# Southerners and headache powders **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2001, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899 "2001-07-02T02:22:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jane\_says](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jane\_says](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jane_says)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/21 "2001-07-03T01:49:57Z")
I’m with evilbeth on this one. Having lived within half an hour of where I live now my entire life, right here in the south, I’ve never seen anyone mix up a Goody’s powder with liquid. In fact, I had no idea that anyone expected them to be used that way. I’m sure most of the old rednecks around here would be shocked to hear about the proper usage of their magical pain-relieving powders. Correct method for Goody’s powder use: Open packet. Unfold paper. Bow up in the middle like you’re rolling a cigarette (or sometghing like that, gimme a break here). Open mouth, tilt head back. Lift paper and dump contents of folded paper into throat. Make icky face, take a big swallow of Mountain Dew, make a worse face, shake head. Voila. I have attempted to consume 2 doses of this horrible stuff in my life, both under the direst of headache circumstances. Both times I came away from the incident with headache intact (couldn’t get it down) and projectile vomiting (tastes like shit). This is my second post regarding Goody’s powders. The first time, after having recently tried taking one the conventional way, was a question I posted about whether it was possible to snort one for analgesic effect. I prefaced the question by saying I would never try it, and was sure it was bad for the nasal cavity, sinuses, etc. I only asked if it would be effective for headache. I was really flamed and more than one person suggested I might have a “substance abuse problem”. Oh well. I never tried it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Raven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@The\_Raven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Raven)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/22 "2001-07-03T02:34:54Z")
I used to live in Charlotte, NC and I only could recall one person I knew who used headache powder. That was my old boss, a chain smoking lady who always took it straight from the little folded paper thing. She never said she couldn’t swallow a pill, I just got the impression that she was used to the powder. Now that I live just outside Savannah Ga and work at a grocery store, I sell a lot of the headache powder, every one is one of the six for a buck single packets near the cash register. Strangely it outsells the single packets of Advil and the like that are right next to it. I think that its probably just that people are used to the powdered form around here. And the snorting idea…I doubt it would matter much. I had a friend that stuffed up his sinuses by snorting three packets of Nutrasweet on a bet, so I don’t think it could kill you. Probably wouldn’t feel too good though. ---
**Author:** ![TexasSpur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a6a055/32.png) [@TexasSpur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexasSpur)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/23 "2001-07-03T03:04:18Z")
I have never seen headache powders being used, and I have never noticed them in drug stores. I have lived in both New York and Texas and both places seem to carry the exact same things in the drug stores. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/24 "2001-07-03T03:56:30Z")
Okay, I found something. [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xjw-central/message/1024](http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xjw-central/message/1024) Basically, headache powders are a “Southern thing,” like Tastycake in Philly, Weber’s Mustard in Buffalo and Old Style beer in Chicago. There’s even a “Goody’s Headache Powder 500” NASCAR race. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/25 "2001-07-03T04:07:43Z")
**bordelond** , I’m basing my post on my experience on a couple of things: 1.) My ex-girlfriend and her cousin, neither of whom claimed to be able to swallow pills 2.) A coworker I had at one job who claimed he couldn’t swallow pills. 3.) My years spent as a bullet catcher in a stop-n-rob, where a large number of customers came in and demanded headache powders because they couldn’t swallow pills. I’d like to add that in recent years the headache powder manufacturers have come under fire as it seems drug dealers were buying the powders to cut their cocaine with. So far, no one’s suggested banning the sale of said powders, but if things get loopy enough that might happen. BTW, I grew up in Ohio and had never heard of headache powders or being unable to swallow a pill until after I moved to Tennessee. I will say that about half the people I’ve seen use the headache powders will swallow them without mixing them with water first. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/26 "2001-07-03T13:57:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bughunter \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > **It’s what the aspirin and naproxen do after they’re absorbed into your bloodstream that causes serious gastric bleeding** > > OK, I understand the function of prostaglandin, but then why do my physician and pharmacist both recommend that I take these medications with food? \*\* Because the drugs can cause some stomach upset,especially on an empty stomach. And if you’re working on an ulcer from taking the meds regularly, taking the next dose with food will mitigate the effect to some extent. But people get GI bleeds just as often with buffered aspirin as they do with non-buffered. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/27 "2001-07-03T14:34:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\ ***bordelond** , I’m basing my post on my experience on a couple of things: > > 1.) My ex-girlfriend and her cousin, neither of whom claimed to be able to swallow pills > 2.) A coworker I had at one job who claimed he couldn’t swallow pills. > 3.) My years spent as a bullet catcher in a stop-n-rob, where a large number of customers came in and demanded headache powders because they couldn’t swallow pills.\*\* You are aware that that is not a particularly meaningful sample. I dare say that if you kept track vigilantly, the number of peope buying conventional pain relievers would far outstrip those buying powders that specificly claimed they couldn’t swallow pills (the remainder would be those who bought powder out of habit, but would swallow pills just fine). But I wasn’t there. Still, I suspect selective memory in your case. Let me assure you that those people were not displaying a “Southern” trait – they were displayig a semi-rare human trait. I’d say you just ran into a VERY unusually disproportionate number of them. Despite living in the Deep South all my life, I never met anyone who wouldn’t swallow pills until I was 24 years old – and to this day, he’s the only person I know that has a pill aversion. So I’ll take the 500+ pill-swallowing Southerners that I know or that I’m acquainted with, and stack them up against your instances. Where will that leave us? ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/28 "2001-07-03T15:12:19Z")
can’t speak about the Southern thing…being Irish and all. but i can tell you this. i can swallow pills, and if i’m not at home when a headache strikes, i’ll buy some paracetamol (is that acetaminophen in the states? or tylenol? or something like that?) or ibuprofen and take the tablets without water. but, if i’m at home, i take 2 cocodamine powders with water. the reasons being, they have codeine in them as well as paracetamol, these babies are much stronger than your average stuff. point of fact my mother used them to get over the pain of a ceasarean…when the pethidine wasn’t strong enough. and i can buy 300 of them at a time (because the amount of water it would take to dissolve enough to kill yourself is about 15 litres) rather than the measly packs of 12 tablets i can buy in a store. the drawback being i have to drink a LARGE glass of disgusting liquid. but, being a liquid, they DO work in about 10 minutes… at which point i’m usually in a state where operating heavy machinery is NOT A GOOD IDEA. ---
