# Foulest tasting medicine **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 21, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881 "2010-01-21T19:02:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![maisoui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@maisoui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maisoui)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/81 "2010-01-26T12:26:36Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > get any diabetic candy sweetened with sugar alcohols and just do one piece over the ‘serving size’ … Now there’s a thought… They even have a choice of flavours at the gift shop at the hospital. Much prefer “cinnamon” to “nasty.” ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/82 "2010-01-26T12:51:47Z")
I must be sheltered, because the foulest medicine I’ve ever had was liquid Imodium AD. The pills aren’t exactly pleasant, but they’re small and therefore easy-to-swallow. The liquid, on the other hand, tastes like pure hate. Never again! ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/83 "2010-01-26T16:45:43Z")
> [@El\_Nene](#): > > I had some sort of eye irritation a couple of years ago and my eye doctor prescribed the most disgusting eye drops ever. They made Buckley’s taste like a vanilla sundae. No, I did not drink the eye drops. I used them as prescribed. I believe you. I had some Astelin nose drops that I could taste going down the back of my throat and it would leave me with thus awful post nasal drip feeling for hours. I was supposed to use it at bedtime but it made me miserable. Then I was also prescribed the eyedrop version of this stuff and it had the same effect. But still not as nasty as metronidazole. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/84 "2010-01-28T18:47:08Z")
> [@Lottie\_D\_Urberville](#): > > I took some liquid asthma medicine (it sounded like " sinofilin"; I can’t seem to find a reference for it anywhere) as a child that was so disgusting that I threw up every time I took it. I transitioned to pills, then to inhalers soon after. Probably theophylline… which isn’t used much any more (though I use it as it works quite well for me). The worst I remember having - aside from the vague skunky taste while attempting to gulp down an antibiotic pill - was some sort of pill (probably antibiotic) that I got at about age 12. It was pale green and supposed to be chewable, and tasted like really nasty butter mints. I learned to swallow them as fast as I could and I still had trouble keeping 'em down. Biaxin (clarithromycin) doesn’t offend when you take it… but for hours afterward there’s a nasty metallic taste in my mouth. I go through several tins of breath mints while on that stuff. I’m taking acetominophen right now for shoulder pain. The bottle I bought has coated tablets. The coating is sweet. Only, not sweet like it’s something tasty, just fake-sweet. So it’s not so much “bad”, as WEIRD and unexpected and unwanted. ---
**Author:** ![Trick\_Rider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Trick\_Rider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trick_Rider)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/85 "2010-01-28T19:00:10Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > The worst I’ve ever taken is liquid codeine. Not diluted. I was given it by the doctor when I really ill with swine flu last year (JIC anyone asks - yes, it was swine flu; I was swabbed; no, it wasn’t at all mild). It made me vomit copiously every time. Some of it stayed down long enough to help the coughing a bit, though, and the coughing often ended up in puking anyway, so I persevered - well, for a bit. It’s still in the medicine cabinet and I feel nauseous every time I glimpse the label. When I broke my arm, I had codeine phosphate for a painkiller, in case the Tylenols didn’t work. I tryed it **once** , and never had it again. I made damn sure that everyone knew the Tylenol was fine. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/86 "2010-02-14T03:20:26Z")
Bumping this thread, as my ferret has discovered another terrible-tasting-to-her medicine. She’s on about 6 different oral meds right now due to some GI issues, and apparently liquid [metronidazole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metronidazole) (aka Flagyl) is bad enough that it **literally** caused her to froth at the mouth, plus shake her head, spit, and paw at her mouth in an attempt to get that horrible taste gone. Poor lil’ thing. ☹ Apparently she agrees with **Wile E** ’s assessment, and I hope it scares the nasty stuff out of my ferret too. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/87 "2010-02-14T03:45:56Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Bumping this thread, as my ferret has discovered another terrible-tasting-to-her medicine. She’s on about 6 different oral meds right now due to some GI issues, and apparently liquid [metronidazole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metronidazole) (aka Flagyl) is bad enough that it **literally** caused her to froth at the mouth, plus shake her head, spit, and paw at her mouth in an attempt to get that horrible taste gone. Poor lil’ thing. ☹ Apparently she agrees with **Wile E** ’s assessment, and I hope it scares the nasty stuff out of my ferret too. My cat once had something that did the same thing to him… I still remember the sight of him hiding under the kitchen table, foaming at the mouth, and looking UTTERLY miserable, poor kitty. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/88 "2010-02-14T05:32:52Z")
