What actually helps a sore throat: painkillers and time, not antibiotics
Most sore throats clear on their own within a week. Painkillers and honey ease the pain; antibiotics shorten symptoms by only about 16 hours and are rarely worth it.
NSAIDs raise kidney-injury risk modestly — but sharply in a few specific situations
Across studies, current NSAID use was tied to about a 73% higher odds of acute kidney injury, more in older people and those with existing kidney disease. The combination with two blood-pressure drugs is the real hazard.
NICE tells clinicians not to treat a child's fever just to bring the number down
Its guideline says antipyretics should be considered when a feverish child appears distressed, not to lower a temperature. In critically ill adults, paracetamol for fever changed nothing.
Most febrile seizures are harmless, and fever medicine will not prevent them
US and UK guidelines converge: a brief seizure during a fever in a young child rarely needs scans or blood tests, and paracetamol and ibuprofen do not stop them recurring.
Nearly half of tested Italian elite athletes declared an anti-inflammatory drug
Ten years of national anti-doping reports show NSAID declarations flat at about 45%, a significant shift away from COX-2 selective drugs, and glucocorticoids making up around 13% of all prohibited-substance findings.