Alka-Selter, Aspirin, Choline, and Salicin: A More Effective Way to Control Pain
Plants from the Salix genus (willow trees) contain salicin, a medicinal substance that inspired the development of aspirin as a pain-reducing drug. But the mechanism of herbs that contain salicin are very different from that of aspirin. Herbs that contain pain-relieving salicin are not as dangerous as taking aspirin on a regular basis.Beyond aspirin are substances like salicin that are the natural products found in the willow tree and other plant medicines. Salicin is another pain-reliever that can be used as an alternative to aspirin and that doesn’t have the same risk fo causing gastrointestinal bleeding. Salicin is the original pain-relieving, fever-reducing medicine, but as a natural substance it doesn’t cause the same potentially deadly effects as aspirin, so people can use this medicine with greater freedom. In other words, salicin is a guilt-free pain-reliever that won’t hurt your stomach lining.
Aspirin / acetylsalicylic acid is a synthetic compound that was inspired by salicin, the natural substance found in plants like meadowsweet and willow. But aspirin and salicin are quite different in terms of how they work inside the body medicinally as well as in terms of their side effect profiles. In fact, though both aspirin and salicin are pain-relievers, they work through very different mechanisms of action. The little modification made by scientists in white lab coats to create a patentable form of salicin significantly altered how this molecule works inside the body. Those who are squeamish about bleeding internally might take some time to learn more about salicin as an alternative pain-reliever medicine that is much less likely to cause major side effects like aspirin.
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Side effects of taking aspirin in large doses long term include:
- Hearing issues / ototoxicity
- Bleeding more easily than usual
- Gastrointestinal bleeding
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes)
- Joint pain (due to high uric acid levels)
- Swelling in the hands and feet
How to Make Aspirin Safer and More Effective at Pain Control
Aspirin has been around for a long time as a pain-reliever, but before aspirin, there were willow leaves and also willow bark. Meadowsweet, in fact, is the herb that was used as a resource for salicin in laboratories where salicin was being synthetically modified into acetyl-salicylic acid / aspirin.Salicin is, a substance that’s similar to the chemical we know as “aspirin”, namely acetyl-salicylic acid but salicin is substantially different to warrant a special comparative discussion to tease out the facts. First though, let’s take a close look at aspirin. Is it really safe to take aspirin regularly, even at low doses?
In one large, long-term study that followed female nurses, there were 87,680 participants. Of these participants, 1,537 of them had major gastrointestinal bleeding as a result of taking aspirin that landed them in a hospital. In other words, about 2% of these participants developed gastrointestinal bleeding due to taking aspirin. Most of the women who developed bleeding issues were taking aspirin regularly with an increase in risk taking shape at just two doses of 325 mg weekly. Women who took 2 aspirin per day were categorically in danger though, no matter what their age and no matter whether they’d been taking 2 aspirin per day for 2 years or two weeks. With aspirin, you have to give the stomach lining time to repair itself, otherwise, you might be killing pain in one part of the body only to irritate and inflame the digestive system at great peril to your life.
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Though it can be okay to take aspirin from time-to-time (once weekly perhaps or less), in fact, if you’re trying to reduce pain in your body, aspirin can make things worse via its impact on the digestive tract. In the study that followed female nurses who took aspirin over the course of time, it was established that even a regular 325 mg dose of aspirin taken at least twice weekly or more often could result in any of the following digestive bleeding events in approximately 2% of the population:
- Bleeding ulcer
- Gastritis or duodenitis / inflammation of the stomach or duodenum
- Blood vessel malformations
- Colitis / inflammation of the colon
- Diverticuli
That being said, the potential danger associated with aspirin use was greater with increasing dose. Women who took more than fourteen 325 mg aspirin tablets/week had the greatest risk of digestive bleeding. In the study, it didn’t really matter how long a given woman had been taking aspirin this often. Women who had been taking aspirin frequently were the ones who were most likely to experience a digestive bleeding event.
Indeed, people who take baby aspirin, which is about one-fourth of a dose of regular aspirin (about 81 mg per pill) are also at risk for gastrointestinal bleeding, especially if they’re over 60 years of age. Taking a daily aspirin is risky, even at a low dose because aspirin breaks down the stomach lining. Ironically, a substance called “prostaglandin” coats the stomach lining to protect it from high acid levels. But prostaglandins are also involved in the transmission of pain. So, when you take aspirin, you reduce prostaglandin levels, which dampens your experience of pain, but it also leaves your stomach lining vulnerable to high acid levels. Some websites recommend that you take aspirin with food to reduce acid levels in the stomach. Other sites say that taking aspirin with an antacid like Tums or drugs like famotidine / Pepcid / Fluxid, or Proton Pump Inhibitors / PPIs, but Tums and other antacids contain heavy metals and calcium that can actually hurt your cardiovascular system by causing plaque buildup, especially if people are simultaneously taking vitamin D supplements. And PPIs are just bad for human health because they inhibit proper digestion, which leads to poor digestive system function, and mal-absorption of nutrients. Drugs like famotidine / Pepcid / Fluxid have a long list of side effects including joint pain and also fatigue, which are symptoms that people are trying to relieve by taking aspirin in the first place. So what we recommend is something much simpler: Alka-Seltzer.
