Women and Aspirin

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVII, Issue 4, 1 October 1924, Page 183

Women and Aspirin

The habit of taking aspirin tablets for almost any pain — however slight — is becoming a menace to the health of the nation. "Women and girls are taking the little white tablets m ever-increasing quantities. Bottles of them arc to be found m almost every home. Chemists sell more aspirin than any other article. Nine people out of ten have become accustomed to taking the tablets for all sorts of minor ailments. They are cheap to buy, usually quick m the relief they give, and the popular but erroneous belief is that they are entirely harmless. Tt is to this belief m the harmlessness of the drug that its extraordinary popularity is mainly due. "But," says a prominent doctor to a "Daily Express" representative, "aspirin is by no means harmless. Tt may become absolutely dangerous to a great many people. " The habitual use of aspirin has grown to such an extent that women drug themselves with it now, not only when they have a headache, a touch of neuralgia, or a cold, but merely when they feel tired or out of sorts. It is becoming common for girls who have tired themselves out at a dance to ask the waiter to bring them — not a glass of champagne, as m the old days, but a dose of aspirin. One of the

consequences of the aspirin habit is that the more the victim becomes used to the drug' the more it becomes used to him oilier. The one tablet that at first stopped a headache fails ev< ntually to produce appreciable relief, and the dose has to be doubled. It is most difficult to make people realise their danger," said another doctor. They do not regard themselves as "'elopers,' and hardly any realise that they are drugging themselves. The trouble is that danger may arise quite suddenly m the ease of a person who has been accustomed to taking aspirin for months without any apparent ill-effect. "Sometimes such a person will unexpectedly develop a condition m which aspirin may act as a serious poison. Then it shows itself m such symptoms as swelling of the face, rashes, pains and giddiness. "Women and girls are far more addicted to the use of the drug than men. They should be warned that always it has the effect of prematurely ageing those who use it regularly. The golden rule, of course, is that which applies to any other drug— that it should only be used on medical advice, notwithstanding its cheapness, its unrestricted sale and its popularity. *'