Dispersible Aspirin

[Mark Uttley]

I bought a bottle from the pharmacy in Sainsbury's over the weekend, but the pharmacist made it pretty hard work to get them.

I'm a pharmacist and I don't see why you had any trouble purchasing aspirin 75mg. As long as you're not giving them to under 12s, or taking anticoagulants then there shouldn't be a problem. Try a different pharmacy.

[Ologhai Jones]

I'm a pharmacist and I don't see why you had any trouble purchasing aspirin 75mg. As long as you're not giving them to under 12s, or taking anticoagulants then there shouldn't be a problem. Try a different pharmacy.

I don't suppose you live and work anywhere in the West Midlands do you?

[MrPin]

I'm a pharmacist and I don't see why you had any trouble purchasing aspirin 75mg. As long as you're not giving them to under 12s, or taking anticoagulants then there shouldn't be a problem. Try a different pharmacy.

Is that right? I used to buy big bottles of 100 aspirin, but now t seems they come in little cards containing only 16.

[Mark Uttley]

I don't suppose you live and work anywhere in the West Midlands do you?

Sorry. NW here. Most pharmacists won't intervene with a sale of aspirin 75mg. I don't understand why your guy made such a big deal about it.

[Mark Uttley]

Is that right? I used to buy big bottles of 100 aspirin, but now t seems they come in little cards containing only 16.

You can still buy 75mg OTC in packs of 100. £1.70 in the shop I work in.

300mg are limited to a pack size of 32.

[Alba]

Because of the alleged health benefits even to those who haven't just had heart trouble.

Google Joel M Kaufman "Should You Take Aspirin to Prevent Heart Attack?"

He is a research Prfessor in Chemistry. It makes interesting reading.

I used to take aspirin until I discovered I had bleeding patches in my stomach. It was not obvious that I was bleeding.

[sleepwello'nights]

Google Joel M Kaufman "Should You Take Aspirin to Prevent Heart Attack?"

He is a research Prfessor in Chemistry. It makes interesting reading.

I used to take aspirin until I discovered I had bleeding patches in my stomach. It was not obvious that I was bleeding.

My mother was advised by a doctor to take an aspirin a day to prevent heart problems some years ago. She did regularly for several years until she was diagnosed with severe gastric problems. She was advised to stop taking aspirin as they caused the intestinal bleeding.

[SNACR]

Wasn't there some survey done of GPs asking if they accepted there were medical benefits to the usual well-publicised things like taking an aspirin everyday. I seem to think the majority agreed there was.

There was then a follow-up question asking if they themselves took them and, if not, why not. The majority answer was they didn't and the reason given in general was along the lines that popping pills is a bad idea - jesus wept the irony.

[ChumpusRex]

That aspirin can reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke is well established, and there is little doubt over its efficacy. It is also well known to cause gastric complications, usually gastric bleeding (as well as generally increasing bleeding tendency). The decision to take it therefore must be based on a balance of risk and harm.

In general, both increase with age. Already having heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. are major risk factors for suffering cardiovascular complications, and so aspirin is more likely to be beneficial in such a population, than in a healthy population. The balance as far as is known, generally favours aspirin in the first group but not the latter. With increasing age, the risks of both sides increase, and while the benefits may be greater, the chances of internal bleeding are also increased.

Where it gets interesting is that the biggest, and most reliable clinical trials looking at aspirin for heart disease showed a definite reduction in death rate in people taking aspirin. Fair enough, if it prevents heart attacks. Except, it didn't just reduced "cardiac death" or "stroke death". It reduced "all causes of death", including "cancer death". This was a very unexpected result. The studies weren't designed to detect this, so the result can't be treated as reliable as the cardiac death results, but it certainly raised a few eyebrows in the medical world, although most people dismissed it as some sort of statistical artefact, or study bias.

There has been lots of speculation as to why this might be the case. However, it's controversial as to whether this result is even genuine. However, there is a hypothesis that aspirin (more precisely, salicylates in general) is actually an essential micronutrient; one that has been lost from the human diet by the advent of intensive farming. While salicilates are found in large quantities in things such as wintergreen oil, and some tree barks, virtually all plants can produce it; however, they only tend to produce it in response to pest attack - fungi or insect infestation. Under natural conditions, there would be modest amounts of salicylate present in the normal diet (equivalent to something like 30-50 mg aspirin). However, with modern pesticides, the quantity is drastically reduced.

