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CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

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Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#131

Post by bmurphy1976 »

shanewilhelm wrote: post #114
cma wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not harmless with Acetaminophen of they don't realize it and also take pills at the same time, pretty narrow range to liver damage.

You might be thinking of aspirin, which is toxic at fairly low dosages. Acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) is much, much safer.

Aspirin and Ibuprofen will tear up your stomach and intestinal linings. Think internal bleeding. Alas I had to push back an epidural I desperately needed for back pain a few years ago by a week or two because I was taking too much Ibuprofen. I had blood in my urine as a result.

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#132

Post by jstarfish »

Heh. I'm at the tail end of either COVID or the worst sinus infection of my life. I asked my wife to grab some (real) Sudafed from the CVS, which they also were not stocking (they are constantly robbed), but the pharmacist recommended "oxymetazoline hydrochloride" (Afrin?) as being just as effective without the side effects.

Gotta say, she wasn't wrong. As a nasal spray it works way quicker than Sudafed pills and without the "tweakiness" (worst was some heart racing, but I could still sleep on it).

Was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked as a decongestant. I don't think there's anything useful to junkies in it but it was still locked up for some reason. A+++ would buy again.

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#134

Post by javawizard »

wutwutwat wrote: post #119
wutwutwat wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Task rabbit, uber eats, door dash, all have offerings where a person will do your shopping on your behalf. It includes over the counter meds afaik.

> What health and wellness items can I order for same-day delivery? We've got you covered on health and wellness items including over-the-counter medicine, vitamins, first aid items, family planning items, feminine care products, home diagnostic tests, and more to help you feel better in a pinch. https://www.doordash.com/p/medicine-delivery Just checked and you totally can buy psuedo via door dash ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://i…

Interesting, when I search on DoorDash everything that comes up is phenylephrine. No pseudoephedrine to be found.

What state do you live in?

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#135

Post by k0k0 »

tcoff91 wrote: post #117
shanewilhelm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be thinking of aspirin, which is toxic at fairly low dosages. Acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) is much, much safer.

I'm pretty sure you have it backwards. Tylenol/Acetaminophen is quite hard on the liver. https://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/acetaminophen_... .

This is misleading. Tylenol in therapeutic dosages does not seem to have much ill effect on the liver, it is not like alcohols or other direct liver toxins. Even people with advanced stage liver disease can receive acetaminophen. When it becomes toxic at supratherapeutic doses it is very toxic.

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#136

Post by bmurphy1976 »

crtracker wrote: post #72
tptacek wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's already easy to buy the stuff that works. You just have to go up to the counter and ask. You have to show ID, just like you do for liquor (and, because purchases of psuedoephedrine are rate-limited, they're going to log your purchase). You'll need to get over that, because I don't think the rate limit is going anywhere: psuedoephedrine essentially is methamphetamine, and it's the worst conceivable kind: the kind…

It's not easy in my state. It goes like this: go to inside counter of an open pharmacy (can't use drive thru for it). Wait, for a long time (aren't all of your pharmacies massively overloaded with 30-60m lines? ours are). Ask for a 96-count sudafed (generic or regular) and hope they have it. If they don't, get 48. If they don't, get 24 (forget that I need 2 tabs every day as prescribed by my doctor -- yet can only bu…

I never had it that bad, but not having the right stock is an obnoxious and frequent occurrence. If you need it that bad and that consistently, you should definitely have your doctor write a prescription and make the pharmacist do the work to fill it properly.

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#137

Post by pdonis »

pyrophane wrote: post #90

My understanding is that they are only removing products that ONLY contain Phenylephrine, which means they will still sell it when it is part of multiple-ingredient formulations, which are in themselves kind of a scam. For example, many OTC "severe cold/flu" formulations contain: - Acetaminophen. Potentially helpful for the body aches that come with the flu, but a lot of the time when I'm sick, I don't exactly need o…

> if you are actually congested, go to the pharmacy counter and get Pseudoephedrine

Yes, that's what works for me. And of course it used to be available OTC until the government decided to control access to it because of fears of meth.

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#138

Post by culi »

timr wrote: post #10
junon wrote: post #4

I'm more surprised Sudafed was shown as an OTC. Isn't that one of the ingredients in meth? Not really the subject of the article but it struck me as odd.

> Isn't that one of the ingredients in meth? Not an ingredient -- a precursor. Methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine and and phenylephrine are very closely related: https://cen.acs.org/content/dam/cen/83/13/8313govpol1imgs.gi... To convert pseudoephedrine to meth you have to remove a hydroxyl (-OH) group in a way that leaves the resulting molecule in a specific isomer. Doing this at high yield is challenging, but it turns…

A fun fact is that both Ephedrine and PE are naturally derived from the Ephedra plant. During WW1 and WW2 there was a lot of research into how we can make these chemicals more potent and that's basically how we ended up with meth. Many soldiers came home after WW2 still addicted to meth and for a few years you could actually buy meth at your local drugstore as an OTC.

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#139

Post by matwood »

crtracker wrote: post #72
tptacek wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's already easy to buy the stuff that works. You just have to go up to the counter and ask. You have to show ID, just like you do for liquor (and, because purchases of psuedoephedrine are rate-limited, they're going to log your purchase). You'll need to get over that, because I don't think the rate limit is going anywhere: psuedoephedrine essentially is methamphetamine, and it's the worst conceivable kind: the kind…

It's not easy in my state. It goes like this: go to inside counter of an open pharmacy (can't use drive thru for it). Wait, for a long time (aren't all of your pharmacies massively overloaded with 30-60m lines? ours are). Ask for a 96-count sudafed (generic or regular) and hope they have it. If they don't, get 48. If they don't, get 24 (forget that I need 2 tabs every day as prescribed by my doctor -- yet can only bu…

Wild. I just walk up to the pharmacy inside my grocery store. Adds about 5 minutes to my shopping trip.

Re: CVS ditches common cold meds after FDA advisers say they're useless

#140

Post by Analemma_ »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #81
crtracker wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not easy in my state. It goes like this: go to inside counter of an open pharmacy (can't use drive thru for it). Wait, for a long time (aren't all of your pharmacies massively overloaded with 30-60m lines? ours are). Ask for a 96-count sudafed (generic or regular) and hope they have it. If they don't, get 48. If they don't, get 24 (forget that I need 2 tabs every day as prescribed by my doctor -- yet can only bu…

Man, your state sounds horrible. Only problem with pharmacies around here is they're always out of adderall.

I have talked about this before, but it really all depends on 1) the area you're in and 2) what kinds of class signals you emanate. I'm a well-dressed white guy in Seattle, and I've never had any trouble buying pseudoephedrine: they just check my ID and then give it to me. Meanwhile I have relatives in a depressed part of the midwest who, with the best love in the world, are visibly lower-class, and they say they get hassled and roadblocked constantly trying to get it. It's pretty naked classism and rather fucked up.
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