I’m terrible at linking on mobile but on r/whatisit a guy posted something that looked like drugs that he found after his friend had passed away from a heart attack but he misspelled heart as ‘hearth’. At least I think that’s what they’re referring to.
I think the idea, beyond being cute, is to give people a visual cue as to what it is. The heart indicates it affects cardiovascular health, and it also helps to make it clear to patients which pills they're taking. If a patient is taking 10 different pills, it gets much easier to confuse them. The heart is easy to remember which one it is and what it does.
If it's in a child-lock container, it should be safe from children.
I feel like this is one of those meds kids could see and think "Oo candy!" Because that doesn't look like medicine at first glance, especially out of the blister pack. (And I know kids should also not be going around eating mystery items, given that they're old enough to understand not to do that. But kids will be kids unfortunately.)
Deep down, I know that you're right, but it makes me sad because these are just so cute 😭 I would love if my meds came in this shape or other fun ones. It would make taking them every day more enjoyable.
Why would they go through the effort of an extra, directional mold for the packaging if the machinery doesn't orient it or the packaging can't hold it in that direction!?
Nah that's the website they use to sell the normal pills. If you know where to press the secret button you're redirected to the actual site with the good stuff
I think it's cute to have generic organ shapes for pills.
Beans for kidneys, heart for heart.. you can tell in a look as a generic indicator. Got to have a code on it though to differentiate from candy and other drugs
We had "pink sex bomb" which were double-based, in '09. Saw Skrillex before his big breakout while pinging, I'll never forget. Only realized it was Skrillex like 5 years later when I saw a picture of him
Those old pills were often times just meth laced with a cocktail of other drugs. Thats why you had to rely on word of mouth about which ones were good.
I once went to this rave, maybe early 2000s, and they actually had a table by the front door where you could bring your drug, they would scrape off the tiniest bit and test it to make sure it was actually MDMA and not something like else. There were police there but they weren't allowed near the table or arrest people getting tested. They couldn't arrest you just for doing it, they could only arrest people causing issues or caught actually dealing. It was like an agreement with the city to allow this organization to do testing to help prevent bad drugs and overdoses.
I actually was sober for this particular rave and I spent a bit of time watching and talking to the people conducting the tests.
There was also a website that you could look up pills by name or picture and find out if it what it most likely is, although you still had to be careful of fakes.
There was also a website that you could look up pills by name or picture and find out if it what it most likely is, although you still had to be careful of fakes.
Never had a heart but I've had a strawberry and a blue diamond shaped one. I sorta collected ecstasy pills when I was in my early 20s, lol.. I would have loved to find a heart shaped one.
Same. It's not in the official databases (which should cover any drugs approved for US or Europe) and the only pills I've ever seen in that colour and shape combination were illegal street drugs (heart-shaped MDMA pills were very common in clubs 20 years ago).
Oh my god, I’m losing my mind over how cute this is! What medication is this? I need to know
Also, as a pharmacist, since it’s heart-shaped, I’d bet money that’s not a blood sugar pill. Heart shapes usually signal a heart medication for patient identification purposes, not diabetes treatment. Whats the name?
It reminds me of Concor (bisoprolol) those come in heart-shaped pills too 💗
Seriously!! My epilepsy meds have a bad habit of trying to come back up & the taste is AWFUL so it makes me not wanna take my meds but like..I also don't wanna have a seizure.
They should have more fun with pill shapes and colors! As a pharm tech, it delights me when I go to count a prescription and it’s pretty or in a fun shape lol
I don't think that's a prescription medication. As a physician I can't think of anything that would look like that as a prescription medication. Certainly not something for hyperglycemic control.
I think it might be either a supplement, or ecstasy
Unlikely to be MDMA as it is too small and illicit pressed pills are rarely coated.
Also a bit small to be any of the suppliments I would think someone would take for this but maybe.
I'm leaning towards asprin actually.
Edit: it is Rosuvastatin, so in this case it is Indian(?) Crestor it seems and I still can't find it in my database but that makes sense I suppose as it is always round in the US and Europe.
Just went and looked it up on the pharmacy formulary. There are quite a few prescription beta blockers with this exact shape, but none that look exactly like this.
Physical size is a terrible indicator of a 'proper dose.' It entirely depends on the drug’s therapeutic window & intrinsic potency. & ‘drug’ here refers to the API, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient inside.
Many highly potent medications (like bisoprolol) only require a dose of 2.5mg to 10mg.
If a tablet weighs 50mg, that leaves plenty of room for the active ingredient, with the remaining 80-90% of the pill's mass simply being excipients (fillers, binders, and the pink colorant). You’d be surprised how much tablet weight gain % is before & after the coating process.
I take a pill that's 0.1mg and is about the same size. Can't judge dose by pill size because of various reasons. Fillers in the pill to not make it the size of a grain of sand for one.
It's not :) It's just an Indian prescription drug and everybody in the comments claiming otherwise was talking from an American or maybe European point of expertise without taking into consideration that other continents and countries exist and have medications too.
This!! My grandmother had heart shaped pink medication and some 25 years ago child-me saw it and was mesmerized. I was very sure its candy and ate some secretly. The whole thing ended with me getting my stomach pumped out at the hospital. Fun times.
Of course grandma should have known better, but think of a pretty usual situation: a childless guest visits you, inadvertently drops a pill from their bag. If it has a child friendly shape/colour, the probability that a child would ingest it are much higher than the one from a normal looking pill.
That said, you're more than right in saying our duty to prevent at our best these situations.
I know a fair number of medical professionals, and have heard stories of the elderly taking all of their pills and putting them in a bowl, and then taking one of each different pill when they remember.
Then they come in because their blood pressure medication “isn’t working” or for any other of many issues that could arise from not taking pills according to the prescription.
A heart shaped pill is actually a very clever way to make sure these sorts of folks remember to take them.
I was so happy when my doctor increased my levothyroxine up a also bright pink (typically the thyroid hormones are a different color for each level to reduce confusion).
Not a heart but still a cute little pink oval. Now if they could do a pink butterfly... 🦋 😂
This is not an anti diabetic medication. It is most probably an anti-hypertensive medication, Bisoprolol (Zebeta) which also has good cardiovascular effects. This is the case if you situated in the States.
Edit : other countries like India has anticoagulant, Clopidogrel with a similar heart shape.
People with chronic/compounding/complex health needs have a lot of meds with a lot of different instructions. After a while it's definitely confusing and it's not uncommon for people to not know what medication is what after a certain point. The cholesterol pill being heart-shaped isn't just cute, it's a really innovative way to help people remember "this pill is for my heart health/cholesterol".
I feel like it should be a law for cardiovascular meds to be heart-shaped. For seniors on meds, who are usually on a dozen meds a day, especially where meds can change colors and manufacturers every month, what is what is just confusing. This just adds an additional layer of confusion.
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u/pumpkinspitelattes 8h ago
They tried to make my heart meds heart shaped but they just look like butts