Do you know any vegan painkillers?

Googling “what is aspirin made of” led to:

“The compound from which the active ingredient in aspirin was first derived, salicylic acid, was found in the bark of a willow tree in 1763 by Reverend Edmund Stone of Chipping-Norton, England. (The bark from the willow tree—Salix Alba—contains high levels of salicin, the glycoside of salicylic acid.)”

And this whole page about the making of aspirin . Looks pretty vegan as far as I looked – you can scour the info for yourself and check labels for specific brands. I see some chewables use lactose, which probably means an animal was milked for those.

Ibuprofen.
I live on that shit.
No animal products.

Most pain killers are plant derived or synthetic. Look up your drugs of choice and most likely it is vegan. Capsules and gel coated tablets might have gelatin, so probably stick to tablets, liquid, or candy coated.

Even vegans break the rules for medication. If you have an easy vegan option then great, but if not don’t sweat it. I have vegetarians and vegans in my family and they break rules at times.

Given that you’re 13 you should probably avoid aspirin. The FDA advises under 19’s should seek medical advice before taking aspirin to avoid Reye’s syndrome. In the UK the advice is under 16’s should not take aspirin (unless for Kawasaki disease or prevention of blood clots).

^^I think the contraindication for aspirin for children is while sick with a virus. Is it for pain also?

I wouldn’t recommend aspirin for children anyway for other reasons, but I’m just curious about the warning now.

there’s an association between aspirin use in the under 18’s particularly after a viral illness and Reye’s syndrome but no one is sure exactly what is going on or if that’s just a coincidence. I imagine that given that there are (significantly) better analgesics available there is no good reason to recommend children to take it – except for the 2 cases I mentioned.

@Lightlyseared I would say the warning is not blatant enough on the packaging, unless it has changed. 15 years ago my SIL told me she was happy to see children’s aspirin in a bunch of flavors, because she didn’t remember seeing it in a long time. I think she felt the old drug she took as a child is better or safer, I don’t know. Her son was sick at the time, about 8 years old.

I told her it’s not good to give him aspirin because of Reye’s (I remembered the Dick Van Dyke ads and my mom telling me they don’t give aspirin to children anymore) and in her typical fashion she didn’t believe me. I knew I was right, I did my typical, “maybe I’m remembering something incorrectly,” to seem less combative, and I went and picked up the bottle. Right on it in mini mini small writing was the warning among the other black and white directions. It should be in big letters on the front. Maybe the warning in the bottle is better now. People don’t read warnings or dosage all to often.

Thanks for all the help, I’ll do a bit more research to see if the aspirin are safe for me, and ibuprofen too. Thanks!

Ibuprofen and Tylenol are usually what are recommended for children now.

What is your pain? Muscular pain is best treated with ibuprofen. It reduces inflammation and relaxes muscles. Make sure you eat with ibuprofen or aspirin at least a little bit of food and drink a full glass of water. Try not to take either immediately before bed. Tylenol is a strain on the liver. Absolutely no drinking alcohol when taking Tylenol.

Here is a little bit of (hopefully) helpful info from this website: http://vegweb.com/community/lovin-loot/any-vegan-otc-pain-killers

*Posted by shelloid on Feb 27, 2010 · Member since Nov 2006 · 4427 posts
BTW ibuprofen is one of the drugs that it is unsafe to take expired. For some reason that is beyond my knowledge, it gets stronger as it ages. Weird.

as a pharmacist, I have never heard of this and it sounds unlikely to me…..it would have to change it’s molecular formula to something more potent for this to be real….and generally when drugs degrade it’s less active.

I know you’ve already found someone who will make a special solution or something for you, but it would be worthwhile looking at liquid or soluble preps. Lactose if a common filler/gliding agent used in tablets / capsules, but it insoluble in water and so is not found in soluble tablets.
Unfortunately i don’t know US brands so I can’t help any further….but could give you names of some UK vegan painkillers! ::)*

So the above poster, who is a pharmacist in the U.K. says that you might be able to have your own pharmacist make up a special formula for you (without any of the added non-vegetarian ingredients). It might be somewhat pricey though. You could also talk with your pharmacist and see if they have any recommendations for over the counter products that would be vegan (it’s best if you have a list of non-vegan ingredients that might be in some of the medicines so they can check).

Here is another website that might be useful: https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health/medicines. You could probably message someone on this site with your question to get some useful information. : )

I don’t know about how they label things in Australia, but in the U.S. we don’t have specific mandated labeling for vegetarian and vegan products, however, quite a few of the stores that are more “health minded” do carry some products that will actually say “suitable for vegetarians” or “suitable for vegans” on the label. These products are specifically created for vegetarians or vegans. You can also do a Google search for that type of thing and see what comes up.

Here is another Website that might be useful.

This Site might also be of some use.

Hope you are able to find what you are looking for. Good health to you : )

Meanwhile, the OP is only 13 so she/he shouldn’t take anything without help from a parent or doctor.

A capsule of cranberry extract that is over ten thousand milligrams will stop all urinary tract infection discomfort . You have to search for that brand, though.