Any vegan OTC pain killers?
Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find anything.
I had a 24 hour flu the other day with massive body aches. I took a leftover prescription Ibuprofin, and it really worked wonders. It was my last one. Then I went to the drugstore looking for some type of pain killer for future use, and they just all seemed so nasty. Of course gelatin in some, artificial colors, etc....some questionable ingredients like stearic something.
I know most of those companies test on animals, but I wonder if any of them at least have vegan ingredients. I'm thinking Bayer, Tylenol, etc...any of them? I don't use them very often, but I cannot imagine how I would have felt if I had not taken that pill. I was so miserable, and within an hour or so, I felt much better!
I did by a vegan headache remedy online (clearX) but it doesn't seem to work very well.
i was wishing for this.. well up until today :/.. don't think they exist.
I remember reading a while back things like aspirin (bayer), acetaminophen (tylenol), and ibuprofen (advil/motrin) are NO longer tested on animals (haven't been for over 20 years) b/c they are so old and have been tested to ad nauseum.
fyi ibuprofen 800's = 4 otc pills
I have heard of people doing this to make paraben-free children's Tylenol, so I don't' know why it couldn't be done for the adult version. If you have a pharmacy that actually compounds their own drugs still, they can make a suspension of the drug for you without the undesired ingredients. I don't think you need a prescription for it, but you might. I only know of one pharmacy in the area that still compounds drugs, so it will probably be hard to find. I also assume this will be much more costly than just cheap generic Tylenol.
BTW ibuprofen is one of the drugs that it is unsafe to take expired. For some reason that is beyond my knowledge, it gets stronger as it ages. Weird.
that's a good idea lbarte! I have a place in mind to ask. Will report back!
Yay! My favorite local pharmacy can make me one! I'm so excited! She will call me Monday with a price. I will pay whatever....hopefully she won't read this and charge me 1000s! haha!
BTW ibuprofen is one of the drugs that it is unsafe to take expired. For some reason that is beyond my knowledge, it gets stronger as it ages. Weird.
as a pharmacist, I have never heard of this and it sounds unlikely to me.....it would have to change it's molecular formula to something more potent for this to be real....and generally when drugs degrade it's less active.
I know you've already found someone who will make a special solution or something for you, but it would be worthwhile looking at liquid or soluble preps. Lactose if a common filler/gliding agent used in tablets / capsules, but it insoluble in water and so is not found in soluble tablets.
Unfortunately i don't know US brands so I can't help any further....but could give you names of some UK vegan painkillers! ::)
Do they sell Tylenol and Bayer and stuff over there in the UK?
I didn't know you are a pharmacist! How cool.
I'm pretty excited about my special made for me drugs. I will look at liquids...I think I did and they were mostly for colds and stuff. What do you mean by soluble preps?
Send me names...maybe I can find them?!
over here, we have generic soluble or effervescent paracetamol, and I have looked before and some of them don't have potential animal ingredients.....but it is mostly generics (ie non-branded) that are like that so I really doubt you'd be able to get them in the US.
Soluble - I mean ones that are designed to be dissolved in water before taking them. They are normally massive tablets that can't be taken without water, due to the size. Like I said to aid soubility in water they are prepared in a different way.
In the UK there's lots of childrens liquid paracetamol (=acetaminophen) and ibuprofen liquids available, but I'm not sure if this sort of thing is available in the US.
To give you a full list of UK brands it would take a little while ass it would involve phoning the drug companies to check some of the ingredients - generally they only have this sort of service for health professionals, so I wouldn't recommend phoning them yourself!!
We do have liquid stuff for kids. Lots of it!
I bet my ibuprofin scrip was the soluble kind, as you say, because it was HUGE!
so my local drug store was able to compound a pain killer for me. Its just the ibuprofin (sp?) plus vegetable starch in a veggie cap. I'm so excited! No more reading the labels of those nasty store brands, only to find nothing. It is costing 19.99. I don't know how many, but it should last me a while.
I think it's totally worth it! Knowing my body, I will probably never have a headache again, which would be good.
regarding not testing on animals, what about aspirin? As a drug with "grandfather" status, I don't think it was (eek) ever tested.
Of course, I'm sure they've done tests since then, but not for passing for the FDA.
i can't remember why, but the girl there told me not to get aspirin. I forget if it was breast feeding related, or what, but I just went with the ibu.