Alka-Seltzer for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain
Alka-Selter is an aspirin-based product that also contains citric acid and baking soda. You could, in theory, make Alka-Seltzer yourself using these three ingredients, but convenience matters to you, this is an aspirin-based pain-reliever that’s gentler on the stomach, designed to settle an upset stomach, in fact, and that can reduce pain levels in the rest of the body.The formula for one dose of Alka-Seltzer (2 disks) is 325 mg of aspirin, 1000 mg of citric acid, and 1916 mg of baking soda (ideally a brand that does not contain aluminum if you’d like to avoid heavy metal exposure). Many people with fibromyalgia, arthritis, and other types of rheumatic issues have digestive upsets that are contributing to their chronic pain. So it’s important that you take care of your digestive system if you have chronic pain in other parts of your body. Alka-Selter is a tool that you can use safely perhaps once a week or less for pain control.
If you have chronic pain, avoid consuming alcohol in large quantities as alcohol can also irritate the stomach lining.
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What about enteric coated aspirin? Is it safer than non-enteric coated aspirin?
In fact, no, it is not. Enteric coated aspirin is still aspirin. Aspirin works by inhibiting prostaglandins that coat the stomach. It inhibits prostaglandins after it goes into the bloodstream whether it finds its way into the blood via the stomach or through the intestines (where enteric coated aspirin is absorbed).Aspirin prevents platelets from aggregating which makes it harder for blood clots to form. Irritation in the stomach or in any area of the digestive tract can easily lead to bleeding and if aspirin is taken regularly and this can turn into a major health emergency. Enteric coated aspirin taken regularly is just as dangerous as regular, uncoated aspirin.
Aspirin and Choline
Studies have shown that choline administered in tandem with aspirin can have a pain-relieving effect of a more substantial nature than the type of pain-control that’s possible if either are used separately. When you administer choline with aspirin at the proper dose, choline prolongs the pain relieving action of aspirin and it also enhances anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects. If you combine your aspirin with choline, you can take a lower dose of the aspirin to reduce your risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.
Choline is a nutrient that’s used by the body to produce the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Taking choline along with aspirin can reduce inflammatory pain more readily and with greater effectiveness. Scientists believe that adding choline to a pain-control regimen that includes aspirin works through choline’s interaction with alpha-7-nicotinic receptors as well as opioid receptors, and muscarinic receptors. That makes sense given that acetylcholine is made from choline and the cholingergic system is wired into action with nicotinic and muscarinic receptors.
Combining drugs with different mechanisms of action against inflammation is a strategy that can help people effectively control fibromyalgia pain and other types of pain like arthritis, headaches, and more at lower doses and with fewer dose-related side effects. Several studies have been done on choline with aspirin as a model that people can work with as an at home treatment for fibromyalgia pain. The choline works synergistically with aspirin to produce a better overall effect in terms of pain control and inflammation reduction. Using aspirin in the form of Alka-Seltzer helps to protect the stomach lining in those who have to do some kind of pain control daily.
Alka-Seltzer and Choline Dose:
Alka-Seltzer combined with choline is also a good combination because, as we discussed above, Alka-Selter is less irritating to the stomach. Put the two Alka-Selter disks in water (325 mg of aspirin) and take 1000 mg of choline citrate or bitartrate at the same time.
Beyond Aspirin: Salicylates for Pain Control
Salicin is present in a number of pain-killing herbs. This pain-killing substance has been in use for over 4,000 years dating all the way back to Sumeria, the ancient Greeks, and the ancient Chinese doctors. When willow bark is dried, the salicin concentration gets higher and since the 18th century, dried willow bark has been a gold-standard for treating fevers and inflammation.Salicylates are are simple phenolic compounds that are found in many flowering plants that belong to the Salicaeace family and the Caprifoliaceae family. Natural salicylates that are found in herbs include:
- Salicin
- Methyl salicylate
- Salicylic acid
Back when willow bark was first being researched in 1829, crude extraction techniques were used and scientists isolated salicylic acid, not salicin from the plant material. As such, salicylic acid became the inspiration for today’s aspirin even though this substance is very irritating to the stomach lining. Yes, it’s true that salicylic acid is more effective at pain relief and thinning the blood that willow bark, but salicin is the substance with the greatest pain-relief potential that doesn’t come packaged with the same risks involving the digestive system. Salicin is broken down in the body into salicylic acid, but salicin does not irritate the stomach lining.
