OTC anti inflammatories from the US, suggestions please!

[Diddlysquat]

Hi all. As you can see from the little flag I live in Japan and am looking for suggestions for over the counter anti inflammatory medication from the United States. All meds here seem so weak and expensive that I was wondering what you ladies use? (I have chronic shoulder pain which is failing to respond to anything but slowly improving, though I wonder if I'm just tolerating it more? Tried rest, accupuncture, massage, rolfing etc). I am actually British but one of my colleagues is going back to NY for Christmas and offered to pick up stuff for me at Walgreens or wherever. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

 

[Sassy69]

Ibuprofin is your standard anti-inflam. Advil. But the stuff can be hard on your stomach lining if you take alot of it.

Sorry to hear about your shoulder. From an accident or something?

 

[Diddlysquat]

Thanks Sassy. My shoulder is an old injury that doesn't seem to want to heal. In September 03 I tore the rotator cuff and the concurrent tendonitis remains, after any upper body work it is pretty painful for 48hours or so then fades only to come back again. But I can`t fathom it as it also can be painful when I haven't trained....
The docs here in Japan either want me under the knife to "have a look" or just shrug and say "don't train" and "shoulders are very difficult".... When I first arrived in Japan more than ten years ago I herniated a disc and because I knew no better had surgery.
I will run a million miles before I take that path again. So... again thanks for the Advil suggestion and for asking!

 

[joe_garibaldi]

the two major ones available OTC in the US are ibuprofen and naprosyn; the major differences between these and their prescription counterparts is strength; prescription naprosyn for instance being 500-mg twice a day; i thiknk otc its 200. take them with food; that will help. there is also a prescription naprosyn with a built in stomach protection mechanism; Naprelan. Alternatively, while Vioxx and Bextra may be in the crapper, there are two COX 2 inhibitors that have not been implicated yet as "bad" drugs"; Celebrex and Mobic. but i guess the idea is to get something with an RX. BTW theres a big difference between what you can get here and in Canada; they have lots of goodies there without an Rx; i recently saw non-prescription Parafon which is a muscle relaxant i sometimes prescribe here in the US. My favorite prescription non-steroidal btw, which I use for myself (well its a little strong) is Ansaid; flurbiprofen. beats the you know what out of those others.

 

[Diddlysquat]

Thanks Joe, I appreciate your input. Is naprosyn the generic name or a brand name? Cool. Now I can ask my friend to go shopping for me. Thanks a lot.