What is Aspergum®?

Aspergum worked great for sore throat. I was extremely sorry when it was taken off the market. Now when I feel a sore throat coming on I take a aspirin between my cheeks and gums & just let it run down my throat. A lot of my family can't stand the taste so l'm glad to hear it is coming back. It's still the best thing for a sore throat I've ever taken.Warm Whisky, honey and lemon works pretty well too.

I used to get the worst sore throats. Aspergum was the one thing that actually helped. So now it has gone the way of my favorite bra style, lotion and boots.

Why was it taken off the market?

I used to use it all the time for sore throats. I never tried it for a headache. I tend to get tension headaches, and for me ibuprofen works the best for me. The dose in each piece of gum can't be very high, and I wouldn't want to be chewing a big wad of gum when I already had a headache. Still, I was sad to see it taken off the market. It was really useful for sore throats.

@cardsfan27 - Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory that mostly works on muscles and other inflamed tissue. I don't think that it interacts directly with nerve cells. Either way, it needs to be absorbed into the bloodstream to work. As for Tylenol, I'm not sure.

I have never heard of other pain relievers in the form of gum, just aspirin. So it may well work differently than the others.

I love that it's called functional gum. It just sounds like a fun name. Maybe that is why it isn't on the market anymore, kids may have gotten a hold of it and chewed way too much not knowing what it is.

I think it is pretty hard to overdose on aspirin, but too much of anything can still be dangerous, and children aren't supposed to take aspirin anyway.

That is kind of the double-edged sword of making any medicine taste good. It makes it easier to get kids (and adults) to take it, but then you run the risk of the child finding it and wanting to take more because they like the taste and don't understand that it's dangerous.

@cardsfan27 - I'm not really sure about that either. As far as I have always heard, no one is absolutely sure how Tylenol works. I think it has something to do with binding to some sort of pain cell. If that's the case with aspirin, it seems like Aspergum coming in contact with the painful area would make sense. That's just my guess, though.

@TreeMan - I used it a couple times, and can't say that I was a fan. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of gum or cherry flavored things, and that was the flavor I had. I don't remember there being much of a bitter taste, but I could see what you mean.

The time I used it was when I was starting to get a headache and the person I was with had some of the Aspergum. I don't remember whether it worked or not.

I could see how putting it in gum form could speed up absorption. What I'm wondering is how it would help with a sore throat. Does aspirin work differently than ibuprofen or acetaminophen? I thought those two had to be absorbed into the blood stream where they dulled nerve cells.

@stil156 - I was curious, too, about why it was no longer sold. I looked it up, but couldn't find a lot about why Insight stopped making it. I didn't find anything about Aspergum being controversial or harmful in any way, so I would agree with you that it was probably just an economic decision.

The thing I did find that was interesting was that Insight Pharmaceuticals is the same company that makes Anacin which is a combination of aspirin with caffeine. Apparently that company just likes to put aspirin in combinations with other things.

I had never heard of Aspergum until now, but how were the flavors? Where they good? Aspirin always has a pretty distinctive taste that seems like it would give any flavor a type of bitter off taste.

What was the reason behind Aspergum being taken off the market? Was it a medical concern or was it simply an economic based decision by the company that made it? From the article, I assume there are still other companies that market the asprin in gum form, just under a different name, right?

I have never heard of any medications being in the form of gum except for nicotine gum to help people stop smoking. What about the gum form makes the medicine more quickly absorbed into the body? Does it have something to do with saliva?

I remember using Aspergum and didn't even realize it was taken off the market. I liked the cherry flavor and would usually use it when I was getting a sore throat.

The active ingredient was aspirin, but I don't remember how much you got in one piece. I don't know if it was equivalent to taking one aspirin or not. They weren't very big pieces, but I remember they did help with my sore throat.

Since I like chewing gum I thought this was a good idea at the time. If I have a sore throat now, I will usually use some lozenges or take some Tylenol to help with the pain.