That conclusion is based mainly on two different studies: one on ultramarathoners and one on mice.
If you look at each study, its clear that they arent 100 percent applicable to most exercisers.
Lets hold up right there, because this is important: The study participants werent your regular few-times-a-weekrunners.
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They werent even your regular ultramarathoners (people who do races longer than a marathon).
So even from the start, we know the studys results might not apply to recreational athletes.
So by this point, the runners had already been covering 25 miles per day.
In fact, in the study 44 percent of all of the ultramarathoners suffered from acute kidney injury.
All on its own, prolonged endurance exercise (i.e., a marathon) can affect kidney health.
Prolonged exercise can be a hit to kidney function, then NSAIDs can serve as another hit.
How multiple injuries over the course of multiple races could affect long-term kidney function is yet to be determined.
And even then, it’s possible that the damage isn’t long lasting.
Of course, all of this is dose related, Warden adds.
This is where that second study covered in the NYTs piece comes in.
The study was performed on mice.
We are not mice, of course.
Its a point that researchers have been making for years.
NSAIDs taken prior to exercise have the potential to reduce how well tissues adapt in response to loading.
Again, how much ibuprofen you take and how long you take it matters a lot.
Taking some every now and then wont have much of an effect on your recovery.
The more often you take NSAIDs the more likely you will experienced reduced adaptation and healing.
And its very likely that the same goes for painful workouts, Nieman says.
NSAIDs are analgesics, but they are not particularly potent, Warren says.
If pain signals are great enough, NSAIDs are not going to be effective.
Instead, you better identify the root cause and fix it, Warden says.
But here again, it probably doesnt do much for your pain.
The only intervention consistently shown to treat DOMS is general light exercise that increases blood flow, he adds.
Taking a couple doses of NSAIDs irregularly per month would have no measurable effect on exercise-induced gains.
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