I often take painkillers (acetaminophen aka paracetamol), but I’ve noticed that it’s much more effective if I take them TOGETHER with my ADHD medication (ritalin aka methylphenidate) + my morning coffee. If I don’t take them AT the same time, the painkiller is far less effective.
I do not exceed the maximum dosage of painkiller (1gram per intake, mornings), but alone this would barely suffice to kill my morning headache.
My hypothesis is that since the LIVER has to convert all three, I am effectively overdosing on either substance (painkiller or ADHD meds), and damaging my liver in the process.
Long time headache adventurer here.
You are basically making a homemade Excedrin (acetaminophen + aspirin + caffeine). Stimulants cause your body to metabolize the pain reliever more quickly.
As for if you’re ruining your liver, I can’t say, other than you should probably go see you doctor and ask for a blood panel/ liver function test. Even if your liver values are normal, you’ll know for sure, and have a baseline to compare future tests against. Plus your doctor may have some thoughts on why you’re having a headache everyday.
For me it turned out that while i had acceptable blood pressure, it was high “for me”, and a beta blocker took care of the most frequent headaches. But we didn’t figure that out until we had ruled out a whole bunch of other things.
It was a frustrating journey to be sure. I wish you luck in yours.
Perhaps you’re hitting the nail on the head. My blood pressure is apparently normal (at least during the day). But perhaps it is indeed too high for me. It feels plausible but idk what that is worth. I’m going to ask my doctor to test this idea. Not sure yet which med for lowering blood pressure is good. I thought that Beta blockers were specifically for headache patients. Perhaps this is why… Also, apparently ACE inhibitors and ARBs are also blood pressure lowering agents. Any experience with those…?
Here’s a question for you: Do you regularly drink anything that doesn’t have caffeine or alcohol in it, at all?
Yes. Don’t drink alcohol. I have had many long periods when I don’t drink any caffeine at all. No difference in experience/headaches
This thread sounds like a stackoverflow stereotype “How do I do X?.. You shouldn’t do X, you should do Y” except that the people in this thread are actually giving good advice (to find the root cause).
Definitely can see this. Seeing a good family practice doctor or GP would be my advice, this kind of thing is their bread and butter. Sounds like there’s a few potential issues.
Most of those Stackoverflow answers telling you you’re going at your problem the wrong way are correct, too.
Talk do your doctor.
a) Paracetamol on it’s own isn’t healty for your liver if taken regularly. I don’t know the specifics or if there is a safe dose.
b) Headache is one of the adverse drug effects of Paracetamol. Maybe you’re getting part of your headaches from it in the first place.
I asked the doctor that prescribed the adhd meds, but he said it’s no problem with paracetamol. However, I did not explicitly mention taking it at the exact same time. If I take them 5 minutes apart, the painkiller is already far less effective. All taken on an empty stomach.
Not taking paracetamol for many months did not lessen the headache whatsoever.
Ah, alright. Yeah interaction of medication is a complicated thing. I’d advise you to ask your specific questions to a doctor. Is it okay to take them at the same time, is it okay on an empty stomach, is it okay for my liver to take that dose of paracetamol x-times in a month… Maybe they suggest an alternative to Paracetamol that works better and has less side-effects, thus being more appropriate for you, individually. And I think doctors have access to databases and general recommendations concerning drugs and reciprocity and (case) studies. They’re probably more qualified to make a judgement and know about possible superior alternatives. (If there are any.)
They can also just test your blood and see if your liver is fine with what it’s been subjected to.
Yeah, I’d say abstaining from the medication for months and still having the same headaches pretty much rules out it being the cause of that.
I hope you’ll be granted an appropriate solution to your problem. Living with regular pain… isn’t nice.
How come you have a headache every morning ? Sounds pretty worrying to me.
good question, I wish I knew… I am perfectly healthy as far as I can tell. Have had it since I was 10. Perhaps stress that I am incapable of getting rid of, even if don’t have ANY obligation. It’s like its an inherent part of me, never letting go of me…
There is a plethora of causes for “headache”, but you could maybe figure it out based on where and how it hurts. Get it checked.
I have AuDHD, and… yeah, I sometimes get so tense that I get muscle aches because of stress that I create myself.
That being said, I also suggest you talk to a doctor, because it would be way better if there was a way to fix it. If you can’t, then harm reduction in painkillers makes sense, but if there’s a simple solution (like nighttime stretching or going to bed earlier), you’ll save yourself a lot of worry and pain.
Additionally, please don’t feel pressured to discuss this here (though I’m happy to talk to you further about it, I’m just not trying to pry), but something to consider: I tend to, as a result of my AuDHD, process really unpleasant personal situations somewhat subconsciously. What I mean is that I’m often not aware of negative emotions until I notice their psychosomatic effects on my body. I used to get headaches 3-5 days a week that would basically send me to bed after work. When my awful boyfriend broke up with me, they went away. I was incredibly unhappy with him and didn’t realize it, but I still carried a lot of tension that expressed itself physically.
For another example: I’m now in grad school and I’m a stereotype of an ADHD student (not everyone with ADHD is like this, but I definitely procrastinate until deadline stress can carry me through), so it’s very difficult. Since I started my master’s, I’ve also started vomiting, a lot. I’m getting checked out (tomorrow, actually) to see if there’s a physical cause, but I’m 90% sure it’s just stress. I’ll be done with my degree in February, but if it were a job instead of a temporary thing, I’d probably have to quit or develop some more effective coping skills.
I just wanted to throw that out there and suggest that you might be physically reacting to a source of stress or tension in your life, and you might want to weigh whether that tension is worth the headaches or whether you can employ coping skills and assertively reduce that stress.
yes… what you describe is actually my main hypothesis regarding headache as well. Subconscious stress build-up, basically. But to make this problem probably unsolvable is that I’m even subconsciously stressed in the holidays. Even if I go live with my mother for a few months, not having to do ANYthing but relax, I think I am still not relaxed. Perhaps it’s not stress but I think it probably is. So I think I have to force relaxation somehow, because apparently I am unable to do so myself. Being tense does run in a family a bit. I’m just fucked.
Perhaps botox injection in the scalp can help. I know, it sounds perhaps crazy if you’re not familiar with it, but this is legit practice, the acid forces the tiny muscles around the scalp to temporarily relax. Just throwin’ it out there :S
Every morning headaches can be a sign of sleep apnea. Not saying you have it. Go to a doctor.
Acetaminophen and caffeine are often included together in “extra strength” pain relievers as the caffeine enhances the effects of the acetaminophen. That part at least is perfectly fine. Half ibuprofen half acetaminophen plus caffeine works even better.
You take Ritalin with coffee? I have to space my Ritalin out from my morning coffee by at least an hour, or else I get horrible headaches which can last hours.
The liver has different enzymes to break different molecules, so those drugs might all use different ones, not slowing down the breakdown of others. I didn’t check. Wikipedia usually tells drug metabolism in detail.
Good point. I’ll check. Though I’m not sure if that is the only point of relevance. What if the overal ‘output’ of the liver is still exceeded? Aka it’s just working overtime producing those different enzymes.
