Danger from the Use of “Headache Powders”
The fashionable practice of using patent “headache powders,” such as can be had at the average drug store, is believed by good medical authorities to be a frequent cause of serious illness, and even of death. On this subject Popular Mechanics prints the following:— “Most of the fatal cases, it is believed, are people with weak hearts. Practically every one of the headache powders on the market has been found on analysis to contain acetanilid, or some other coal-tar product similarly affecting the heart. The drug costs but thirty cents a pound, and from five to fifteen grains is considered a fair dose. But even a five-grain dose may be deadly, doctors say, to a person with severe heart trouble. The drug’s action on the human system is to lower the blood pressure, which is usually the cause of headache. An overdose paralyzes the heart, when it is dilated, and causes death. It is the sudden lowering of the blood pressure that causes the lips and finger nails to turn blue. Some of the most costly headache cures contain some kind of heart stimulant to counteract the deadly effect of this drug; but the stimulant may be nearly as dangerous as the acetanilid. Some contain caffeine with bicarbonate of soda, and some contain strychnine. Nearly every druggist has on sale a headache powder of his own invention, and in many instances the chief ingredient is a coal-tar product with no protection for the heart. These are the ones classed by doctors as ‘deadly.’”