Headache Management - Anacin or Saridon !!

Many of us experience mild to severe headaches – and generally, we buy over-the-counter painkiller tablet and swallow one or .. ..  A headache is pain or discomfort in the head or face area. Types of headaches include migraine, tension, and cluster.  Remember Anacin, the Advt featured below is from Kalki Magazine of 1974 !!

 

Our Gal Sunday was an American soap opera produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, network broadcast via CBS from March 29, 1937, to January 2, 1959, starring Dorothy Lowell and, after Lowell's 1944 death, Vivian Smolen in the title role. The origin of this radio series was a 1904 Broadway production, Sunday, which starred Ethel Barrymore. This play was the source of the catchphrase, "That's all there is, there isn't any more." 

An anodyne is a drug used to lessen pain through reducing the sensitivity of the brain or nervous system. The term was common in medicine before the 20th century, but such drugs are now more often known as analgesics or painkillers. An analgesic drug,   is any member of the group of drugs used for pain management. Analgesics are conceptually distinct from anesthetics, which temporarily reduce, and in some instances eliminate, sensation, although analgesia and anesthesia are neurophysiologically overlapping and thus various drugs have both analgesic and anesthetic effects. 

Anacin Tablet is a combination of two medicines used in the treatment of headache. It helps relieve headache by blocking the release of certain chemical messengers that causes headache.  Earlier people used to take Anacin without any medical advice as it was available over the counter without any prescription.    Using this medicine may cause sleep problems (insomnia), nervousness, irritation, or restlessness.   In general, using  the smallest amount necessary to control one’s symptoms is ok but not high doses or prolonged usage without proper medical advice. 

Anacin was invented by William Milton Knight and was first to be used c. 1916 as stated in the patent.  Anacin is one of the oldest brands of pain relievers in the United States, first being sold in the 1930s. Anacin's mascot at the time was Ana Anacin, who was found in a number of ads for this product by Bayer. It was originally sold by the Anacin Co. ("Pharmaceutical Chemists") in Chicago, Illinois.   Anacin was reportedly their most popular product. 

In 1939, Anacin sponsored a daytime serial called Our Gal Sunday. Their sponsorship spanned 18 of the program's 23 years on the air.  Early Anacin radio commercials appeared in radio shows and dramas of the 1940s and '50s. These "formulaic" commercials usually claimed that Anacin was being actively prescribed by doctors and dentists at the time, treated "headaches, neuritis and neuralgia", and that it contained "a combination of medically proven ingredients, like a doctor's prescription", without specifying those ingredients.   

Anacin sponsored the first made-for-television sitcom, Mary Kay and Johnny. Unsure of how many viewers would be watching when they sponsored the show in 1947, Anacin ran a simple test, offering a free mirror to the first 200 viewers to write for one. The offer drew over 9,000 responses, overwhelming the sponsor also proving television was a viable advertising medium.

 

In 1996, when the Indian government banned the combination of the drug Analgin with other drugs, countless young women were still merrily popping Baralgan (a combination of Analgin and two other drugs) to get relief from menstrual cramps.  That decision was reversed later.  Decades later, manufacture and sale of three drugs, painkiller Analgin, anti-diabetes drug Pioglitazone and anti-depressant Deanxit were  banned under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940

 
More than Anacin, youngsters above 50 would remember for sure – the ringtone : ஒரே ஸாரிடான் - தலைவலி நீங்கி விடும்   
 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
27.7.2024