Posted on 09/12/2003 9:23:06 AM PDT by truthandlife
Germany's Bayer AG said on Friday studies had shown its century-old Aspirin drug was as effective against migraine headaches as a newer, standard therapy sold by GlaxoSmithKline. The German chemicals and pharmaceuticals firm said an independent study on 312 patients by doctors in Italy, Spain and Germany showed that two 500 mg Aspirin Migraine tablets reduced pain after two hours as effectively as 50 mg of sumatriptan, the ingredient in Glaxo's Imigran.
It said headaches were less severe or had disappeared completely in over half the patients who took Aspirin, and results were similar with sumatriptan and 400 mg of another painkiller, ibuprofen.
A second study found Aspirin and sumatriptan had similar effectiveness in relieving migraine symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and noise.
Details of the study will be released at a poster session at the International Headache Conference in Rome this weekend, and the study will be published later this year.
Bayer started selling Aspirin Migraine in 2000. Aspirin and ibuprofen can be purchased over the counter while Imigran is a prescription product.
Aspirin, which has traditionally been used to treat pain, fever and inflammation, and more recently as a preventive in heart attacks and strokes, is one of the most versatile and successful drugs in history.
Its active ingredient, acetyl salicylic acid, was synthesized in the laboratory for the first time by a young Bayer chemist, Felix Hoffmann, in 1897.
Aspirin works by inhibiting the production of chemicals called prostaglandins in the body, so diminishing the body's response to a chain of chemical processes that leads to pain.
Sumatriptan was the first of a relatively new class of drugs called triptans that work by attaching to serotonin receptors on blood vessels and nerves. This constricts the blood vessels, bringing about a reduction in inflammation.
Imitrex.
Say it again -- like manna from the heavens for my wife.
Codswallop. I suffer from occasional migraines. Aspirin rarely did a damn thing. Imitrex (the injectable kind, at least) blows a bad migraine away immediately. Trust me on this. It even feels good, almost like bathing in champagne.
Furthermore, my mother has suffered from crippling migraines all her life. Of course she tried everything--you name it, she did it in search of relief. Imitrex changed her life. One shot and that's the end of it.
Allow me to second what you said.
250 mg Acetaminophen
250 mg Aspirin
65 mg Caffeine
(per tablet)
Why does it work? Hell, I dunno, I just know that if one is coming on, I take two (or three if it's particularly bad) of 'em, and it cuts the severity and the duration significantly.
I'll have to look into it. I'm due my next physical - I'll ask my doctor about it.
Actually, the migraine formula has about twice the amount of "stuff" in each tablet; and I only pay 3.50 a bottle for the stuff at my local "dollar store" (Family Dollar). [shrug] As long as it works (except when I've got a particularly nasty migraine), I don't argue.
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