Hi all....

Yesterday afternoon I met with my family doctor to have my cholesterol checked and to get a new perscription. I also gave him a full update on my MM testing status. I was actually surprized when he told me that he read u MM to understand what I was going through...as he is the one who sent me to Dr. Dennis (my neurologist)...

Anyway, not to make a long story out of a short one. While I was there, we were talking about my Asprin theorpy...in particular, he mentioned to take Bayer and not generic asprin, but he could not give me a good reason why. Have any of you heard this from your doctors?

Thanks,
Greg

Greg,

No one has mentioned it to me. The only thing I could think of would be the standards Bayer uses. All asprin has a certain window of pontency they have to stay with-in, as do all meds. Maybe the Bayer asprin is more consistent in it's pontency? I have used generic for Tyler for 2 years now and even the hospital gave him generic when we were in CA. Let me know if you learn anymore about it.

Rena

My father-n-law was a General Practice Doctor for years...he and his wife always use generic medication for the family.  He always felt those were fine.

So I figured well why not use generic medication for several of my family members.....but had stuck to the "synthyroid" pills for myself and one of my boys...the pharmacy didn't have the actual brand and asked if ok to use generic for my sons thyroid medication...within a week my son said ...mom it isn't working as well...so I got it exchanged back to the original medication.

But how do we know if the generic is the same as the name brand...or not....is it simply matter of $$$.  I always wonder and would be interest in what u find out.

Another thing....Cara does take Bayer 81mg daily....I happen to get a generic brand...and I noticed she had many more bruises...so I went back to Bayer after few weeks of the generic....now her bruises cease to exist as much.

:) CarasMOM

Hmmm... I've never heard of Bayer being the preferred aspirin, either.  We give my daughter St. Joseph's baby aspirin, simply because it is chewable and is much easier to give to her.

Of course, as far as medications go, Aspirin's pretty inexpensive.  If your doctor recommended Bayer, I don't think there's anything wrong with spending a few extra cents over the generic brand :)

Jenny

I take the Bayer brand as well.  I've actually heard that Bayer is the preferred aspirin, but I'm not sure where I've heard that.  

Michelle

Interesting question, Greg.  My daughter Tara is on 325 mg of aspirin a day.  We were not instructed to purchase a specific brand.  I'd love to hear more if you can get an explanation behind it!

Hey, now that I have the right week . . . have a wonderful get-a-way this weekend!

Warmly,
Jill

I am a scientist in pharmaceutical industry, but not an pharmacist.

Anyway, basically (theoretically) aspirin is aspirin regardless of the maker or brand.  If it says 81 mg aspirin, it is supposed to be just 81 mg of it.  However, the formulation varies, such as chewable, etc.  And the difference in formulation could cause somehow different response from person to person.

Well, I am not answering the question.   Doctors may have some preference based on their experience.  But the thing is if you have a question, I would say you should ask them until you get it.

Cotadad

My only  experience with generic verses name brand is similar to carasmom.Kathleen takes Synthroid, but for a while she was taking   a generic brand.This was at the time she was in the hospital and rehab hospital and they were testing her Thyroid more often.It was not staying steady at all so they sent us to a specialist all she said to do was switch back to Synthroid to be sure they quality was more exact.Seems to have worked....
Mary and Kathleen

I wasn't told to stick with a specific brand either.  However, I do know that my doctor suggested using a coated (I thinnk the word is enteric coated) aspirin due to the fact that I've had really bad acid reflux my entire life.  The coated aspirin are supposed to be a bit gentler on the stomach.  That being said - I think all brands (or generic too) make enterically coated aspirin.

Of course, I'm not a doctor or a pharmacist - just putting in my  [smiley=twocents.gif].

-Shari

Hi!

I really wish I understood what you are discussing on this topic cause it seems interesting and important..., generic brand?
Louise is on aspirin too since a couple of months ago and I still have my doubts about it as she´s been loosing her hair much lately. Before that she was on Fragmin (shots) fo almost 2½ years - not loosing her hair.
When it comes to medications and economy I know for sure they are correlated very much. I have been working with healthcare for many years now and have
heard these discussions many many times.

Sorry to ask but it seems important.....

Cotadad and all,

I agree with you....325 mg of asprin needs to be the same reguardless of the manufacturer. I too am a formulation engineer, except in household and personal care items.

