I’m talking about
It’s a combination of aspirin and caffeine in powder form-- been around since 1906. The brother of a friend swears by them (he’s old like me). Because it’s a powder that you put right in your mouth (followed by water) it gets into your system faster than something you swallow whole. Makes sense. Not only are they still available, they have a Facebook page:
Very popular at amazon:
I might try them. Can anyone endorse them?
I’ve never heard of the product but I don’t agree that this “makes sense”. I doubt there is much difference.
I’m sure it gets in your system faster that way, and tastes awful. It will take some time for a pill to dissolve, and the powder probably is absorbed translinqually as well. Combining aspirin with caffeine is supposed to make it more effective than just plain aspirin. The difference may not be that great, but when you’ve got a killer headache a few minutes can feel like it makes a big difference.
I remember having to use it years ago, was on a road trip, staying at some cheap motel off the freeway and woke up with a killer headache. The hotel vending machine only had the headache powder so I had to try it. It worked, so that’s good.
Don’t think I’ve seen it in stores, but it’s not like I’m actively looking for it anyway
I’ve never seen BC (or the apparently-similar Goody’s Powder) in stores here in the Midwest, nor have I ever really heard of BC. I’d never heard of Goody’s, either, until we got cable TV in the early '80s, and I’d see ads for it on WTBS (the Atlanta-based superstation).
FWIW, it looks like both BC and Goody’s were originally from, and primarily popular in, the southern US. And, they’re both now owned by the same company (Prestige Brands).
I remember their TV commercials in the 60s, with the “But have you tried BC?” slogan. I was mildly surprised to hear that it’s still available. I can’t recall seeing it in a store, but then I haven’t been looking for it.
I can believe it works faster than tablets or capsules, but the idea of pouring a mixture of aspirin and caffeine on my tongue sounds really yucky.
Can’t help that you’ve never heard of it.
RE the powder form: think about it. You pop a pill or a capsule and swallow it. It has to go through your stomach and into your digestive system. Dumping powder into your mouth is going to go directly into your bloodstream. If someone thinks they’re having a heart attack, you tell them to CHEW two aspirin and hold the powder under their tongue. I gave this instruction to my boyfriend in 2004 one day when he came in from mowing the lawn and said he had this fist-like pain in the middle of his chest. He wound up having quad bypass surgery four days later and is still with us today (though not with me).
I have chewed aspirin and it doesn’t taste great-- sort of sour-- but it’s not the worse thing I’ve ever eaten. I’d rather eat an aspirin than cilantro.
I think BC Powder is more well-known in the south than elsewhere. Although I knew about it and I didn’t grow up in the south. I’m just well-informed. 
I was in my late 20s when I first heard of headache powders*. I was applying for a job which required me to take the Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory, and one of the true-false questions was, “I occasionally take headache powders”.
Three years later, I read that the MMPI (first published in 1943) was being revamped to remove some archaic references (another question which puzzled me referred to a game called “Drop the Handkerchief”). I took this to mean that headache powders were something from the past which no longer existed.
I realized this wasn’t true a few years later when Reba McEntire endorsed a headache powder in a TV commercial (can’t remember the brand).
*FWIW, I had at the time lived my entire life in West Virginia.
Sometimes. My headaches respond well to aspirin. The powder seems to work quickly. Someone - maybe Lewis Grizzard - wrote something to the fact that the powder tastes so bad, you forget you have a headache. It’s definitely worth a try.
I agree with this. I grew up in Texas, and I would lump BC in with things like RC cola and moon pies.
Lumped together under the heading ‘Stuff That Doesn’t Taste Good’
Dr. Pepper with a handful of peanuts in it?
I’d like some moon pies right now…
I only know of “headache powders” from reading old, like really old, books. It’s not something I am personally familiar with at all.
I don’t take much aspirin — my headaches are mostly all migraines & aspirin (caffeine boosted or not) does absolutely NOTHING for them. But accidentally biting a tablet instead of swallowing it whole is nasty nasty NASTY. Yuck.
Oh man, I loved headache powders. They did the job, and yeah, part of it might have been the distracting taste in your mouth. These days I just chew aspirin.
Due to the addictive properties of caffeine, Bex and Vincents APC – aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine – were so popular in Australia that they sold it from coin machines in pubs/bars (as a hangover cure), and people used to eat it in handfuls.
Phenacetin was an early precursor for paracetamol/Panadol/acetaminophen. Unlike paracetamol, which causes kidney failure in overdose, phenacetin causes kidney failure in chronic use … Both paracetamol and phenacetin are “canaboid” analgesics, and there are reports that phenacetin was addictive. Personally, I think the ‘addictiveness’ of APC and Bex was well explained by the caffeine.
Caffeine is not considered ‘addictive’ by modern definition, because you can stop using Coffee or APC or Bex whenever you want to. I think that mixing caffeine with other drugs – phenacetin, alcohol, whatever – is seldom a good idea.
While powdered aspirin may get to work somewhat faster than the pill form, it’s doubtful most people are going to experience significantly faster relief with the powdered form. Ordinary aspirin pills dissolve fairly quickly in the stomach.
In general, medication from both powders and pills taken orally passes into the gastrointestinal tract, is subsequently processed in the liver and eventually is spread via the blood to various organs. Meds don’t go straight into the bloodstream if you drink dissolved powders or just swallow them.*
The combination of aspirin and caffeine can be found in other products, including Goody’s headache powder and good ol’ Anacin (their traditional pill contains both aspirin and caffeine). Caffeine works against headache through vasoconstriction, though taking too much of it or using it too often can cause rebound headaches.
*maybe if you snorted headache powder you’d get faster relief, but I doubt this is something you’d want to try at home. 
It’s a regional thing. They were popular in the South, but pretty much unknown outside of there. I picked up a package years ago, but never used it.
Right . I never heard of it in the midwest, but in the South, BC was heavily advertised on the radio . As I recall, they did a lot of early Nascar sponsorships
I never heard of it until I moved to VA. I think it’s a southern thing. I have only heard of it from patients and oddly enough only from African-American patients. Many of my patients absolutely swear by it for headaches.
I wonder if this is similar to fever powders? I remember, as a kid, the doctor would prescribe them when we were sick back in the 60s-70s. They came in wax paper that looked like gum wrappers. Oh how we hated them. My mom would put it in OJ, pudding or the WORST a spoonful of jelly. Very bitter.