When you're part of a mass of fitness humanity, such as at Thanksgiving Day's Run To Feed the Hungry, you can't help but overhear lots of crazy, obsessive runner talk.
Example: A guy wearing the singlet from a prominent local running club, lamenting an injury, turned to his buddy beforehand and said: "I've been eating Advil like M&M's."
Uh-oh. As any first-year medical student – or, heck, even a watcher of TV medical shows – can tell you, excessive ingestion of ibuprofen can wreak havoc with your kidney function. And that's a lot more serious than your garden-variety calf strain.
But what if runners and other exercisers could get the benefits of NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) without disrupting their internal organs? What if you could simply apply ibuprofen directly to the swollen or sore area?
You can ... sort of.
Recently, topical ibuprofen creams have caught on in the fitness community. And this month, Runner's World magazine carried a special report on the creams' purported effectiveness. It had doctors and physical therapists try various brands on runners. Results were inconclusive.
But Runner's World did quote physical therapist Ellison Weist of Portland, Ore., as saying he felt relief from an inner thigh strain after only two days using the cream Profen HP and "experienced no pain during a 16-mile run."
Always the skeptic, I decided to plunk down $19.95 (www.ProfenHPCream.com) and purchase a 2-ounce tube to see how it helped my pesky shin splints.
The active ingredients are "homeopathic" ibuprofen and arnica, an herb found in a European flower (arnica montana) that is said to have anti-inflammatory properties.
The maker, Ridge Medical Products of Plano, Texas, recommends applying the cream two to three times a day and calls the product safe because "homeopathic ibuprofen cream does not pass through the kidney, liver and stomach."
Still, because ibuprofen in any form masks pain, experts advise using it only after an activity.
I tried it for a week and can sum up my opinion of the cream in one word: placebo.
As in placebo effect. But in fact, it didn't even trick me into believing my pain eased. One problem was, as opposed to a 200 milligram pill, you are unable to tell how many milligrams of ibuprofen you are rubbing into your skin and how much gets absorbed into the problem area.
I wasn't expecting miracles, but I was hoping the cream would at least temporarily lessen the pain as the pills have done.
As always, the best prescription for easing my pain was ice and rest.
Call The Bee's Sam McManis, (916) 321-1145.
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