Everyone suffers from aches and pains at least once in a while. Whether it’s a headache or a backache, we’ve all experienced aches at one point or another. If you’re anything like me (a baby when it comes to pain), then you want a pain reliever that works as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. For the times when I have been in need of a pain reliever I have turned to two brands to get the job done: Extra Strength Tylenol and Motrin IB capsules. Following is a product comparison of the two brands, as well as the brand I prefer to continue using in the future.
Extra Strength Tylenol is a brand of pain reliever that I have been using for a long time now. There are many great reasons why I continue to use this product, number one being its fast-acting performance. As soon as I feel a headache coming on I take two of these capsules and the headache is gone before it even has a chance to really begin. Another great thing about this product is that you can take it while pregnant without fear of harming your baby. This was especially important for me recently, as I was pregnant up until April when I gave birth to my son. Any pregnant woman will readily agree that you can and do suffer numerous body aches and pains during pregnancy, so it’s very important to have something that relieves the aching. Tylenol Extra Strength definitely does the trick. It especially worked wonders on my sore back and legs. The general price for this product is $5.89 for a bottle of 50 capsules, which is a small drawback for me as I think this is a little high. However, buying them when they’re on sale or using a coupon can definitely save you a few cents. As with any medicine, there are potential side effects to using this product. If you have more than three servings of alcohol a day, the alcohol combined with the Tylenol can cause serious damage to your liver. If you have kidney or liver disease you should consult your doctor before using this product. All in all, my overall score for Extra Strength Tylenol is a 4/5.
Motrin IB has become a relatively new brand to me, mainly because of my commitment to the Tylenol brand. I have, however, given it a try lately with mixed results. The good thing I have found about this product is that it works fairly quickly to relieve pain. However, one capsule usually doesn’t work for me, and I end up needing to take a second one to get the job done. The size of the pills were a plus for me. I hate taking large pills that feel like they stick in my throat, so the reduced size of the Motrin capsules was very welcome. There were considerably more drawbacks for me when it came to this product than there was for Tylenol. The biggest problem I had was the price at $10.99 for a bottle of 50 capsules. Compared with the price of Tylenol for the same amount of pills and results, the price for this brand was just too much for me. A potential side effect of this product is stomach bleeding, a considerable risk for those who are 60 and older and/or have had stomach ulcers in the past. You should not take this product with alcohol or right before or after heart surgery. All in all, my overall score for this product is a 3/5.
While I found both of these products to work well when it comes to relieving aches and pains, I’m going to stick with Extra Strength Tylenol in the future. My main reason for deciding this was the price difference. I didn’t find Motrin IB to work better for me than Tylenol, and therefore do not see the point in spending an extra $5 on this product.