Dr. Oz said turmeric is as effctive as ibuprophen.
Dr. Oz said turmeric is as effctive as ibuprophen.
hmmm i wonder what one could mix it with?
A few suggestions:
I have excellent results using ginger (tea or crystalized) for headaches. I have had severe headaches since childhood (more than 30 years now!) and Ginger is as effective for me as ibuprofen or other NSAIDS - and even outdoes narcotics! This tip is thanks to Dr. Neal Barnard's Book on foods that fight pain.
Feverfew(for reducing fever) or white willow bark (anti-inflamatory) http://altmedicine.about.com/od/completeazindex/a/willow_bark.htm are herbs that can serve to replace NSAIDS sometimes for some people. White Willow Bark is the herb bayer was imitating when they invented aspirin. (Altho if my baby has a high fever, I'm still reaching for the synthtic NSAIDS)
I spoke to a local man who worked in the factory that makes heparin (blood thiner) -he said it is made from pig intestines! But, what's more, he said that (at least some) aspirins are coated in the chemical - or maybe a similar one - and that is what gives them their anti coagulant property : ( He worked in the factory that made the heparin and coated the aspirin - so he spoke with authority on the source.
(And, of course, with children, aspirin intake is discouraged because it is associated with Reyes' syndrome.)
Bayer made acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin) from salicylic acid, the active ingredient in white willow bark. Acetylating it made it gentler on the stomach (though evidently not very much so, as people still get ulcers from NSAIDs with prolonged use).
Some pills are coated to control where they dissolve in the GI tract. Aspirin itself is an anticoagulant, not the coating. The coating prevents it from being free in the stomach, where it's an irritant (and for some other drugs, coating can prevent it being deactivated by the acid in the stomach). In addition to COX-1 and COX-2, aspirin inhibits thromboxane, which is involved in the formation of platelet clots in the bloodstream. While aspirin irreversibly inhibits its formation, other NSAIDs tend to be less potent (ibuprofen, possibly naproxen), so they do not have the same level of anti-coagulant effect as aspirin, and their effects are shorter lived.
Bayer made acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin) from salicylic acid, the active ingredient in white willow bark. Acetylating it made it gentler on the stomach (though evidently not very much so, as people still get ulcers from NSAIDs with prolonged use).
Some pills are coated to control where they dissolve in the GI tract. Aspirin itself is an anticoagulant, not the coating. The coating prevents it from being free in the stomach, where it's an irritant (and for some other drugs, coating can prevent it being deactivated by the acid in the stomach). In addition to COX-1 and COX-2, aspirin inhibits thromboxane, which is involved in the formation of platelet clots in the bloodstream. While aspirin irreversibly inhibits its formation, other NSAIDs tend to be less potent (ibuprofen, possibly naproxen), so they do not have the same level of anti-coagulant effect as aspirin, and their effects are shorter lived.
I cannot argue with the entire comment here, because I am neither a chemist nor a pharmacist but:
1) The factory worker who coated aspirin told me he was not speaking of an enteric coating (one to protect the stomach) but rather that this was a standard all-aspirin coating.
2) Bayer made acetyl salicylic acid to be safer than the *chemical imitation* of white willow bark, but I have no reason to believe that it was safer than than the herb itself. I am very skeptical of the proverbial "better living through chemicals" concept. Chemicals can be better, sometimes - but other times they just make money for the chemical company, which can patent a chemical but cannot patent an herb.
Bayer made acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin) from salicylic acid, the active ingredient in white willow bark. Acetylating it made it gentler on the stomach (though evidently not very much so, as people still get ulcers from NSAIDs with prolonged use).
Some pills are coated to control where they dissolve in the GI tract. Aspirin itself is an anticoagulant, not the coating. The coating prevents it from being free in the stomach, where it's an irritant (and for some other drugs, coating can prevent it being deactivated by the acid in the stomach). In addition to COX-1 and COX-2, aspirin inhibits thromboxane, which is involved in the formation of platelet clots in the bloodstream. While aspirin irreversibly inhibits its formation, other NSAIDs tend to be less potent (ibuprofen, possibly naproxen), so they do not have the same level of anti-coagulant effect as aspirin, and their effects are shorter lived.
