Book: The Aspirin Wars

  • Book: The Aspirin Wars

    Posted by Jeff Gerber on October 7, 2025 at 8:42 pm EDT

    I’m curious if anyone has read this book. I stumbled upon it this evening.

    The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and l00 Years of Rampant Competition Hardcover – November 5, 1991

    by Charles C. Mann (Author)

    ” Aspirin makers have a remarkable perhaps unique history of competition they have been slugging it out over exactly the same ground since the end of the First World War. Some aspirin brands such as Bayer are pure acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) the scientific name for the chemical known as aspirin; others such as Anasin and Bufferin add ingredients like caffeine and antacids still others such as Ecotrin wrap the ASA in a special coating. Because ASA has remained unchanged since its invention in 1897, however, all aspirin brands, no matter how new and improved, have the identical active ingredient, and medical science has yet to show that any of these fancy versions are better than aspirin alone for headaches fever and inflammation.

    In capitalist societies such a situation companies selling equally effective products with big potential profits virtually guarantees furious competition And indeed the aspirin makers have a record of industrial warfare that provides a vest pocket history of the mixture of marketing litigation technology and competition that characterizes so much of business in this century Another way to put it is that the annals of aspirin give a glimpse of the incredible lengths to which people will go to put something in a box and sell it.”

    https://a.co/d/3PLoWk8

    IMA-GregT replied 1 month, 1 week ago 7 Members · 9 Replies
  • 9 Replies
  • IMA-HelenT

    Organizer
    October 10, 2025 at 10:21 am EDT

    Had not seen this book before thanks @jrgerber added to my reading list.

  • DBartonRD

    Member
    October 19, 2025 at 1:43 pm EDT

    Very interesting— sounds like it would be worth reading!

  • Dana Mccarthy

    Member
    October 19, 2025 at 5:59 pm EDT

    I haven’t read the book. Robert Yoho MD (ret.) on Substack has written about aspirin a suppressed wonder drug and how it is a safe and beneficial drug.

  • guy dickinson

    Member
    October 20, 2025 at 3:40 am EDT

    I’m not familiar with the book. I switched from ibuprofen to aspirin for headaches a few years ago after listening to Ray Peat followers. I purchase aspirin with only corn starch as an additive, dissolve the aspirin in boiling water and make coffee with that. I believe this is more gentle on the gut & the caffeine enhances the effect.

  • aaronaf

    Member
    October 21, 2025 at 4:31 am EDT

    Hi jrgerber, I was trying to reply to your nattokinase and cholesterol post, but I could not open the reply page! After several attempts, all I got was a blank white page. So, m*a*y*b*e* the reason you have not gotten any replies to that very interesting article is due to this glitch. While I am here, I will comment now about the article. The 2022 RCT was very disappointing! Makes me wonder if the authors or their publisher were biased. The 2025 study was very encouraging to those who are using nattokinase in high doses (about 10,000 FU). Because of an elevated stroke risk, I have been using 5000 Fu, x2/d for years, and my Lipid Panel results were consistently well within normal limits. Perhaps these good results were enabled by my daily intake of nattokinase?

    • Jeff Gerber

      Member
      October 26, 2025 at 10:03 am EDT

      Hi @AaronAF . I had the same problem with my own post. I think the HTML I pasted is somehow corrupted. I wanted to dig into cholesterol more and I just finished reading an excellent 2020 book: The Great Cholesterol Myth, Revised and Expanded: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease–and the Statin-Free Plan that Will by Jonny Bowden (Author), Stephen T. Sinatra M.D. F.A.C.C C.N.S. (Author). In that book they mention nattokinase.

      I’m becoming a fan of the late Dr. Stephen Sinatra, MD. He debunks the cholesterol myth very cleanly with scientific references and gives a list of tests and things you can take to improve cardiovascular health. Things I hadn’t yet learned about such as Omega-7 and D-ribose are covered, as well as nattokinase and lumbrokinase. As an aside, Dr. Sinatra is a big advocate for earthing / grounding.

      • IMA-GregT

        Member
        October 26, 2025 at 12:09 pm EDT

        Hi all – just to mention, Buddyboss is the forum app, and we’re going to be moving to another soonish. So when I see “additional HTML” I do try to go in and remove it, without removing any of your content.

        Also, please know if it takes a double reply – that’s no bother. But just to say if I see it, I do try to fix it.

        • Jeff Gerber

          Member
          October 26, 2025 at 1:58 pm EDT

          @IMA-GregT This entire post I made seems to have become a mess https://imahealth.org/forums/groups/public-forum/forum/discussion/nattokinase-and-cholesterol/ . I had tried fixing the HTML within the window of time that you can edit a post and that didn’t work out as expected. I then tried replying to the post and found that didn’t work either. The page should probably simply be deleted.

          • IMA-GregT

            Member
            October 26, 2025 at 2:11 pm EDT

            Fixed – I think – Please check. If you have this issue again, Just post it and ping me. Don’t waste your time. Hopefully the new forum system will be more robust with regards fixing etc.

            Only thing is fix may be slow with different time zones, but I’ll get around to it. 🙂

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