For me, I choose ibuprofen more often than paracetamol because 1) paracetamol carries a fairly serious overdose risk and is one of the common drugs people accidentally kill themselves with, and 2) paracetamol is not a true anti-inflammatory and doesn't help nearly as much with arthritis. Ibuprofen doesn't just relieve pain but actively reduces inflammation.

Paracetamol can damage your liver. Neither are great options to take too much of.

As I understand it, paracetamol was discovered as the active metabolite of a much more damaging drug (acetanilide); and that most of paracetamol's effects is due to a metabolite of paracetamol in turn, namely AM404.

Why the pharmaceutical companies haven't done to paracetamol what they did to acetanilide, I don't understand. Providing AM404 directly would avoid the production of NAPQI in the body.

More research is being done nowadays on various terpenes for pain relief. Unfortunately, because it’s strongly associated the cannabis industry, it’s hard to get past all the noise to the good information like research papers.

Most of the terpenes in cannabis strains are also found in other plants to varying degrees. Pure extracts are available and legal without question.

I can’t say much about their efficacy though, because I haven’t done a deep dive. Id love to hear from anyone who has done the research or has personal experience, especially without THC or CBD along for the ride.

I had a similar thought, but in the other direction. I would be very curious to see how controlled doses of cannabinoids / cannabis oils compare to common opioid prescriptions for severe chronic and acute pain.

As far as terpenes specifically, I've been hearing some recent positive buzz about linalool.