I cannot argue with the entire comment here, because I am neither a chemist nor a pharmacist but:
1) The factory worker who coated aspirin told me he was not speaking of an enteric coating (one to protect the stomach) but rather that this was a standard all-aspirin coating.
2) Bayer made acetyl salicylic acid to be safer than the *chemical imitation* of white willow bark, but I have no reason to believe that it was safer than than the herb itself. I am very skeptical of the proverbial "better living through chemicals" concept. Chemicals can be better, sometimes - but other times they just make money for the chemical company, which can patent a chemical but cannot patent an herb.
ok as a pharmacist I have to step in here.
Not all aspirin is coated. It is not the coating that gives the aspirin the antiplatelet effect. It is the direct action on the cyclo-oxegenase pathway and the result on thromboxane as FB stated.
In the UK aspirin used for it's antiplatelet effect is most commonly no coated, and is instead a soluble tablet. If the coating was giving it the antiplatelet effect then these wouldn't work?
Also, you stated that heparin gives the aspirin an anticoagulant effect - aspirin does not have an aticoagulant effect. If you measured a patient's blood to see how long it takes to coagulate (commonly called the INR) then it would be no different to someone who does not take aspirin. People who are on heparin may have an increased coagulation time.
I understand that many people feel that herbal preparations must be safer because they're natural, but in many cases this is not the case. Not only are there less studies using herbal preparations and so less scientific evidence for them, but in many countries (not sure about the US), there are less, or even no, regulations regarding their manufacture. So having a tablet containing 'herb X' may contain herb x but it may contain other herbs/chemicals as well. Also, even though most herbal preparations will state how much of that herb is in each dose form (e.g. 500mg herb X), it is difficult to quantify how much active ingredient is actually in a particular dosage form - remember herbs are natural and so there will be natural variance with in the plants.
Anyway, I am now way off topic and rambling - I am at lunch at work currently and so have had to write this really briefly and so may not have covered everything. I just had to comment though.
ok as a pharmacist I have to step in here.
Not all aspirin is coated. It is not the coating that gives the aspirin the antiplatelet effect. It is the direct action on the cyclo-oxegenase pathway and the result on thromboxane as FB stated.
In the UK aspirin used for it's antiplatelet effect is most commonly no coated, and is instead a soluble tablet. If the coating was giving it the antiplatelet effect then these wouldn't work?
Also, you stated that heparin gives the aspirin an anticoagulant effect - aspirin does not have an aticoagulant effect. If you measured a patient's blood to see how long it takes to coagulate (commonly called the INR) then it would be no different to someone who does not take aspirin. People who are on heparin may have an increased coagulation time.
I understand that many people feel that herbal preparations must be safer because they're natural, but in many cases this is not the case. Not only are there less studies using herbal preparations and so less scientific evidence for them, but in many countries (not sure about the US), there are less, or even no, regulations regarding their manufacture. So having a tablet containing 'herb X' may contain herb x but it may contain other herbs/chemicals as well. Also, even though most herbal preparations will state how much of that herb is in each dose form (e.g. 500mg herb X), it is difficult to quantify how much active ingredient is actually in a particular dosage form - remember herbs are natural and so there will be natural variance with in the plants.
Anyway, I am now way off topic and rambling - I am at lunch at work currently and so have had to write this really briefly and so may not have covered everything. I just had to comment though.
Thanks for the clarification. Obviously I confused anti-platelet with anti-coagulant - didn't know there was a difference!
I agree that not all herbs are safe! As I have often mentioned to people, marijuana, hemlock etc are herbs -but I wouldn't recommend their careless use : ) And, standardization is an issue if buying from a just any company. I, personally, prefer using fresh and preparing it myself when possible. And, I absolutely favor chemicals or antibiotics for certain things- like for strep throat or bacterial pneumonia.
But, lets not forget that pharmaceuticals have a lot more bad results than do "non-standardized" herbs. A pharmaceutical dosage miscalculation by a doctor killed my grandmother. And a proper dose of a pharmaceutical agent has caused my Mom's kidney failure - just an "acceptable" side effect!
Meanwhile, I believe long term use of ginger is much safer for my stomach than are NSAIDS with the same frequency.
So, I am very wary of the attitude that chemical is better in general - I like a nice, healthy, sensible balance between the two.
Once again - thanks for clarifying : )