**Author:** ![GregAtlanta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb9ed0/32.png) [@GregAtlanta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GregAtlanta)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/29 "2001-07-03T15:47:00Z")
A Southerner checking in: 1. My grandmother always took her headache powders by sticking her tongue out and pouring that little folded paper full of aspirin powder right on her tongue. Then she’d chase it with some water. 2. My mother always made a big deal about how she couldn’t swallow pills. (Swallowed everything else just fine.) She’d put the pill in her mouth, drink a sip of water and then throw her head back in a violent whiplash-inducing move as if her throat was just a hole in the back of her head that she had to aim for. I associate both things with the more country sort of Southerners from which I come. Strictly anecdotal, but so is most of life. – Greg,Atlanta ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/30 "2001-07-03T19:30:39Z")
**Tuckerfan** wrote: > [@](#): > > The companies all make claims that the powders enter your system faster, but I doubt if they do it any faster to make a noticable difference. I suspect it does make a significant difference. Compare dissolving a boullion cube to dissolving powdered boullion. That’s definitely a noticable difference. Furthermore, headache powders are laced with about 35mg of caffiene, which gets the stuff into your bloodstream faster after it has dissolved. ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/31 "2001-07-03T21:10:00Z")
From south carolina here. I have never heard of headache powders till I read this thread. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/32 "2001-07-03T22:15:50Z")
I got a free sample of Goody’s once, from my school bookstore of all places. (I’m in Georgia.) The next time I had a headache, I tried it. BTW, the instructions say to put it on your tongue and then drink water. What they don’t say is “Do this REAL fast because this stuff tastes HORRIBLE.” It seemed to work fine. But ick! I think I’ll stick with pills. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/33 "2001-07-03T22:51:38Z")
They ought to sell the stuff as **EXTREEEEEEME** headache relief. “BC: slam a pack back!” ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2001, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/34 "2001-07-03T23:24:39Z")
Wow, they’re actually advertising that they are to be administered undissolved? I can distinctly remember seeing TV a commercial as a boy depicting a cowboy who stirred his BC Powder into a glass of water and then gulped it down. But half the people I knew just poured it into the back of their mouth and chased it with whatever was handy. The rest mixed it with _anything_ but water, to mask the taste. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/35 "2001-07-04T01:00:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny Angel \* > \*\*They ought to sell the stuff as **EXTREEEEEEME** headache relief. > > “BC: slam a pack back!” \*\* That’s so 1997. What, would the commercials feature a bunch of skateboarders, mountain climbers or mountain bikers featured in the commercials, all in various states of airborness against a Colorado mountain backdrop, with Blur’s “Song 2” playing in the background? WOO-HOO! It’s 2001 now. Times have changed, and that smowboarder is now working for some start-up somewhere in Denver or Portland. He traded his beat up Subaru for a Ford Excursion, and now listens to smooth jazz instead of Korn. “BC – your complete robust, end-to-end headache solution. Tear. Pour. Chase.” ---
**Author:** ![demanton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@demanton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/demanton)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/36 "2001-07-04T01:22:20Z")
My old man gave me some great advice once, and I 'll pass it along to all of you: after a night of alcohol consumption, chase two B.C.'s (I prefer Goody’s) with as much water as you can stand right before going to sleep, passing out, whatever. It makes the next morning a much more pleasant place to be. And yes, it’s a southern thang. ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/37 "2001-07-04T03:46:40Z")
I’ve heard of headache powders. That is my only “experience” with them. Question Can you buy them in bulk? Like ovaltine. If not could you ever? This sounds like an old time remedy that just hasn’t died yet. Irishgirl Do they sell CoTylenol there? It is codine and tylenol in pill or capsule form. ---
**Author:** ![kiffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d78d45/32.png) [@kiffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiffa)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2001, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/38 "2001-07-04T04:03:44Z")
I’m fairly new to the South [2+years in NE Florida] and I was surprised that folks still used powders when I first arrived. What I don’t understand is why Richard Petty wears those solid black sunglasses in his Goody’s TV commercials. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2001, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/39 "2001-07-05T20:06:09Z")
> [@](#): > > **Do they sell CoTylenol there?** No. Codeine is no longer an over the counter medication in the US. Unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![BlueMoonofKentucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@BlueMoonofKentucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueMoonofKentucky)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2001, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899/40 "2001-07-05T20:32:14Z")
Observations from a lifelong Southerner- No mixing, as others said, pour it on your dry tongue and wash it down. In my family it was always chased down with Makers Mark or moonshine with a little honey or molasses stirred in for the kiddies and straight for everybody else. All folks I know have no problem with swallowing asprin, but Goody’s is widely belived to be faster. Either its ‘the thinking that makes it so’ or see above regarding Makers Mark. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southerners-and-headache-powders/70899.md?page=1)