RResidents in Japan

When you buy OTC meds in Japan, do you always take the recommended dosage?

If not, why not?

13 comments

  3. The identical meds I got in Oz were double the mg’s of the Japanese ones. I tool the Japanese sized dose and they worked just as well. I think a lot of any medicine’s effect is a placebo/homeostasis effect so the lower dose is a better option.

  4. For pain killers, no, I take more. But I’m careful about it. I check the maximum daily dosage and stay well below it, and I avoid extra ingredients (such as caffeine, which many have).

    I have somewhat of a tolerance because of my history of severe headaches, so I simultaneously tend to need more but also have to be more careful about how much I consume and what the other ingredients are.

  5. Cold medicine (the kind where you take 4 pills every 3 hours) tends to give me tunnel vision so I take less per dose. I should probably look for something runny-nose specific rather than these multi-symptom relief.

    Of course with pandemic countermeasures I’ve had fewer colds. I was surprised to see how short the expiration date was.

  6. More a tangent but I still don’t get how the recommended doses are not body weight dependent.

  8. When I had my wisdom teeth extracted about 10 years ago, the doc here (a maxillofacial surgeon trained in the USA) prescribed me some painkillers. He literally said “I know you’re American, and you’re a bit overweight (I was 75Kg and 177cm) so I prescribed you a double dosage.” Even so, they barely worked, and I ended up taking the maximum dosage and still being miserable. When the bottle was empty, I called and asked if he would prescribe something stronger. He said “Did you bring any painkillers from America? Something like Advil?” I replied that I had. “Take those, they’re stronger than what I prescribed you.”

    A few months ago, I had kidney stones. After the treatment, the doc prescribed some meds, but told me to swap to Loxonin when they ran out, which I did. Oddly enough, I’ve had a great experience using it. One pill, but takes a long time to start (like 2-3 hours) and once it gets going, I feel no pain for 6-8 hours after than. When I take them for my back pain (a whole different problem, less intense , obviously) they last closer to 12 hours.

  9. Painkillers are all I really use OTC here, and I’ll take more than the package amount if I need to but look up the dose of the active ingredient recommended on my home country first (Acetaminophen in particular is harmful beyond a certain point). That said though like someone else mentioned, Loxonin works well for me, so since that became available OTC I almost always just use that if I have bad pain, at the recommended dose and haven’t felt the need for more.

  10. I would usually check the recommended dosage in Europe, where I am from. It is usually higher than what’s recommended in Japan. I would then follow the European recommendations, and follow them well. And then I am not the average Japanese 65 kg male on which the Japanese recommendations seem to be based.

  11. I will try to follow the dosage I usually take before I move into Japan, e.g. Paracetamol I need 500mg-1000mg each time, in my home country this means 1-2 tablets, however in Japan each tablet is 300mg max, so I usually take 2.

  12. Many JP pills have much less active ingredient per pill than in many Western companies.

    For example, most ibuprofen only has 75mg per pill in Japan, whereas standard amount per pill in Germany or the UK or the US (if I remember correctly) is 200mg.

    So if you wanted to take 400mg of ibuprofen, in Germany, you’d take two pills, in Japan you’d need to take 5+.

    People get confused by this and say things like “Japanese ibuprofen doesn’t work” but often they’re just underdosing because of above.

  13. A doctor in Japan told me once that I should always take double the recommended dose because the recommended dose is for 50kg people.

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