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

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

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

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

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.....

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.

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


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

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....