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Comment by salmonet | Hacker News Reader

I would go out on a limb and say it's a LOT of Asprin. I usually use "surprising" on HN because anything more specific gets criticized surprisingly often, but that is a ton of asprin

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it's a veritable fuck-ton. the usual modern dose is 325mg.

The maximum daily dose is usually around 4g. 325mg is probably the dose in one tablet.

Doctor here: very rarely does any prescribe anything more than 325mg daily. Most people get 81mg daily. 325mg is considered high dose.

You are correct that it can be written for more, but the only indication you would prescribe a higher dose is as a pain or fever reducer, and we have more effective NSAIDs for that. Or tylenol (?NSAID).

I've personally never seen it given more than 325mg daily.

In the United States, 325mg is the amount in a single standard OTC pill. People often take two pills because of the old doctor's adage, "take two aspirin and call me in the morning".

81mg is marketed as low-dose (aka "baby aspirin"--because of the size or dose, not because it's intended for babies) and often prescribed as prophylaxis. But that's not particularly relevant wrt the maximum safe short-term dosage. The worst part of a flu usually only lasts a few days.

Here are the label directions from a bottle of generic aspirin as shown on Amazon (GoodSense Aspirin Pain Reliever 325 mg Coated Tablets, 100 Count).

  Drink a full glass of water with each dose. Adults and
  children 12 years and over: take 1 or 2 tablets every 4
  hours or 3 tablets every 6 hours, not to exceed 12 tablets
  in 24 hours. Children under 12 years: consult a doctor.

That's approx. 4 grams/day for OTC usage.

So what we have learned here is that whilst many years ago 8-30+ g daily dosage was either routine or at least proscribed in some cases, the routine upper limit is now much reduced because the side effects of taking Salicylate in such huge doses are worse than the symptoms or conditions that it was prescribed for.

However, it may be possible that the stuff might (in huge doses) cure or at least reduce something even worse than its own side effects. Then you are in the realms of a simple risk assessment where the failure mode is pretty horrid but that has to be weighed up against the alternatives if they even exist - all of which ... well you get the idea.

(IANAD)

The labels on over-the-counter, "adult low dose" aspirin recommend taking up to 48 81mg aspirin tablets (3.9g) per 24 hour period before checking with a doctor to see if that is okay. I was taking up to 1g per day at one point (for pain), thinking that it was a very low dose because of the labels. :/

https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/image.cfm?id=93682&nam...

What do you mean by (?NSAID) after tylenol?

Because acetaminophen/paracetamol is only weakly anti-inflammatory, so you may or may not consider it an NSAID, I assume.

Isn't tylenol fairly dangerous?

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/505/...

Toxic to the liver in large or frequent dosage.

> I've personally never seen it given more than 325mg daily.

Really? Lortab 5/500?

is tylenol, not aspirin. unless the formulation has changed.

I'm not sure of any generic formulations of hydrocodone that are made with aspirin and widely prescribed.

there are some like Percodan but those are 5/325 AFAIK and oxycodone, not hydrocodone.

I'm not a doctor though, just a nerd.

Lortab has all sorts of variations, 500 mg aspirin being one: https://www.drugs.com/imprints/500-4519.html

Acetaminophen != NSAID

In the US. It's higher in France, for example.

Wild guessing: maybe it contained much less then the xx grams of (pure) aspirin? The rest could have been filler as the tech wasn't as precise as today.

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