In a forest of trees, salicylates like salicin and are used as a plant-hormone that promotes growth, development, transpiration, ion uptake / transport, photosynthesis and signaling that helps the plants defend themselves against pathogens. This signaling can be sent to nearby plants through the conversion of salicylate to methyl-salicylate. Thus, salicylates act within forest systems to provide mutual support and defense against pathogens within a forest community.
Salicin and Salicylic Acid
Inside the human body, salicin is converted into salicylic acid. Salicylic acid has the following medicinal effects in the body:- Analgesic / pain reducer
- Anti-inflammatory
- Anti-pyretic / fever reducer
- Anti-rheumatic
- Keratolytic
- Comedolytic (anti-blackhead, anti-acne)
- Antiseptic
In contrast to aspirin, salicin does not have the same anticoagulant effects. As such, you should not attempt to use herbs that contain salicin to thin the blood.
In comparison with aspirin, salicin and salicylic acid takes longer to relieve pain, but their effects are also longer lasting. This makes sense given that the body must first convert salicin into salicylic acid. The salicylic acid then takes effects an anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic (fever reducer), and pain reliever with effects that last longer than just taking an aspirin.
Derivatives of salicin travel to the ileum (the last segment of the small intestine) and the first part of the colon where the gut flora converts them into salicylic alcohol, the aglycone of salicin, via partial fermentation. The salicylic alcohol is then converted and absorbed into the blood and tissues. It is oxidized at this point into its most active form. The need for fermentation in the gut to happen in order to activate salicin into salicylic alcohol is one of the reasons why this medicinal agent takes longer to take effect. Salicylic alcohol is converted to the active medicinal agent, salicylic acid, in areas of the body with higher levels of acidity. Nonetheless, the bioavailability and conversion of salicin to salicylic acid happens within less than 1 hour.
Salicin has an effect on the following pro-inflammatory targets in the human body:
- Cyclo-oxygenase 1 / COX-1
- Cyclo-oxygenase 2 / COX-2
- TNF-alpha
- NF-K-beta
- Prostaglandin E2
Salicin and Salicylic Acid Side Effects
- In high doses, salicylic acid can be toxic to the internal structures of the ear by inhibiting prestin, a protein found in the inner ear of the human cochlea. In zinc-deficient patients, prestin can cause transient hearing loss.
- An overdose of salicylates can lead to toxicity symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, lethargy, tinnitus, dizziness, and abdominal pain.
Herbs That Contain Salicylates
- Willow / Salix sp.
- Meadowsweet / Filipendula ulmaria
- Poplar / Poplar
- Cramp bark / Viburnum opulus
- Black Haw / Viburnum prunifolium
- Wintergreen / Gaultheria procumbens
Final Thoughts...
If you suffer from chronic pain, be aware that emotional trauma from the past and stress in the present can enhance your experience of pain. Trauma can be integrated and released and often, people experience a permanent relieve from all or part of their pain syndrome with intensive work doing trauma-informed therapies along with herbal therapy and supplements. Trauma-informed therapies are gentle and there are many of them. Consider working with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing / EMDR first as a treatment that you can do at home. EMDR involves a gentle eye movement that also adjusts the upper spinal column (via a shared innervation pathway of the eyes and the upper vertebral muscles). This treatment helps the right brain talk to the left brain to release trauma permanently in small doses while relieving the body and the "felt sense" of emotional overwhelm.
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Resources:
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• Yong-Ping, S. et al. (2011). Pharmacological action of choline and aspirin coadministration on acute inflammatory pain. Retrieved January 22, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21388846/
• Wang (2005). Antinociceptive effects of choline against acute and inflammatory pain. Retrieved January 22, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15780465/
• Medical Discovery News (2021). Origin Story of Aspirin. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://www.utmb.edu/mdnews/podcast/episode/origin-story-of-aspirin
• Graham, G. G. (2017). Salicylates. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-7643-8550-7_62
• Day, R. O. et al. (1989). Concentration-response relationships for salicylate-induced ototoxicity in normal volunteers. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2125.1989.tb03562.x
• NHS (2024). Side effects of aspirin for pain relief. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/aspirin-for-pain-relief/side-effects-of-aspirin-for-pain-relief/
• Huang, E. S. et al. (2011). Long Term Use of Aspirin and the Risk of Gastrointestinal Bleeding. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3086018/
• Harvard Health Publishing (2014). Answers about aspirin. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/answers-about-aspirin
• The Naturopathic Herbalist (n.d.). Salicylates. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://thenaturopathicherbalist.com/plant-constituents/salicylates/
• Antoniadou, K. et al. (2021). Identification of Salicylates in Willow Bark (Salix Cortex) for Targeting Peripheral Inflammation. Retrieved February 27, 2025 from https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/20/11138
