Quote Originally Posted by Tussockface View Post
Be careful about using non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) such as Ibuprofen, Dicloflex, Diclofenac, Voltaren (/ol). They can cause acute renal failure in some people particularly in combination with dehydration. They can also cause epigastric/pancreatic pain. There have been deaths attributed to ibuprofen used by dehydrated runners in the Marathon des Sables and other ultras. One of my daughters ended up in hospital on a drip in February after such a reaction and it's not as rare a side effect as you might think.
now.
Finally some sense! Non steroidal anti inflammatory tablets (NSAIDs) such as Ibuprofen and diclofenac, are effective pain killers, as Tussockface says they can cause renal failure (I've seen a user end up on dialysis -forever -but it's rare) for the endurance athlete the combination of dehydration or low sodium (usually the result of overdrinking) and NSAIDs can be very serious.

Their effects on inflammation are debatable, they're probably bad for acute injury (they affect bleeding and chemicals called prostaglandins involved in the tissue damage). They are a good pain killer if that's your poison, otherwise, paracetamol is safer and in many studies only fractionally less effective than an NSAID. NSAIDs cause ulcers and gastritis, it's a prostaglandin effect, apparently you could inject them or use suppositories and still risk gastric effects, but you don't get much of the NSAID gels/creams into the bloodstream. Poor old paracetamol if they invented it again now, tarted it up and renamed it with a trendy moniker it would be a wonder drug!

There is increasingly good evidence showing cramp may have nothing to do with salt or hydration it's probably muscle fatigue related in race situations. Nor do humans have salt stores in their bodies as other threads have suggested.

Training effectively and hydrating carefully (note "carefully" overdrinking is out) may be a better solution than doping.

Sorry to rant but the quality of medical advice forumites are giving each other is shocking.