Should you be taking Ibuprofen for back pain?

A Danish study that ran between 1997 to 2005 examined approximately 20% of the population of Denmark, that’s over 1 million people, and concluded that:

1. One common drug, Diclofenac, was found to increase the relative risk of cardiovascular death by 91 %.

2. The study also found a relative increased risk of fatal and nonfatal stroke of 29% with the use of ibuprofen.

The authors wrote “The cardiovascular safety of NSAIDs is a major public health issue because NSAIDs are widely used in the general population.” This is just one class of drugs and there are many others. all of which have their own significant particular risks.

The short answer is, in my opinion, for short terms use it can be safe, however if you are using ibuprofen to get you through your day, not only are you masking your symptoms and probably making them worse, but the longer term outcomes of heart diseases outweigh the benefit of getting your spine professionally checked and helped like we do here at the Durham Clinic