There have been attempts to perform a proper long-term study of aspirin for cancer prevention. However, the biggest one was abandoned after 3 or 4 years, when the preliminary result was negative, and funding could not be secured to keep tracing the subjects. A pity, as such a prevention study would need at least 10-15 years to be useful. However, there has been some recent re-kindling of interest, and there are some research groups looking to resurrect the study, and trace the original participants to see what has happened.

[Kurt Barlow]

Is that right? I used to buy big bottles of 100 aspirin, but now t seems they come in little cards containing only 16.

Here in Oz you can buy 96 asprins no questions asked. Try buying Clarytin D (which has pseudoephedrine in it) and you have to hand over your driving licence and undergo an interegation stasi style by the Pharmacist.

All ******** to give the appearance that the govt are doing something about the crystal meth epidemic here

[Kurt Barlow]

Like the sheep that I am, I take one 75mg dispersible aspirin every day. I've done so for a pretty long time. This is NOT doctor's orders.

I used to buy them via Amazon from a pharmacy who would email me a few simple questions each time ('who're they for?' 'what other medication?' and such), and I'd order two bottles of a 100 tablets whenever I began to run low.

It seems that now, Amazon have a new policy (since October last year as far as I can tell) that prescription medicines are no longer to be sold from their site.

I bought a bottle from the pharmacy in Sainsbury's over the weekend, but the pharmacist made it pretty hard work to get them. I pointed out that, if it came to it, I could just buy a normal packet of aspirin whenever I liked (200mg) and break them in half to get approximately the same effect--but that this would involve increasing the dose, and the dose would then become approximately 100mg rather than exactly 75mg. Surely better just to sell me the 75mg ones?

Anyway, I did get the bottle of aspirins, but I'd rather find a somewhat easier way.

Does anyone know an easier route to buying 75mg aspirins, or will it come to buying 200mg ones and snapping them in half to avoid the third degree?

Buy 300mg asprins and a pill cutter.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Medicine-Pill-Tablet-Cutter-Splitter-Divide-Safe-Storage-Compartment-Box-Case-/121253544400?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Mobility_Disability_Medical_ET&hash=item1c3b4641d0

[Ologhai Jones]

Sorry. NW here. Most pharmacists won't intervene with a sale of aspirin 75mg. I don't understand why your guy made such a big deal about it.

My experiences of buying dispersible aspirins 'in person' is limited (I've only done it twice), but on both occasions, I've experienced resistance.

On the first occasion (back in 2008), the pharmacist resisted to the extent that I didn't actually manage to buy any! This incident was what caused me to end up buying them via Amazon since then (up until their policy change). The other occasion was the one I mentioned in my OP, where I did manage to buy a bottle, but not without a five- to ten-minute conversation with the pharmacist.

Maybe I've just been unlucky on these two occasions, or maybe you're more relaxed than most pharmacists?

[Ologhai Jones]

I used to take aspirin until I discovered I had bleeding patches in my stomach. It was not obvious that I was bleeding.

If you don't mind the question, how did you discover that you had bleeding patches in your stomach?

[Ologhai Jones]

That aspirin can reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke is well established, and there is little doubt over its efficacy. It is also well known to cause gastric complications, usually gastric bleeding (as well as generally increasing bleeding tendency). The decision to take it therefore must be based on a balance of risk and harm.

In general, both increase with age. Already having heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. are major risk factors for suffering cardiovascular complications, and so aspirin is more likely to be beneficial in such a population, than in a healthy population. The balance as far as is known, generally favours aspirin in the first group but not the latter. With increasing age, the risks of both sides increase, and while the benefits may be greater, the chances of internal bleeding are also increased.

Where it gets interesting is that the biggest, and most reliable clinical trials looking at aspirin for heart disease showed a definite reduction in death rate in people taking aspirin. Fair enough, if it prevents heart attacks. Except, it didn't just reduced "cardiac death" or "stroke death". It reduced "all causes of death", including "cancer death". This was a very unexpected result. The studies weren't designed to detect this, so the result can't be treated as reliable as the cardiac death results, but it certainly raised a few eyebrows in the medical world, although most people dismissed it as some sort of statistical artefact, or study bias.

