I'm not sure if that's a good advice.
AFAIK, in the USA this seems to be common practice but in Germany people are more reluctant to take painkillers, for good reasons: You will be more careful when using the respective body part.
When I object and refuse, they attempt to pressure me into it.
I wish I could teach them that not everything needs to be medicated, and letting your body do its job, even if there's some discomfort or pain involved, is fine.
I prefer not to mess with my body chemistry unless it's a serious situation.
Wikipedia: "Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid, is a medication used to reduce pain, fever, or inflammation"
Not sure what the other poster means by 'extremely hard to get'. Ask for it at the counter at any pharmacy and there you go. Maybe they're referring to it not being available at the counter in supermarkets? (Whereas paracetamol is.)
I'm in the unfortunate situation that Acetylsalicylsalicylic acid (wow, that's a mouthful!) is the only thing that really work for my headaches... so I might be counter-biased wrt. your experience.
It's just that I perhaps seek it out by default and it's not difficult to obtain from that perspective. (Though you always have to listen to the lecture...)
https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai...
Paracetamol is a much safer option with almost no side effects, as long as you stick to the daily limits.
Plugging in this video (in french) from a doctor about various painkillers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCg6if1KZvQ
It might or might not be safe, but the parent claim was that nobody they know uses it as a painkiller, and that thus it's a "strange choice" if someone does, when it's (a) very common worldwide, (b) described as such in every medical website or source.
If you're still a kid ASA is not recommended as an anti-fever medication because of the risk of Reye's syndrome. Perhaps that's why no one you know uses it. Perhaps it's because the patent on it expired a century ago (a result of war reparations, no less) and drug companies find it more lucrative to push their alternatives.
I've first seen people randomly using aspirin on US television shows, so perhaps it's just less common elsewhere.
/s
"Aspirin is an everyday painkiller for aches and pains such as headache, toothache and period pain. It can also be used to treat colds and flu-like symptoms, and to bring down a high temperature." (NHS)
"Aspirin works by blocking the production of prostaglandins, the on-off switch in cells that regulate pain and inflammation, among other things. That’s why aspirin stops mild inflammation and pain." (Washington University)
Yes.
>It literally does nothing. It is placebo at best.
Says who? Not science.
Significant benefit of aspirin over placebo was shown for aspirin 600/650 mg, 1000 mg and 1200 mg, with numbers-needed-to-treat for at least 50% pain relief of 4.4 (4.0-4.9), 4.0 (3.2-5.4) and 2.4 (1.9-3.2) respectively. (...) Reviewer's conclusions: Aspirin is an effective analgesic for acute pain of moderate to severe intensity with a clear dose-response. Drowsiness and gastric irritation were seen as significant adverse effects even though the studies were single-dose. The pain relief achieved with aspirin was very similar milligram for milligram to that seen with paracetamol.
Other study:
Results: The results of the dental pain study for aspirin and acetaminophen with codeine suggest statistically significant efficacy for all measures compared with placebo at all time points. Aspirin provided statistically significant efficacy compared with acetaminophen with codeine for SPID(0-4) (P = 0.028). In the tension-type headache study, aspirin and acetaminophen with codeine provided statistically significant efficacy compared with placebo for SPID(0-4) and SPID(0-6) (P < 0.001) and for total pain relief (P < 0.001). (...) Conclusions: These 2 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies demonstrate that treatment with aspirin (1000 mg) provides statistically significant analgesic efficacy compared with placebo use and comparable efficacy with acetaminophen (300 mg) with codeine (30 mg) therapy after impacted third molar extraction and in tension- type headache.
And so on. There are lots of studies for its use as a painkiller.
And the above don't even touch arthritis and pain from inflammation, where it excels...
At high dose, taken on demand Aspirin is a decent pain killer. In my experience it works against mild headaches and flu-like symptoms.
I just googled for "aspirin pain effectiveness" and the first hit was this:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10796855/
which doesn't match what you are saying.