Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanielBMarkham | Hacker News Reader

Please forgive a tiny bit of snark. I've long heard that if aspirin had been discovered today, the FDA would have never allowed it to be sold OTC to people. Along those lines, in aviation there's a saying: Wilbur and Orville would have never gotten permission to build the Wright flyer if they applied last year.

I'm a vitamin junkie (Don't pick on me, it's my FSM), so I've been taking low-dose aspirin for over a decade now. If I remember my health-nut mythology correctly, the theory is that inflammation (and especially inflammation related to blood sugar spikes) is believe to be a contributing factor to a lot of bad stuff: diabetes, cancer, aging, and so on.

Interesting to see aspirin continuing to make the news. Amazing drug.

View on HN

Of course the Wright brothers wouldn't be able to do what they do today because the tehcnology has changed some much it would be incredibly foolish to put human beings on the original wright flyer. Why would you even want that? That's like saying "I want to build a tent and a fire pit and hunt and skin animals but my condo association won't let me do that in the yard!"

I'm really getting sick of the manufactured bogeyman of government regulation. These scenarios are at best fantasy and the advantages of proper regulation are obvious to see.

Also, Asprain and related drugs kill ~40,000 people a year so I don't know it the pain relief is worth it. http://adjusthealth.info/health-news/89-40000-deaths-in-usa-...

Not trying to be mean, but why does it matter if you think it's worth it? It's my choice. If I choose a small percent chance of dying for some relief it's my choice.

It's just an opinion.

Plenty of people don't think the added safety of seat belts is worth it, the minor fine related to not using them seems like a tiny risk in comparison to dismemberment or death. However, many of those same people fear the fine more than physical harm which seems silly to me. Perhaps, if I was more empathetic I would 'get it', but I don't run things so I don't really feel the need to.

So that post just got several down posts. Why? I can get someone having a different utility function, but why do you care what my utility function is? Is it the fear of seeming foolish? It's like someone getting angry that I don't care about gold, yea it's shinny and yellow, but that's about it. Does that harm you?

Note: I am suggesting that the law needs to change or anything, just that I don't understand why people think in that fashion.

The abstract also says that " Furthermore the mortality statistics do not include deaths ascribed to the use of over-the-counter NSAIDS."

Aspirin is an OTC and thus excluded from those mortality statistics.

Additionally most of those deaths were from elderly people who suffer from arthritis and are taking NSAIDs daily and longterm.

Overall that is a very misleading headline.

>>Of course the Wright brothers wouldn't be able to do what they do today because the tehcnology has changed some much it would be incredibly foolish to put human beings on the original wright flyer.

Considering that some people replicated what the wright brothers did I think the whole point is moot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo0kpCU03-U

>> Why would you even want that?

Because it's the first manned flight?

>> That's like saying ...

No it isn't at all like that.

>> I'm really getting sick of the manufactured bogeyman of government regulation.

And I'm really getting sick of this place turning into reddit.

If I remember my health-nut mythology correctly, the theory is that inflammation (and especially inflammation related to blood sugar spikes) is believe to be a contributing factor to a lot of bad stuff: diabetes, cancer, aging, and so on.

Is daily inflammation a normal thing...? Maybe I'm just not observant enough, but I notice inflammation most often when I cut, bruise, scrape, or otherwise accidentally abuse my body - in which cases, memory tells me that (in the mild case) that's the right response.

Inflammation is extraordinarily common. It underlies hundreds of diseases, from asthma to arthritis (in fact, any disease that ends in "-itis"). It often occurs inside the body (not just on the skin), so you could have inflammation right now and not know it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflammation#Inflammatory_disor...

Sure, but shouldn't you try to diagnose the problem, instead of medicating yourself daily for phantom diseases you probably don't have?

I had the impression that any drug that is not addictive is generally available without prescription?

Also, it's killing me: what does FSM stand for in your sentence? Flying Spaghetti Monster? Fuel Supply Manifold? Free Speech Movement? Something else?

Flying Spaghetti Monster. The point is that my obsession with vitamins is irrational and I am aware of that fact.

Nope, all sorts of things that are not addictive are controlled by the FDA [insert long rant here]

The great thing about FSM is they had promo about irrational correlation that showed that the number of pirates(naval) was inversely proportional to global temperatures, just before the outbreak of hijackings off Somalia.

Edit:

Church leaders responded in 2008

Henderson interpreted the growing pirate activities at the Gulf of Aden as additional support, pointing out that Somalia has "the highest number of pirates and the lowest carbon emissions of any country."

That's absolutely not true. Antibiotics require a prescription and aren't addictive.

OTC medications are only approved if the drug and condition are mild enough that a doctor doesn't need to be involved.

And it gets a little bit silly -- 200mg ibuprofen are OTC, 400mg require a prescription.

That's largely because there's the potential to abuse the drugs as well. Giving people painkillers is good, giving them at a strength that makes it easy for someone to overdose from one bottle, less good. For what it's worth, you can easily get 400 or 500mg ibuprofen over the counter in the UK, but it will probably involve interacting with a pharmacist who'll probably refuse to sell them to you if they suspect you're going to abuse them.

With antibiotics there's a pretty good reason for them to prescription only, namely that drug resistant strains of illnesses are becoming a serious problem and it's only made worse by the over use of antibiotics. Plus, you likely don't know what the appropriate antibiotics will be for what ever problem you're trying to treat are.

Pardon my ignorance... who abuses ibuprofen and why?

Someone who has some sort of pain but overdoses frequently would count I guess? At some point you should discuss your pain with a Doctor, instead of increasing the dose yourself.

Many people pop OTC drugs like candy. Ibuprofen is often over-used by people with chronic back pain or other inflammatory issues. They aren't addicts -- just people trying to get through the day.

The problem is, it is a rough drug on your kidneys and has potential cardiac side effects.

I also meant abuse as a slightly nicer phrasing of "tries to deliberately overdose".

Plenty of prescription drugs are not addictive, and plenty of OTC drugs are addictive. Your impression is incorrect.

Heh. I need a prescription to buy Vitamin K because it is in "prescription-strength" doses. Lovely self-circular logic.

Ketamine?

There is an actual vitamin K.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K

If I recall correctly, the health benefits of aspirin aren't primarily anti-inflammatory. Ibuprofen is a much better anti-inflammatory at moderate doses.

Correct, Ibuprofen is much stronger for anti-inflammation. Aspirin is a blood thinner and a painkiller, at least these are its main accepted functions so far.

Another layer of irony: the wright brothers at the time used a different government bureaucracy (namely patents) to stop other people from building planes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wright_brothers_patent_war

There's explicit provision in the law allowing for people without a pilot's license to fly an experimental aircraft. I'm sure you can still get in massive trouble for flying through the upside-down layercake above airports, but it's not flat-out forbidden everywhere.

low-dose aspirin for over a decade now. --> please enlighten me. I am curious why would you do that ?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com