There has been lots of speculation as to why this might be the case. However, it's controversial as to whether this result is even genuine. However, there is a hypothesis that aspirin (more precisely, salicylates in general) is actually an essential micronutrient; one that has been lost from the human diet by the advent of intensive farming. While salicilates are found in large quantities in things such as wintergreen oil, and some tree barks, virtually all plants can produce it; however, they only tend to produce it in response to pest attack - fungi or insect infestation. Under natural conditions, there would be modest amounts of salicylate present in the normal diet (equivalent to something like 30-50 mg aspirin). However, with modern pesticides, the quantity is drastically reduced.

There have been attempts to perform a proper long-term study of aspirin for cancer prevention. However, the biggest one was abandoned after 3 or 4 years, when the preliminary result was negative, and funding could not be secured to keep tracing the subjects. A pity, as such a prevention study would need at least 10-15 years to be useful. However, there has been some recent re-kindling of interest, and there are some research groups looking to resurrect the study, and trace the original participants to see what has happened.

Thank you for the especially interesting post.

For as long as I can recall (almost certainly since childhood), I've been aware (and made aware) that aspirin should be taken with or shortly after food, ideally a meal rather than a snack, and I've been aware all along that this was due to the potential bad effects that aspirin can have on one's stomach.

In recent times, whenever I've read reports of the risks (and the benefits) of aspirin, gastric issues inevitably come up, but I've not heard it stated whether these risks can be mitigated by only taking aspirin with a relatively full stomach.

This question is likely going to reveal just how much a layman I am with respect to this matter, but, when (made up figures) 37 out of 10,000 aspirin takers experience gastric problems, do we know what proportion of them were taking aspirin on an empty stomach?

[SarahBell]

I take at least 400mg of aspirin most days for my headaches (often more), and have never suffered from gastric bleeding.

You have headaches every day?

[ChumpusRex]

This question is likely going to reveal just how much a layman I am with respect to this matter, but, when (made up figures) 37 out of 10,000 aspirin takers experience gastric problems, do we know what proportion of them were taking aspirin on an empty stomach?

It's pretty much hearsay whether aspirin can be taken on a full or empty stomach. It has long been recognised that there can be significant gastric side effects - they are surprisingly common and severe in the population that needs to take daily aspirin. (Studies suggest than in the over 70s the risk of life-threatening bleeding is something like 50-100 per 100,000 for each year that it is taken, with milder side effects such as indigestion up to 10,000 per year - although what these studies don't do is attribute how much of that is due to the aspirin or not - the reason being is its much easier to study a group of people who have a problem, e.g. previous stroke, than healthy people - and the evidence that aspirin is beneficial for people with stroke is overwhelming, so it isn't ethical to have an untreated group).

Various strategies have been tried to reduce the gastric toxicity. Initially, it was thought that if a solid tablet sat in the stomach at a single spot, that bit of stomach would get a mega-dose of aspirin and be more likely to be injured. The manufacturers then moved to chewable or dispersible aspirin, so that this couldn't happen. Various other stratgies have been tried - enteric coating (a special coating that does not dissolve in the stomach, only once the tablet has gone through the stomach and is safely into the intestine, does the coating dissolve and release the aspirin) and buffering (mixing the aspirin with fillers and similar, that prevent pieces of the tablet from sticking to the stomach lining). The thing is that while no trials have been done comparing solid to dispersible tablets (old history, hearsay evidence, and now considered inappropriate to test), there is absolutely no difference in rate of gastric problems between the various more modern preparations.

The more modern theory for the gastric complications is that it is not just the aspirin contacting the stomach lining from the inside, but it is actually the aspirin circulating in the bloodstream that causes the problem.

[Ologhai Jones]

Buy 300mg asprins and a pill cutter.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Medicine-Pill-Tablet-Cutter-Splitter-Divide-Safe-Storage-Compartment-Box-Case-/121253544400?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Mobility_Disability_Medical_ET&hash=item1c3b4641d0

Thanks. I didn't know about pill cutters.