I was watching the BBC the other night since it is the only English-language channel I get here in my hotel in Orleans, France and they were showing a program about aspirin. Did you know that over 1 trillion doses have been sold since aspirin was made commercially available over 100 years ago? How about this - over 100 billion doses are sold every year. Pretty amazing!

The best part of the show was when they provided cultural differences for aspirin usage:

Americans - like tablets
British - tend to take aspirin in powder form
Germans - like their aspirin fizzy (evervescent)
French - prefer suppositories

I keep meaning to mention to my French colleages that there is an easier way to take aspirin. Sure, the pills aren’t the tastiest but come on… Jokes aside, it is fascinating to note the differences in the use of such a common medical remedy.

For a quick history of Aspirin including the fact that Bayer, the trademark holder, had to give up the trademark as part of Germany’s war reparations at the end of World War I, go here.