An alternative to opioid painkillers

My husband came home from a six-hour dental ordeal with a printout of a pain management regimen. It was devised by a couple of surgeons as an alternative to opioids. Apparently, the docs have been able to reduce their opioid prescriptions by about 75 percent. The regimen is for managing acute pain—as with post-surgery pain or other injury. It's simple:

• Tylenol: two pills, 500 mg each
  Wait 1-2 hours.

• Advil or Motrin: one pill 800 mg (or four 200 mg. pills)
  Wait 6-8 hours from last Tylenol.

Repeat, starting with Tylenol again. For acute pain, do this three times a day for up to five days. My husband did it once (Tylenol and later Advil) and said it helped. The doctors advise taking the pills with food and drinking plenty of fluids.

Note: In the interests of science, I tried one round of the Tylenol followed by Advil for my ordinary aches and pains. I wasn’t particularly impressed. Then I discovered, weeks later, that I should have taken four Advils, not having noticed the number of milligrams specified. (My husband did the same thing I did.) Note also that taking too many anti-inflammatories (Advil) suppresses your immune system, so don’t overdo.

Here’s a fun thing I stumbled on while doing some research: Tylenol (acetaminophen) reduces feelings of anxiety and social rejection! It does this because the part of the brain Tylenol affects--the part that senses physical pain--is the same part that senses social pain. A twofer!  

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