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.
Two things:
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Generally when you take medicine with high acidity food, like coffee, it will break down your medicine prematurely - you won’t get as strong as an effect. I had to stop taking my Vyvanse with orange juice because it basically nullified the medicine.
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Talk to your doctor. I had chronic headaches that I found out were related to low blood pressure and dehydration. Drinking water instead of diuretics, like coffee, immensely helped me.
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Talk to your doctor, do not get medical advice from the internet, it is too risky.
Wrong question, I would argue. If you have a morning headache, you should really find the root of that and try to resolve it making the medication unnecessary.
Many countries have lowered the max dosage of Paracetamol from 1000mg since there’s indeed a worry that it will cause liver damage. I’m in one of the countries that still go with 1000 (Sweden) and my suggestion would be to use 500mg Paracetamol and 400mg Ibuprofen taken together instead. That’s what the medical professionals themselves do.
That said, something in your life is causing you to have morning headaches and it’s a better idea to fix that. Regular painkiller usage is one of the things that causes it (!). Other possibilities can be waking up during the wrong sleep cycle (deep vs light), sleep apnea causing bad sleep in general, overdosing on caffeine causing withdrawal symptoms in the morning etc.
/Not a medical professional
It’s shockingly easy to OD on acetaminophen. I don’t think you are; i just think it’s interesting how a few Tylenol plus a couple doses of cold medicine can be serious.
Also a fatal dose of acetaminophen/paracetamol is one of the worst ways to die. If you don’t get treatment within like, eight hours of taking it, you will slowly die of liver failure over the next few days and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. So you painfully waste away in the hospital.
Stories of people who attempted suicide by downing a whole bottle of Tylenol are horrific, because MANY people who attempt suicide regret it after the attempt (as is reported by people who survive attempts). This means that people who attempt suicide this way still die, slowly, painfully, regretting it but unable to do anything about it, over a few days. Having to face their loved ones, knowing how hurt those loved ones are by the action. The idea terrifies me.
Note, I am not a doctor, so take this with a grain of salt. But this is what I’ve read.
Paramedic here who worked a lot with toxicology patients: You are entirely right.
It’s always horrific.
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…
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.
