Quote Originally Posted by ZootHornRollo View Post
I think Updownupdown might be being a tad alarmist here about the terrible consequences of Ibupe and diclofenac. Saying they 'cause renal failure' and 'cause ulcers and gastritis' without massive qualifications is just misleading. Where's the empirical evidence to back all this up?
The vast majority of people who take these anti-inflamms have no side-effects whatsoever. Taken properly they pose virtually no problems to anyone. Most people aren't daft enough to take large amounts on empty stomachs and get dehydrated.
Zoot, I'll take some of the flak here as Updown was supporting my original post.
Perhaps it is alarmist, but then seeing your 18-year-old daughter on a drip with failed kidneys is pretty alarming.
It's true that use of NSAIDs is widespread and they can be fantastically effective without any apparent side effects. I once had back pain that left me on the floor thinking I was dying until one tab of Voltaren got me up and about in minutes. I'm sorry if anyone thought I was denigrating an entire class of incredibly useful drug.
But you suggest that bad reactions are a result of daftness, and that "taken properly they pose virtually no problems to anyone". Now, I realise that an anecdotal case is scant evidence, but my younger daughter certainly did nothing daft. She took a prescribed amount of Diclofenac and undertook an ordinary school day (she's doing her A2s). She was healthy and fit with no other medical condition and yet within 24 hours she was in hospital with acute renal failure. This completely baffled the specialists until they discovered that she'd had Diclofenac, and then they more or less said 'Of course, that explains it', as if it wasn't an irregular occurrence.
This set me off googling the key terms and possible links between NSAIDs and kidney problems began to emerge. Subsequently, a surprising number of friends and friends-of-friends have related similar tales.
So I'm not scaremongering, or saying that NSAIDs are terrible and inevitably damaging or dangerous. I'm just saying that it's wise to be aware that there can be problems and that you don't have to act in a daft way to be susceptible to them.