> [@EmAnJ](#): > > Buckley’s. It’s a Canadian cough medicine made with natural-ish ingredients. You just need to watch the [commercials](http://www.buckleys.com/about/tv.htm) to know how awful it is. > > I use it all the time and I make sure I don’t take it on an empty stomach or I’ll be in pain. It makes my eyes water and I always gag. It seems to work, however. Oh yes, I shall second this. My hubby didn’t believe how bad it could taste until my sister brought us a bottle and it was the only thing in the medicine cabinet when he got a bad cough. He did the FUNNIEST dance and the uncomprehensable words coming from him was worth the price of admission! ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/89 "2010-02-14T07:55:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Nyargh Well with a brand name which sounds like a HP Lovecraft demon, what do you expect? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/90 "2010-02-14T12:36:05Z")
For a long time in my life I was unable to swallow pills. Absolutely couldn’t do it. I also had about 20 migraines a year - the head-spitting-headache-for-hours kind, culminating with a charming vomiting session. Paracetamol taken early would stop them in their tracks and so I got used to chewing Paracetamol on a regular basis. It’s quite nasty. The migraines all but dissappeared in my teens but I continued my paracetamol-chewing habit for hangovers and the like… until I travelled in a malaria zone and discovered the antimalarials chloroquine and proguanil. That’s when I HAD to learn how to swallow pills, because they were so irredeemably awful that I resorted to pushing them directly down my throat and accepting the resulting gagging rather than having to taste the things. I can swallow pills now. Even huge mineral-supplement things. The key is to relax. Practice with water, taking nice big gulps. ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/91 "2010-02-14T13:18:36Z")
Luckily enough, I’ve never had any trouble with swallowing pills, but even swallowing penicillin whole is pretty nasty, so I have great sympathy for anyone who has to chew it or drink it in liquid form! That must be pretty terrible. How common is that dental foam stuff that is used at tooth cleanings? I remember I had to get that crap put in my mouth each time I went to the dentist and I can still remember the taste very clearly. It might not have been the absolute worst taste in the world, but you had to leave it in your mouth for a few minutes and it was this awful foam that would always drip down onto your tongue–which made it worse than it would have been otherwise. And you couldn’t even rinse out properly after that, because it would ruin the effects or something. It would always be in awful cherry or (shudder) banana-y fruit flavors. I hated that part of my dental appointments far more than any pain from tooth cleanings, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/92 "2010-02-14T14:00:40Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > **Clothahump** , I think this is your “telephone pole” medicine. It was derived from turpentine. Actually, I’d be willing to bet his telephone pole medicine is this: [Creomulsion](http://www.creomulsion.com/adult.html). Contains beechwood creosote… yum! ---
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/93 "2010-02-14T16:10:55Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > Clindamycin all the way. > It’s a pill, you swallow it and still the aftertaste is evil. This. Except I can’t swallow pills, so I had to eat the powder. I put it in a vat of soup I was going to eat. I couldn’t taste the soup, and it made me vomit. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881/94 "2010-02-14T16:20:18Z")
My girlfriend had [giardia](https://health.google.com/health/ref/Giardiasis)recently. The medicine to cure the giardia parasite has the same symptoms as the parasite itself, and it’s apparently a very bitter-tasting pill. You get to a point where the parasite’s effects aren’t as severe as the ones of the medicine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foulest-tasting-medicine/525881.md?page=4)