British student invents pain-killing jam

Raspberry jam - A spoonful of jam makes the tablets go down!!
@oldchem1 (8132)
May 25, 2010 10:43am CST
British student Andrew Coghill's grandmother had trouble swallowing her medication, and this inspired him to invent - Parajam. "My grandma struggles to take tablets, because of her age - she is 86 - so I thought this might be a good area to explore," said 22-year-old Andrew. "With my designs I was trying to look at the most natural things we do as humans, take away the fear and make it as normal a process as possible. Jam solution "So I concentrated on drinking, eating, sucking, nibbling - all the things we do subconsciously without thinking about it." Parajam is a mixture of paracetamol and jam (jelly to our US friends) that is dispensed in wrapped segments which can be applied to bread and cakes. I think that this is a fantastic idea, would be great for kids too. We do have some clever kids around don't we!!
3 responses
@mentalward (14690)
• United States
25 May 10
That's an awesome idea! My husband could use that when he needs medications. I always have to stare at him in wonder whenever he's taking a tablet because it's quite an act. He puts the tablet in his mouth, takes a drink of water (holding it in his mouth), then proceeds to shake his head this way and that, up, down, side-side, and it goes on like this for at least a full minute, usually more like two. He's learned to take them wherever I'm NOT because my staring at him makes him laugh and he almost spits out the tablet with the water. He has a phobia about choking. I guess I could call it a phobia. He refuses to eat fish because of the tiny bones (unless it's McDonald's Fillet-o-Fish sandwich), he won't eat almond slivers, plus there's a lot of other things he won't touch because he's afraid of choking. That's why he takes so long to swallow a tablet. The darned things almost dissolve in his mouth before he finally swallows them! So, this jam would be a good idea for him. Oh, by the way, we have both jam AND jelly here in the US.
@oldchem1 (8132)
26 May 10
Yes sorry I stand corrected !! It's just every US show we see here they seem to say jelly not jam - I think you call what we call jelly jello
@Jaluke (676)
• United States
25 May 10
This is a neat and rather smart invention, but it can also be very dangerous as it has a lot of potential for people abusing it or overdosing on it as does any new medical discovery. One minor nitpicky (and random) thing is that he says Americans call Jam Jelly. This isn't really true. We have both Jam and Jelly. Jelly is made with just fruit juices while Jame has actually fruit pieces in it...something Jelly does not. Random, but it bugged me or some reason lol
@oldchem1 (8132)
25 May 10
Sorry it's just that we hear 'peanut butter and jelly' sandwiches when in fact they're with jam - my misunderstanding!
@GemmaR (8517)
25 May 10
This sounds really interesting, but I doubt it would be sold in shops, because it would be too easy to overdose on it. How would you stop a small child from taking it out of the fridge (which is presumably where it would have to be stored) and eating it? It is very good in theory, but I do think it would be just too dangerous in practice.