Rebound headaches after stopping NSAIDs, any ideas?

[Anodyne]

I've been taking NSAIDs for a few months now, to treat arthritis. Aspirin, ibuprofen, celecoxib, naproxen, and meloxicam, all of them at the maximum daily doses (although only one at a time!). It's now become clear that they do fuck-all for my arthritis, my doc agrees with me, and so I've decided to stop taking them. (actually it's been obvious for some time, but medicare requires several months of NSAIDs before letting you apply for more targetted meds)

My problem is that I keep getting awful headaches every day I don't take NSAIDs. And they disappear after a couple of aspirin or ibuprofen, which normally wouldn't make a dent in the kind of headaches I get. Does anyone have any ideas how to deal with these headaches? My current plan is to keep taking aspirin/ibuprofen and just taper down the dosage. But does anyone know of anything else which might work for preventing or treating these headaches?

I would just suck it up and stop all NSAIDs, but for two things: firstly, any little headache for me seems to lead to a major tension headache if I leave it untreated. And secondly, I'm already in a buttload of pain and really don't need this on top of everything else. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[qualia]

could try something that would increase cerebral blood circulation, gingko or something maybe.

[Anodyne]

Yeah, I have no idea about the mechanism behind these fuckers, so I don't even know where to begin with alternate therapies.

I think ginkgo interacts with some NSAIDs causing extra bleeding, so I'd be a bit worried - if it didn't work then I wouldn't be able to take aspirin, etc.

[applesnail]

smoke weed!

http://www.medicalmarijuanastrains.com/tag/headache-relief/

Edited September 18, 2012 by applesnail

[Anodyne]

unfortunately not my ally when it comes to pain

[applesnail]

smoke opium..

http://opioids.com/red.html

[PhoenixSon]

try some tumeric. or you could give those amber necklaces a try out (have no idea if they work)

[Anodyne]

turmeric, good idea! I was taking it for a while for some inflammatory stuff, but didn't even think of it for this. Thankyou, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm after, something to just help the symptoms until this passes.

[PhoenixSon]

rose-hip tea fits the bill aswell!

[Anodyne]

Yes indeed. Now that I'm thinking along those lines, I'll knock together a few buckets of anti-inflammatory tea: turmeric, pepper, rosehips, ginger - and see how that goes. Please keep the suggestions coming, I'm not really in any state to research this at the moment.

[PhoenixSon]

some reading when your feeling up to it,

http://www.wegenersgranulomatosis.net/Anti-Inflammatory_Foods.html

[coin]

maybe try shankhapushpi & guduchi to help treat/reverse the rebound headaches,

& have you tried Boswellia as an anti-inflammatory/immuno-modulator?

(turmeric could be helpful but strong extracts are considered pretty heating and a bit rough on the liver [by natural medicine] as the previous medications have been also)

formulas including glutamine, aloe vera, deglycyrrhizinized licorice & shatavari are good for healing gut damage

[Anodyne]

Coin, I'll add shankhpushpi, guduchi and boswellia to my list of things to check out as complementary/alternative meds for the arthritis/autoimmune stuff. I'm having regular liver checks, so should be ok in that department - do you know at what kind of dosage the turmeric becomes a concern? And I've been taking proton-pump inhibitors for most of the time on NSAIDs, so my stomach is alright. Thanks for the tips!

Spacemonk - nice link. It's nifty to have all that stuff in one place, with interactions listed too. I used to have a list on my fridge, will have to make up another one - I always forget the herbs. My list also included pepper - both black and Szechuan/prickly ash.

[coin]

more than 3-5g of dry herb daily is not necessary and in Ayurveda is often considered better to be cooked into food (5 - 15 minutes simmering after having been sauteed in the cooking oil, or simmered in milk or almond milk, etc. improves absorption but digests slowly) it is just considered that high doses can cause a sort of detox crisis, as it's sometimes called in natural medicine, but then a lot of the toxins end up getting re-absorbed (I think this relates to liver phases 1 & 2 detox pathways).

So it should be combined with appropriate herbs (in cooking it always goes with coriander). My ayurveda teacher told us of a "curry" recipe he'd recommend to arthritis patients, to be taken several times weekly, which was basically ghee, onions, ginger, garlic, turmeric (for diet, but also along with appropriate medications, of course). It is also often combined with particular high fiber foods (eg okra - mucilage/polysaccharides binds bile acids carrying toxins & prevents constipation/re-absorption) - fiber fermented by healthy gut flora form short-chain fatty acids which are thought to activate detox and antioxidative enzymes (eg glutathione transferases). Maybe they are subtle considerations, but I know some ayurvedic practitioners that sort of cringe when they hear about people taking high dose turmeric extracts

maybe evening primrose oil would help as well, to favorably balance prostaglandin synthesis? I always found that I could reduce my doses of ibuprofen when I also took EPO (whiplash injury)

Edited September 19, 2012 by coin

[Anodyne]

Hee, glad you said that about the high-dose extracts and food prep. I dislike taking supplement versions of foods. Especially when they're so delicious!