Plop plop, fizz fizz

When I was a kid in the 1970s and early 1980s, the medicine cabinet looked different than it does today. Carter’s Little Pills helped with occasional irregularity. Doan’s Pills relieved your back and kidney pain. Dristan and Contac were common cold remedies. Anacin was everywhere when I was growing up; it was one of the headache medicines adults reached for first. Some of those products are hard to find now or have disappeared entirely. Others survive in altered form. A few remain widely available but have slipped out of everyday use. In many cases that’s a good thing. Carter’s Pills contained phenolphthalein, a carcinogen. Dristan and Contac contained phenylpropanolamine, which increases stroke risk, especially in women. In other cases, preferences just shifted. There’s nothing wrong with aspirin or Anacin (aspirin and caffeine) for a headache, but Tylenol and Advil came along and gradually supplanted them. Preferences have also shifted away from Alka-Seltzer, another survivor from…