DistantNews
Support us
🇳🇬 Nigeria /Health & Science

Not every pain requires painkillers, say pharmacists

From The Punch · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Pharmacists in Nigeria warned that not every ache requires painkillers and said some discomfort may improve with rest or other non-drug measures.
  • They cautioned that unexplained or persistent pain may signal an underlying condition, while frequent or excessive analgesic use can harm the liver, kidneys and stomach.
  • The warning came amid widespread self-medication, with paracetamol, ibuprofen and diclofenac among commonly used painkillers.

Pharmacists have warned Nigerians against reaching for painkillers whenever they feel pain, saying some discomfort can improve with rest and other appropriate measures.

Chioma Omattah, co-founder and chief executive of Welnex Pharmacy in Lagos, said pain can be acute or chronic, and its severity, location, duration and cause should guide how it is managed. Pain after strenuous or unusual activity, such as lifting a heavy object or climbing several flights of stairs, might initially improve with rest.

Not every pain requires painkillers. There are different types of pain. You could have acute pains; you could have chronic pains.

· Chioma OmattahThe Welnex Pharmacy chief executive explained that pain does not always require medication.

“Not every pain requires painkillers. There are different types of pain. You could have acute pains; you could have chronic pains,” Omattah said.

When the pain is something that you can’t trace how it started, those ones are the ones you might begin to be concerned about, and maybe the sign of an underlying illness.

· Chioma OmattahShe warned that unexplained pain may indicate an underlying health condition.

She advised people to take unexplained pain seriously, particularly pain that shoots or radiates. “When the pain is something that you can’t trace how it started, those ones are the ones you might begin to be concerned about, and maybe the sign of an underlying illness,” she stated.

Omattah said repeated use of analgesics can suppress symptoms while an underlying condition continues to develop. She also warned that irrational use can affect the kidneys, liver and gastrointestinal tract. Common medicines such as paracetamol, ibuprofen and diclofenac should not be taken indiscriminately, she said, and people should not increase the number of tablets simply because the recommended dose has not relieved the pain. A lack of relief may mean the medicine is unsuitable or that another cause needs investigation.

Frequent use can actually be very risky and inimical to the individual using it. When you don’t relieve the cause of the pain and the next thing is to pop a painkiller, you may be masking the symptom of a very serious underlying health condition.

· Chioma OmattahShe described the risks of repeatedly taking painkillers without identifying the source of pain.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog