Learn about the link between coffee and headaches, exploring how caffeine, especially when combined with ibuprofen, can provide faster pain relief, though its effects may be temporary for chronic sufferers.
A recent study published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics has shown that caffeine can be helpful in treating headaches.
The study involved 301 participants suffering from recurrent headaches, experiencing them 3 to 15 times per month. Researchers found that combining ibuprofen with caffeine was more effective in relieving pain compared to taking either component alone.
Interestingly, about 80% of individuals who took ibuprofen with caffeine reported significant improvement within 6 hours, compared to 67% of those taking ibuprofen alone, 61% taking caffeine alone, and 56% taking a placebo.
Half of the patients treated with caffeine experienced a notable improvement in headache symptoms, similar to those who received ibuprofen with caffeine. However, this improvement was temporary, with headaches often returning relatively quickly.
In addition, patients taking ibuprofen with caffeine reported improvement nearly an hour sooner than those taking only ibuprofen. The combination of the two substances, for example, is effective in treating menstrual pain and different types of pain after surgical procedures.
Therefore, it’s important to consider that using caffeine might only postpone the symptoms for individuals suffering from chronic headaches.
This suggests that caffeine may enhance the pain-relieving effects of ibuprofen. This benefit of caffeine can be used to reduce the dose of drugs that contain aspirin or paracetamol.
It may also have a similar effect when taken with aspirin, paracetamol, or ibuprofen mixed with a large amount of fresh coffee. It is believed that caffeine may reduce blood vessel dilation, which could potentially affect substances that effectively widen blood vessels that relieve headaches.
