Some may think the term poison is a little off base! Here’s a quick wikipedia definition for the term poison - “In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause damage, illness, or death to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism.”

Aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen belong to a class of drugs called Nsaids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which inhibit the enzymes that make chemicals that cause inflammation and perform various other tasks throughout the body. An article in the New York Times citing a report from the New England Journal of Medicine states that stomach and intestinal problems caused by Nsaids account for more than 100,000 hospitalizations each year and 16,500 deaths.

I don’t know about you, but I think that would qualify as a poison in my book. And that data was from a study conducted in 1997! I suspect the numbers are worse now. So what’s a person to do?? If you are taking Ibuprofen for relief of localized muscle pain or arthritis, you should consider a topical Ibuprofen cream. It works very fast and avoids the internal complications associated with ingesting pills. Sure, there are times when the pain may be too wide spread to use a cream. But when that’s not the case why not give your system a break, don’t eat the pills just rub it on!!