An introduction to Over the Counter (OTC) pain medicine

Hi again. As I said in my intro post, I was going to do a lot of talking about over the counter medications. For starters, when you take medication, you don't want to do anything that makes you sicker than you were before you took the medicine. The first thing you should know is the major differences between over the counter pain relievers. In the end, I'll explain the mystery of how the medicine  knows where to go to relieve the pain.
The major players in OTC pain relievers are aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Nuprin), naproxen (Anaprox, Naprosyn), and acetominophen (Tylenol). The better you understand them, the better choice you can make as to when to take which one. You'll also know how to avoid or minimize the side-effects they can cause. None of  them are harmless, and some are much better at some kinds of pain than others. There is a lot to cover on this topic, so I'm going to break this subject up into several blog posts.

First of all, you can break these drugs into two categories: acetominophen vs. all the others. In my next post, I'll explain a little about acetominophen, after that, I'll do some posts about "all the others. It can get kind of complicated, but I'll try to make it informative but not over too many people's head.

That's one thing that is tough about blogging when you've got a PhD. You want too explain things on a level that is interesting, but if you aim too low, it insults the intelligence of the readers, and doesn't explain enough.
If we get into the language that I had to get into when I was teaching to advanced practice nurses, then it goes over the head of many readers. I'll do my best to keep things interesting but on too detailed. You all can always write and let me know what you want... more detail or less. I'll be happy to make adjustments.

Next post: Acetominophen, aka Tylenol.