Take pain reliever before your COVID vaccine?

THURSDAY, February 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) – You’ve finally managed to get an appointment to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus and you’re a little nervous about the side effects, so taking a pain reliever right before you get the shot seems like a smart idea.

Not so fast, says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, the agency tells people not to take pain relievers like Motrin, Advil, or Tylenol until they receive their COVID-19 vaccines.

Why?

It’s possible that taking a pain reliever before getting the vaccine could cause a “decrease in the antibody response,” explained Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the vaccine research group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Although the chances of a decreased immune response are not fully known, Poland said it was better to suffer from side effects than to risk making the vaccine less effective.

“After receiving the vaccine, if a person develops symptoms that they want to treat, everything is fine, but ideally not before,” he said. “Now that’s a recommendation from the CDC, out of caution.”

There are exceptions, however: People who usually take pain relievers, such as migraines, should of course take their medications, he added.

“Go ahead and take it rather than end up with a full-blown migraine and end up in the emergency room with much more intensive or expensive therapy,” Poland said.

He also noted that the side effects of the vaccine may differ between the two doses, with the effects after the second dose usually being worse.

“I’ll tell you that after my first dose, I had a little sore arm. After the second dose, I had moderately severe arm pain, and had four hours of tremors, chills with a fever of 101 degrees. with fatigue, headache and ringing in my ears. I took a dose of Tylenol, went to bed, woke up the next morning and was 80% to 90% better, and in that half day I was back to normal, ”a declared Poland.

These side effects are caused when the body’s immune system speeds up to fight off the invader, which is just what is needed to produce the antibodies to blunt the virus.