I don't use painkillers in the regular course. I had a badly arthritic hip owing to an accident when I was very young, and I didn't take painkillers for it, firstly because the pain wasn't that bad, secondly because regular painkillers didn't actually help with bad pain and thirdly because it's too easy to get dependant on them. I seemed to have less pain that other people I spoke to and I suspect that's because I rode and walked everywhere. I only had the hip operated on when I found that it was literally grinding me to a halt.