Read this before you take another anti‑inflammatory
Ibuprofen has a cost. It is just deferred.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories — ibuprofen, naproxen, the household names — are useful drugs. They are also overused, and the cost of that overuse is mostly invisible until later.
What the inflammation is doing
When a tissue is injured, inflammation is the body's signaling cascade for repair. Immune cells migrate in, debris is cleared, satellite cells are recruited to rebuild. The swelling and tenderness you feel is the visible surface of a constructive process.
Suppressing that process — particularly in the first 48 to 72 hours after a soft-tissue injury — measurably impairs healing. Tendon studies in particular show slower collagen organization and weaker repair when NSAIDs are used early.
When they're appropriate
- Acute post-surgical pain, on the surgeon's protocol
- Inflammatory conditions of the joint (rheumatologic, not mechanical)
- Severe pain that prevents you from moving at all — short course, defined window
When they aren't
- Routine post-exercise soreness
- The first week of a sprain or strain you'd otherwise rehab through
- Chronic low-grade pain you've been masking for months
Pain that you medicate away without ever asking what it is for is pain you will see again, louder.
We are not anti-medication. We are pro-asking-the-question. If the answer is yes, take it. If the answer is 'I don't know, it just hurts,' that's the visit we'd rather see you for.