Athletes Using Ibuprofen, Beware!

Are you an athlete who frequently uses ibuprofen? Be careful. Taking ibuprofen before exercise might cause gastrointestinal leakage. Learn more on The New York Times.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/for-athletes-risks-from-ibuprofen-use/

 "Studies have already shown that strenuous exercise alone commonly results in a small amount of intestinal trauma. A representative experiment published last year found that cyclists who rode hard for an hour immediately developed elevated blood levels of a marker that indicates slight gastrointestinal leakage. Physiologically, it makes sense that exercise would affect the intestines as it does, because, during prolonged exertion, digestion becomes a luxury, said Dr. Kim van Wijck, currently a surgical resident at Orbis Medical Center in the Netherlands, who led the small study. So the blood that normally would flow to the small intestine is instead diverted to laboring muscles. Starved of blood, some of the cells lining the intestines are traumatized and start to leak.Thankfully, the damage seems to be short-lived, Dr. van Wijck said. Her research showed that within an hour after a cyclist finished riding, the stressed intestines returned to normal.But the most common side-effect of ibuprofen is gastrointestinal damage. And because many athletes take the drug for pain before and after a workout, Dr. van Wijck set out to determine the combined effect of exercise and ibuprofen..."