory drugs due to the problems with your stomach.  I myself find it difficult to believe that they can allow Ibuprofen to be sold over the counter because if you look at the side effects they are many and very nasty including heart attacks in those pre-disposed.   I know only too well what stomach inflammation is and it can be very difficult to get rid of once the damage is done.

      Best wishes

  • birdy1
    birdy1 youngatheart1

    Posted

    I can't take ibuprofen without also taking a lansoprasole to counteract the increase in acid reflux caused by the ibuprofen! Before i found out it was the ibuprofen causing my stomach/chest pain/nausea/breathlessness, I was sent for cardiac tests etc as apparently without proper equipment its impossible for a GP to distinguish between gastric and heart problems. All heart tests were fine so the culprit is the ibuprofen, i only take that occasionally now and always with a lansoprasole. I have now lost the pain and the breathlessness and the nausea. And I'd mention i dont take the lansopradole long term either, just as + when needed with spicy food, or occasional glass of wine, etc.

    Seems to me you are taking a cocktail of far too many strong tablets. Why on earth have you been prescribed antibiotics since January?? What kind of GP have you got! Antibiotics, apart from becoming less + less effective the more theyre taken, destroy all the good bacteria in your gut, hence giving you even more stomach problems, and should never be given long term. As proof my daughter's recent stool test shows she has ZERO good bacteria in her gut after antibiotics were prescribed in this way.

    I think you've got yourself in a cycle of pain + worry, (so increasing your acid reflux!) + taking more meds to counteract, but thesr

    • youngatheart1
      youngatheart1 birdy1

      Posted

      Hi thanks for your reply. I agree about the antibiotics which I stopped about 6 weeks ago. Some were for chest infection, then I had a skin cancer removed which became infected and I had to have 3 different lots to clear that up. I felt so unwell with stomach pains etc that I took lots of probiotics which helped. It was just an unfortunate period of ill health all rolled into one, especially as I then got sciatica hence the increase in ibuprofen as I cannot take diclofenec. Touch wood for past 4 weeks have taken nothing apart from the daily PPI, I only took the ibuprofen on Tuesday for relief from mosquito bites, I felt so good before then having got off all the tablets, really believe it is ibuprofen and I will not be taking them again. I cannot believe a harmless OTC drug can cause such awful symptoms. I feel much better knowing that the chest pains could be something as simple as this. Thanks again.
    • birdy1
      birdy1 youngatheart1

      Posted

      Glad to have been of help, I know how scary it gets.  My daughter had the antibiotics like you, in addition to chemo, and has been left with the aftermath of such treatments. Even her consultant agreed that docs are good with disease but arent trained to deal with the after effects of treatment and said she was right to seek alternative therapy (she is seeing a naturopath for the wipeout by the antibiotics of absolutely all her good gut bacteria). By the way, her naturopath advised that probiotics only stay in the system while you are taking them, so if you have a healthy gut they can help keep it healthy but if, like my daughter, there in no good bacteria left then good flora and fauna cant be colonised just by taking probiotics. Re your comment about OTC drugs, no drugs - over the counter or not - are ever completely harmless and the prescriber should look at the patient's full medical history for any contra-indications. In reality I find it's us, the patients, who have to take some responsibility for what we swallow because the pharmaceutical companies are really pretty much interested in giving you medicines for life, and not medicines that cure. We've learnt this the hard way. Good luck and very happy to have put your mind at rest.  By the way re your reply to debbie89808, your doctor should already know about the relationship between  ibuprofen.+ apparent chest pain. I hate it when they say how 'intrigued' they are by symptoms!
  • birdy1
    birdy1 youngatheart1

    Posted

    I can't take ibuprofen without also taking a lansoprasole to counteract the increase in acid reflux caused by the ibuprofen! Before i found out it was the ibuprofen causing my stomach/chest pain/nausea/breathlessness, I was sent for cardiac tests etc as apparently without proper equipment its impossible for a GP to distinguish between gastric and heart problems. All heart tests were fine so the culprit is the ibuprofen, i only take that occasionally now and always with a lansoprasole. I have now lost the pain and the breathlessness and the nausea. And I'd mention i dont take the lansopradole long term either, just as + when needed with spicy food, or occasional glass of wine, etc.

    Seems to me you are taking a cocktail of far too many strong tablets. Why on earth have you been prescribed antibiotics since January?? What kind of GP have you got! Antibiotics, apart from becoming less + less effective the more theyre taken, destroy all the good bacteria in your gut, hence giving you even more stomach problems, and should never be given long term. As proof my daughter's recent stool test shows she has ZERO good bacteria in her gut after antibiotics were prescribed in this way.

    I think you've got yourself in a cycle of pain + worry, (so increasing your acid reflux!) + taking more meds to counteract, but these

    • birdy1
      birdy1

      Posted

      Sorry, hadnt finished message! I believe the meds are causing half of your symptoms. Hope my info helps you.
  • kathleen42380
    kathleen42380 youngatheart1

    Posted

    I can’t take ibuprofen, but at the time I just thought it was me.

    It has been a good number of years when I stopped taking them, so many that I couldn’t remember the symptoms I had when my doctor asked what problems did they cause.

    I found now that the cheapest Paracetamol is the best for taking any type of pain away.

  • moonbuggy
    moonbuggy youngatheart1

    Posted

    Hi

    You may need to check but both my Dr and Pharmacy said on no account take Ibuprofen when you are on Omeprazole. I should have asked why but as I only ever use codeine for headaches etc it wasn't relevant to me.

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