The only reason that I can think of is that drug portion must be the same reguardless of the manufacturer. However, the in-active ingredients can (and usally do) vary. I'm just wondering if Bayer (or other name brands) are formulated such that they disolve/disperse or are absorbed into the blood easier.

Who knows....thanks you all for your insight...for all I know my doctors owns stock in Bayer.  ;;D

Have a great holiday weekend,
Greg

I was told to take Bayer also- wasn't given a reason why though.

While we are on the subject of aspirin however, I thought I would bring up a topic on aspirin resistance that I posted in Oct. 2004.  Funny enough I forgot I had even posted this but just 2 months ago I was tested for this before my operation and was found to be aspirin resistant and was moved up to a higher dose.  There are two articles:

1)  Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

2)  Could you be aspirin resistant? -by Jennifer Conrad-      Womansday 11/1/04  

    Many doctors advise patients to take a daily aspirin to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease and sroke.  But new studies suggest that popping this daily pill might not work for everyone.  In fact, anywhere from 5 to 40 percent of the 25 million Americans who take aspirin daily may be resistant to the therapy.  And those who are resistant are up to three times more likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than those who aren't.

    To find out if your daily aspirin isn't working, you can take a new blood test called VerifyNow.  Made by Accumetrics, the test costs about $30 and produces results in 30 minutes.  "Aspirin resistance is a risk factor for stroke and heart attack," says Daniel I. Simon, M.D., professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, "but we are unsure of how to best treat these patients at this time."  While alternative therapies do exist, clinical trials data in this area is still evolving, he said.

    In the meantime, resistant patients may be told by their doctors to increase their dose of aspirin, to stop taking ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), which may interfere with aspirin, or to begin taking clopidogrel (Plavix), a prescription drug that helps prevent blood clots.  If you're aspirin resistant, doctors stress that you should keep taking it, since it has other benefits, most notably its anti-inflammatory effects.

Greg,

Hi my name is Brad and I have moya moya. I had surgery done in Dec of 2004 so yes it was recent and my docotrs put me on enteric aspirin that i am suppose to take once a day. I was told it was like a blood thinner thats all it is pretty much for. Id imagine it would be to help the circulation until the surgery starts to get the blood flow back normally. I have never told to talk bayer or something like that but been told to stay on taking an enteric aspirin. good luck with figuring that out but thats whats i been told.

Annica wrote on May 26^th, 2005 at 10:44am:

I really wish I understood what you are discussing on this topic cause it seems interesting and important..., generic brand?

Hi Annica!  Sorry for the confusion!  When we talk about brand names, we are talking about specific companies- Bayer, and Johnson&Johnson, and Bufferin are all specific brand names.  However, many drugs, after a patent expires, are made into generic formulations.  Basically, anyone can make the same drug with a different name.  The name is usually "general" and scientific.  For example, Motrin (a brand name for ibuprofin) is simply sold as a generic "Ibuprofin" in other stores.  Similarly, Bayer or Johnson&Johnson, are generically sold as "Aspirin."

Hope my explanation helped and didn't confuse you any further!  (And I hope it was accurate!)

-Shari

Hi Shari!

I didn´t see your post until today but thank you for the explanation. It did make sense and tells me the Medication Industry works pretty much the same as in Europe and Sweden. As I understand it different names (meaning medicins) can still contain sligthly diffferent ingridients although you are told it´s the same thing. Could be important if you have a rare side effect or allergies.

Take care

Annica

I am an RN, and have always been taught that generic drugs are virtually the same as the brand names.  I had always believed that, too.  My daughter uses aspirin also, and we use whatever brand is available, although I usually do buy the enteric coated kind.  She did have a negative experience with a generic drug, though.  She was on dilantin for several years after her MM surgery, as she had several seizures.  After starting the dilantin, her seizures were fairly well controlled.  At one point the pharmacy filled her prescription with the generic equivalent, and I didn't give it a second thought.  Within a couple of weeks, she started having seizures again.  When we checked her dilantin level it was well below therapeutic level.  So we switched her back to the non-generic medication, and her seizures stopped and her blood levels returned to the therapeutic range.  Just for anyone who's interested....

I have been on asprin since I was about 5 years old, am now 24, My doctors are happy to keep me on it as it does it's job well on me and had done for years  -   Davina