Ibuprofen is one of the most common medicines used around the world. It helps reduce pain, fever, and swelling, and is easy to get over the counter at pharmacies and supermarkets.
It belongs to a group of drugs called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. While many people know that ibuprofen can increase the risk of heart problems or stroke, not much was known about how it might affect the liver.
A new study from the University of California Davis has discovered that ibuprofen may cause more harm to the liver than scientists previously thought. What’s more, the effects are different in males and females.
In this study, researchers gave a moderate dose of ibuprofen to mice for one week. The amount given was equal to a person taking 400 milligrams of ibuprofen each day—an amount many people take for headaches or body aches.
After one week, the scientists used a special tool called mass spectrometry to look closely at the liver cells of the mice. This tool helped them see how the liver’s chemical processes, or metabolic pathways, had changed.
The results were surprising. In male mice, ibuprofen changed at least 34 different pathways in the liver. These changes affected how the body breaks down amino acids, hormones, and vitamins. Some pathways increased the production of harmful substances like hydrogen peroxide, which can stress or damage liver cells.
The researchers also found that ibuprofen did not have the same effect in female mice. In fact, in some cases, it had the opposite effect. One key difference involved the proteasome, a system in cells that clears out unwanted or damaged proteins. Ibuprofen changed how this system worked in males and females.
This is important because if the proteasome is affected, it could also change how long other drugs stay in the body. In males, this could mean that medicines taken with ibuprofen might not be cleared from the body as quickly as expected.
This study shows that ibuprofen affects the liver more than we used to think, and it doesn’t affect everyone the same way. The researchers say that drugs like ibuprofen are often used too much and shouldn’t be taken for mild pain without good reason. They also say that future research needs to look more closely at how drugs affect men and women differently.
In the future, doctors may need to consider a person’s sex when deciding on medications and doses. A “one-size-fits-all” approach might not be safe or effective.
This study was led by Professor Aldrin Gomes and published in the journal Scientific Reports. It gives scientists and doctors new information that could help improve how we use pain medicines.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about simple habit that could give you a healthy liver, and common diabetes drug that may reverse liver inflammation.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about simple blood test that could detect your risk of fatty liver disease, and results showing this green diet may strongly lower non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
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