To hard-driving athletes and weekend warriors, the mentholated fumes and the hurts-so-good burn of sports creams and adhesive pads seem a harmless balm for overworked muscles. But for a teenage athlete in New York, the pain-relieving gels, patches and ointments proved in April to be deadly poison.
Earlier this month, the New York City medical examiner concluded that 17-year-old Arielle Newman effectively died of an overdose of muscle-soothing balms. To a new generation of users -- and an older generation of athletic overdoers -- it was a sobering reminder that these popular products contain real medicine, even though they're applied to the skin rather than swallowed.
Many of the topical over-the-counter and prescription products are old standards: antibiotic ointments such as Neosporin, topical steroids such as Cortaid and muscle creams such as BenGay. But drugstore aisles in recent years have seen a proliferation of medicines contained in new forms -- gels, adhesive pads, roll-on solutions -- offering relief of pain, itching, infection and even cigarette addiction.
Most Americans have grown accustomed to checking their pill bottles for dosages and safety warnings. But when it comes to slathering or sticking medicinal products onto the skin, few are aware that overuse, doubling-up or using these products while also taking pills and tablets containing similar medicines can lead to overdoses, drug interactions and unpleasant side effects.
The case of high school track runner Newman underscores the safety concerns. Newman had been rubbing sports cream on her legs regularly between track meets, while also using an adhesive patch that delivers anti-inflammatory medication and a third, unspecified medication. After her death April 3, the New York City medical examiner concluded June 8 that, over time, Norman's body had absorbed high doses of methyl salicylate, a compound related to aspirin, causing cardiac arrhythmia leading to her death.
In many ways, experts say, the skin is becoming the new stomach. For much of the medicine in these gels, creams, patches and ointments, it's as sure a route to the bloodstream as the stomach is for pills. At the same time, taking medicine through the skin can make for more imprecise dosing, because skin that is delicate, broken or subject to heat or bandaging can absorb more medicine than skin that is intact, cool and open to the air. In such cases, dermatologists warn, a consumer can suffer from too much of a good thing.
