I went to a meeting last week by a nephrologist that was talking about renal damage, and how to prevent it. I thought I’d pass along one of the topics of conversation…
If you are one of those people that take Ibuprofen and work out hard…you’re asking for renal damage. I know lots of people do it, and get away with it. But, this nephrologist stated that the number one reason young women see him for dialysis and renal transplants is:taking too much ibuprofen for menstrual cramps. It’s that serious. It’s even more dangerous to take this stuff and exercise vigorously, especially when dehydration begins to play a role. It’s also dangerous for your kidneys to take NASIDs when you are drinking alcohol.
He said, if you are worried about damaging your kidneys during hard exercise and you choose to take these drugs, a little bicarb goes a long way to protect them…potassium bicarbonate is probably better than sodium bicarbonate, but, either will do. It doesn’t take much…a tablespoon of baking soda BEFORE exercise (that’s important, it doesn’t work to protect the tubules unless you take it before the insult) and every once in a while during the exercise.
COX2 inhibitors (ie vioxx, bextra, etc. ) are NSAIDs… they have the ability to deal with pain without the side effects on the GI tract where there is a high density of COX1 enzymes. The problem is the kidney is full of COX2… therefore there is no advantage of taking a cox 2 inhibitor or a more conventional NSAID when it comes to renal (kidney) damage.
Simply put. NSAIDs good for pain… bad for your kidneys
Here is an excerpt from a recent journal article.
Accumulating data using recently developed selective COX2 inhibitors suggest that while these agents spare the gastrointestinal tract they have similar renal effects as non-selective NSAIDs. Therefore, caution should be taken when prescribing selective COX2 inhibitor to patients, especially to patients with predisposed physiologic stress.
Cyclooxygenase-2 selective inhibitors and the kidney.
Breyer MD - Curr Opin Crit Care - 01-Dec-2001; 7(6): 393-400
From NIH/NLM MEDLINE