For IM races, which one should i take ??
never advil while doing athletics – it messes with your kidneys and can make you dehydrated or something.
definitely not tylenol pm 
A swim friend told me once that taking something like that can do bad things to your blood before a workout or a race? Don’t know if it’s true or not.
okay, maybe that’s what my friend meant when she said it wasn’t a good idea to take them.
it’s ibuprofin that you want to avoid. tylenol is OK, b/c it does not do whatever it is that’s bad for your kidneys. (you are right though, tylenol PM, probably not a bright idea!)
your saying advil is bad while training? I take that stuff by the fistful…really helps with my back and I am to lazy to go to the doctor…
ok here is an explanation found on some online med thing:
Only take Tylenol if you have muscle aches or pain. NSAIDs (Advil, Ibuprofen, Motrin, Aleve, naproxen, and aspirin) cause the body to excrete too much sodium. This is called “hyponatremia,” and it can lead to nausea, vomiting, dizziness, seizures, coma, and even death.
everyone hear that? “advil . . . can lead to . . . death”…!!
Never combine NSAID’s (advil, aleve, indocin) with Asprin per my friend the pharmacist - I was also not aware that Asprin is considered an NSAID -
.
I thought it was acetaminophen/Tylenol that was bad for kidneys, not the ibuprofin/Advil…
i first heard about the evils of advil+exercise from my med student friend. i also read it in last year’s nyc marathon literature.
timely issue with an IM coming up…a quick Google of
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Tylenol+and+Kidneys and
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Ibuprofin+and+Kidneys
makes it sound like Tylenol is worse, but Ibuprofin isn’t much better…don’t see any sports studies and don’t know the validity of information, but I’ll be skipping ibu, tyl, and asprin this weekend!
None! … assuming you like your kidneys and prefer not to play Russian Roulette with hyponatremia and the kidney damage it can cause.
Look at these older posts that provide medical reasoning for this potentially dangerous form of doping.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=34239;search_string=nsaid;#34239
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2904;search_string=nsaid;#2904
FWIW Joe Moya
I took 4 or 6? ibuprofens on the bike and 2 on the run in an iron in 04 due to a car vs bike accident and pr’ed.
Not saying the pr was because of/inspite of the advils, just saying that there really aren’t concrete rules for nsaids/aspirins during athletics. FWIW, I believe Allen used advils during his irons, Reid tried it and it bloated his stomach.
Like anything in sport, one thing might work for one person and not for another.
Look at these older posts that provide medical reasoning for this potentially dangerous form of doping.
I agree- you shouldn’t be taking any of them.
Curious- are people taking them for pain relief, or performance?
Common useage does not make a person immune to the likelihood of serious kidney damage. There has been no study that defined the probability… but, there are studies that show the correlation.
Your results may not be common… worse yet, your results could change at any time. The only way you will know for sure is that one time you take NSAID’s and you end up on a kidney machine the rest of your life.
Joe Moya
I’ve definitely taken asprin and ibu on successful IM’s myself. But I guess no longer…
If it is for pain relief… NSAID’s should be taken during recovery and/or significantly reduced level of activity.
If it is for performance enhancement… then they take the drug in spite of injury or physical problems… And…of course, IMO there is the obviouse… taking the drug during a race… there can be only one primary expected results - performance enhancement.
FWIW Joe Moya
For sure, if I ever have to do it again (hopefully not) I’ll do more research.
It was more of a response to others who advocate “never take them, they will mess with your kidneys and cause damage”. Hardline stances here on most things crack me up.
Advil will cause kidney damage, 12 hour rides are worthless, swimming over 4k a session is worthless, ect, I’ll bet the most advice is given out here by the least experienced.
Nah, tylenol’s hard on the liver.
so the question begs to be asked…what do you do for minor aches and pains or in my case…a back that is a bit twisted and can/can not flare up at times. I would have to wonder how much ADVIL I would have to take before my kidneys fail? 30 tabs a day? 2 tabs a week? Alot of things have been known to cause cancer in lab mice but at very, very high doses over a very short time.