The Extra Strength

(I am dedicating this blog to the Chairwoman and members of AFT )

I write the Song that make the whole world Singh (song by Barry Jaswan Manilow ) ...


Anyway, yesterday a pretty friend of mine came and ask me for two Panadols for her headache. Headache which I think caused by stress, cos her neck look so stretched and tight until the blood cannot flow upwards to her brain. Sometimes this can be quite scary when you think about it .. the whole head is just balancing on the upper body and yet it controls almost all your bodily functions. Thats why I cannot understand the concept of slimming. When you slim down, you are effectively reducing the centre of balance for the head 'cos the total area is now smaller. If you notice the very slim, their head always look too big for their body and out of place most of the time.

So my little friend says she only takes Extra Strength painkillers. And what is Extra? Its Strength but added with Extra. But I told her I only have Strength, no extra. So I gave her two Strength, which I figured is equivalent to her one Extra, which is her usual dosage. See how difficult it is to get anything from me?

Next comes the tricky part. She says her Panadol is Quick Acting. But on the other hand, mine is normal acting. So I presume for quick acting, you get relief faster. But for my normal strength, you have to take a number and wait while the joker takes his time to deliver the relief package to the needy spots. Now why is it that pharmaceutical companies have to make our lives more challenging? Why not just put the chemical responsible for quick acting into the normal acting pills? They don't do that, they like to make people choose between getting comfort now or later. Of course in the process they charge you a premium for the difference in speed of reaction.

The marketing department of these drug companies make a good living out of all these perceived differences because they know we cannot really tell them apart. Which person suffering from headache can tell you he actually timed the quick acting and normal acting painkillers? And how much stronger are the Extras? But some consumers are not satisfied with Extra Strength, they want Mega Strength. No more weak pills from now on! So now there is the Maximum Strength ones versus the minimum strength type, the Triple Action vs the single action, the Total Advance Formula vs backward formula, Extended relief vs delayed, Original vs copied, unflavoured vs artificial flavouring. The good news is that everyone is getting more. And the bad news is that nobody gives a damn.

So the next time anyone ask me for a pill, I want them to test and see those differences as claimed by the manufacturers. If they don't live it up, I would form a consumer group and sue them for mega adult formula $$$.