Hacker News Reader

Comment by ahonhn | Hacker News Reader

Its been years since I've seen any bottles or packs of full dose Aspirin in a pharmacy here (Singapore). Seems like nowadays you can only get those low-dose tablets for blood thinning and they cost a fortune (compared to generic Panadol or what normal Aspirin used to cost)

View on HN

I moved to Asia and suddenly found it nearly impossible to get full strength Aspirin. Kind of frustrating as it seems to be the somewhat less harmful NSAID.

Some research later, I found that it possibly interacts with certain bacteria that cause stomach ulcers and that these bacteria are more likely to be in poorly stored food. So, street food basically. This is a risk factor that would be much lower back home in Europe.

I wasn't able to get a definitive answer on this, but it's the best one I found so far as to why Aspirin is common in Europe and almost totally absent in Asia.

Here in Romania I always have aspirin at hand.

I take a pill of ibuprofen every once in a while when I have a bad headache, and paracetamol-based drugs only as a last resort when I have a bad cold or similar.

Same here, aspirin is as accessible as ibuprofen and paracetamol. I’ve switched away from it for the odd pain management, but mostly because I get nosebleeds easily, and aspirin is not helpful then.

Note that Aspirin is just a brand's name, and you could find the same thing under different names in different markets.

E.g. Panadol Extra is the same thing.

Panadol Extra is paracetamol with caffeine, not acetylsalicylic acid, which is Aspirin.

Ah, my bad. So, could look for "acetylsalicylic acid + caffeine" combos from brands other than Bayer. Except if there's some special legal restriction for acetylsalicylic acid in Singapore.

Hm, now that you mention it, it's not common to see Aspirin here in the drug stores. Apparently you can buy low dosage Aspirin online but the regular dosage seems elusive. I'll ask in the pharmacy next time...

NSAIDs : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35311721

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAID) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAIDs

  'NSAIDs and Gastrointestinal (GI) Injury'

<https://scholar.google.com/scholar?&q='NSAIDs and Gastrointe...>

Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton-pump_inhibitor

List of Proton Pump Inhibitors - Uses, Side Effects : https://www.drugs.com/drug-class/proton-pump-inhibitors.html

----

Acetaminophen : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35310951

N-acetyl-para-aminophenol (APAP), Acetaminophen, Tylenol, Paracetamol, Panadol, others : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetaminophen

  'Acetaminophen and Alcohol Hepatotoxicity, Liver damage'

<https://scholar.google.com/scholar?&q='Acetaminophen and Alc...>

----

  'P450 Drug Interactions'

Cytochrome P450 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P450

List of Cytochrome P450 Modulators : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cytochrome_P450_modula...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com