If you scan the shelves of your local pharmacy you’ll come across a whole host of pain relief medications. Paracetamol alone comes in fast-acting, menstrual relief, slow release, extra strong, and a wide range of other varieties, and the tablets targeted towards headache pain relief are by no means in short supply. The thing is that with so many different brands and claims and fancy packaging jostling for attention on the shelves it can be hard to know what to try.
One promising sounding medication is a “headache relief shot”. Now theses are not actually available in the UK, but hopefully they might be in the future! They sound impressive; one quick swallow and you’ll have super-fast relief! But what’s in these shots and are they worth it?
Well, as a liquid (the flavoured shots remind us a little bit of the pain relief version of an espresso coffee) the active ingredients should be absorbed into the body quickly. However the main thing that helps fast action in relief shots is caffeine. While caffeine is used in a fair few pain medications to speed up the delivery and absorption of the active ingredient, in relief shots the amount of caffeine used is comparatively high. So if caffeine is a migraine trigger for you then definitely steer clear!
The other things to note is that these relief shots should not be taken alongside other migraine medications unless cleared with your doctor first, and certainly no more than 4 relief shots should be taken within the space of 24 hours, otherwise liver damage may be the result.
Apart from that, relief shots on the whole measure up in terms of active ingredients and efficacy. (in the one we primarily looked at, the active ingredient was paracetamol which has been shown to be a clinically proven medication for pain relief)
As stated before, they’re not available in the UK, but if they ever do become available, and if your doctor says they’re ok, then on an occasional basis they might be a good thing to have on hand, e.g. if you feel a migraine coming just before an important and unavoidable business meeting. Just remember, they’re not for everyday and they won’t help everyone (if your migraines are caused by constricting blood vessels for example then the extra caffeine is actually likely to make them worse as it has been shown to cause vasoconstriction).
DISCLAIMER – When using any medication, always read the label and make sure you keep all medicines out of reach of children. The information supplied within this online resource is brought to you by Imigran Recovery Tablets (contains sumatriptan) for migraine relief, from a variety of author sources including health care professionals, lifestyle experts and the general public. None of the published authors endorse any brands.
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