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.
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.
I know, but I’ve headaches since I was about 10 (now almost ~30), and the only causes for this that I can seriously come up with is: being sensitive af in general, which then leads to being (subconsciously) easily stressed, which then, results in headache. This happens during the day, but I also (more) frequently wake up with a headache for no reason. This even happens in the summer, when I’m not doing ANYthing (no school, university, work). I am generally perfectly healthy. I am hydrated, eat healthy, etc. I don’t exercise an awful lot, but when I do (for months), I barely notice any difference.
Being “sensitive” (whatever that means exactly) is the only weird but plausible explanation. Reading the other comments, though, like sleep apnea, I’m curious if that’s anything…
If you have the option, I would suggest going to a Dr before assuming anything is the only plausible explanation.
Personally, I found out about my neck / posture issues (even though outwardly I have decent looking posture so I never assumed it would be that), got some excercises from a physio and a completely different pillow, and that combo drastically reduced my headaches
But did you talk about it with a medical trained person ? In the end its just a damaged nerve in your neck or sonething that can be easily fixed with proper care.
I did many times but most of the time I was just advised to “try eating and sleeping better” which I kind of already did, but improving those did not make a difference whatsoever. I also went to many physiotherapists and one manual orthopedic doctor. Nothing was ever improved.
Except one time when I went to a acupuncturist who also added some spiritual woo, and that actually remedied a part of it.
I have some chronic pain issues as well, some of which were solved and some are managed. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Have you tried getting a second opinion or maybe a different type of medical provider? I had headaches as well that turned out to be largely brought on by stress and also some bad posture. I did get an MRI+MRA just to be sure nothing was actually wrong in the brain itself, but techniques to reduce the causes were helpful to me. Good luck!
Ok, follow up question. If you don’t take a painkiller in the morning, how does the headache progress?
Usually it will not go away the whole day. Only in the evening that it starts to subside. And when I decide to take it, I need to do it in a specific way. E.g. direct lying extremely comfortably, but not sleeping, or it won’t be as effective. Or drinking coffee in front of my pc. And a few other ones. I don’t get why but I usually just feel what specific ‘ritual’ works best for any given moment. Sometimes I guess wrong and the headache won’t disappear. This combination with coffee and adhd med seems to work best though.
Another hypothesis is bruxism (teeth grinding). Some people have it during the day, others (like me) have it during sleep. Stress and anxiety makes it worse. I only discovered I had it because people heard me biting my teeth against each other while asleep. I went to a dentist, she made me a mouth guard that I use every night before going to sleep, and the morning headaches stopped since then.
Migraines come during sleep like that, but if Paracetamol works no way is it a migraine. That stuff literally does nothing for any pain I’ve had, ever.
I agree with everyone here, this seems like a lifestyle thing - if your body is indeed sensitive to stress and relaxation, you are not doing it any favors with the paracetamol. Likely too stressed in day, too relaxed at night, the sudden change a trigger. Obviously you don’t want to fix that by being tense while asleep, so tackling the day stress responses make more sense. Do you exercise?
What happens if you just have either coffee or the Adderall in the morning, without the painkiller drug?
What happens if you just have either coffee or the Adderall in the morning, without the painkiller drug?
Not tested excessively, but quite sure it’s not relieving the headache whatsoever.
I do not exercise. Usually I cycle to uni about 40mins a day, 4 times a week. I’ve exercised more rigorously in the past, running each day, but the effect is not significant… So unfortunate. But exercise is quite wearisome
CBG can be really helpful for headaches. I use it for migraines and a lot of times i can wait until i get home to take prescription meds that make me feel weird. Lots of people use it as a preventative with about half the frequency/severity. Helps with migraine nausea too.
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.
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.
Perhaps you’re hitting the nail on the head. My blood pressure is apparently normal (at least during the day). But perhaps it is indeed too high for me. It feels plausible but idk what that is worth. I’m going to ask my doctor to test this idea. Not sure yet which med for lowering blood pressure is good. I thought that Beta blockers were specifically for headache patients. Perhaps this is why… Also, apparently ACE inhibitors and ARBs are also blood pressure lowering agents. Any experience with those…?
Two things:
-
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.
-
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.
