Ibuprofen over 600 is associated with digestive ulcers and hypertension

On April 14, 2025, I published an article on this same page about paracetamol and other drugs, emphasizing its dangers, you can read it at the following link: Paracetamol and other medications that can modify our personality – La Dama de Elche

As for the title that heads this note, it is taken from a few words by the pharmacist at the Hospital del Mar in Catalonia, Alicia Rodríguez, who warns of the alleged misuse of painkillers in our daily lives, also not knowing what the side effects may be in the short and medium term.

In Spain, pain relievers (paracetamol, ibuprofen, metamizole, etc.) are among the most consumed medications. Reports of the AEMPS (Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products), indicate that the use of non-opioid analgesics has increased significantly in recent decades. However, there is no exact and single figure on the total expenditure on painkillers, because it depends on different parameters, including prescriptions financed by public health, purchases without a prescription, those administered in hospitals, and expenditures on generic medicines.

Although it is known that painkillers are one of the best-selling pharmaceutical groups in Spain, tens of millions of containers are sold per year, and national pharmaceutical spending exceeds billions of euros annually.

It is usually taken with unusual frequency, and its usual recommended use is 200-400 mg every 6 or 8 hours in adults, and it is always recommended not to use it for days in a row without medical supervision. However, what is not realized is the fact that one pill every six or eight hours causes us to ingest between 1,200 to 1,600 mg. per day. And although it is recommended not to take more than 3 days in a row for fever, and no more than 4 or 5 days for pain, very few people follow these recommendations. These pills become an addiction, especially for people who have pain and who have never been treated in an acceptable way for said pain.

In Spain, ibuprofen is widely used for muscle pain, menstrual pain, dental pain, headaches, fevers and inflammation of any kind.

The most common side effects are gastrointestinal, stomach pain, heartburn, nausea, diarrhea or gastritis, among others.

And here we enter the warnings of Alicia Rodríguez, pharmacist at the Hospital del Mar, in Catalonia, whose words give the title to this article. The most important risks, if the mentioned products are used for a long time or in high doses, would be digestive ulcers and bleeding, kidney damage, hypertension, fluid retention and could cause heart attacks or strokes in people at cardiovascular risk.

It could also irritate the stomach if taken on an empty stomach, it can interact negatively with anticoagulants or aspirin and affect older people with great frequency, also causing a high cardiovascular risk in them.

The problem is that due to the little information that exists for large consumers on these issues, its use has become everyday, making this practice dangerous, in addition to consuming high doses and prolonged self-medication.

Author’s note: The complete article with the words of Alicia Rodríguez can be read at the following link from the newspaper La Vanguardia: Alicia Rodríguez, pharmacist: “Ibuprofen 400 and 600 are equally effective, but the higher dose is associated with the risk of digestive ulcers and hypertension”