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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

#231
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you usually take decongestants for 12+ days? I usually just take them a couple of times on the worst days of a cold, maybe 5 pills every time I get sick. And pharmacies in my city don’t usually have more than 1 or 2 people ahead of me in line.

All males in my family over produce muccous and have perpetual post-nasal drip leading to a frequent cough that is slowdy taking away our voices. Sudafed access would be great! I've gone to an ENT to try to reduce things but no luck so far.

You could try getting an ADHD diagnosis, adderall is a fantastic decongestant.

(Joking)

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

#232

psuedoephedrine is the only one that works.

And it works really well. I have some debilitating allergies during the summers and it's basically benadryl or pseudoephedrine. If I want to stay remotely functional, I need pseudoephedrine.

What's your experience with the more recent non sedating antihistamines?

I find that Allegra is pretty helpful with minimal to no side effects, Zyrtec doesn't have a lot of side effects but isn't as helpful, and then Claritin is about the same benefit as Zyrtec with a bit of fogginess.

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

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you usually take decongestants for 12+ days? I usually just take them a couple of times on the worst days of a cold, maybe 5 pills every time I get sick. And pharmacies in my city don’t usually have more than 1 or 2 people ahead of me in line.

i was going to say, what planet are you on where you have to wait 60 minutes at the pharmacy, and what you need more than 24 pills for? you're either Jesse Pinkman or sicker than a vintage Jimi Hendrix lick

Honestly depends where you are. I lived in a town of around 100k at one point with probably 250k in the surrounding area and we were severely under pharmacied for how much demand there was. There was always a 20+ minute line. CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, didn't matter.

Now I live in a large metro area and I almost never wait.;

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

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that the major pharmacy chains keep records and will refuse to sell it to you before you reach the limit that would trigger a misdemeanor. But, if a law is never enforced, it should be deleted. Otherwise, one day you decide you don't like someone's political views, and suddenly they are the first case of purchasing 9.1g of Sudafed in a single 30 day period. Dead code is just waiting to be a security incident…

Again, I'm not advocating for the limits. I'm saying it would be very hard to exceed the limits as they exist now.

Step 1, get married. Step 2, have kids. Put your allergy status on your dating profile, I guess.

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

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously retail pseudoephedrine was never a substantial contributor to methamphetamine production (tell me again why that’s illegal?). Which raises the question, what what the real goal in preventing people from buying functional medicines? Frankly I think the specific intent was exactly this. The main effect was to cause human suffering and Occams razor tells me the main effect was probably the intended effect.

> methamphetamine production (tell me again why that’s illegal? Because it ruins people's lives, that's why.

And the vast majority of people who make it don't have proper chemistry training, lab equipment, PPE, or pure chemicals to make pharmaceutical grade methamphetamine with no impurities or unreacted reagents.

I'm all for medicine that helps people and amphetamines absolutely can, but methamphetamine doesn't help people. It enslaves them.

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

#236
post #115
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven't needed a prescription to purchase products with pseudoephedrine in them in Oregon since January 1, 2022.

So they decriminalized meth in 2020 but it took them another two years to roll back this mess? Oregon leading the way, as usual.

[deleted]

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

#237
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I mean we can see a demonstrable and quantifiable MASSIVE decrease in meth usage and overdose circa 2005 when the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act went into effect. Also, it's still available without a prescription, last I checked, it was just behind the counter/required an ID to track if you're grabbing a pack from every Walgreens in a 50 mile radius in a single night

My sister is on the short side. She went to the counter to buy some of this stuff and the pharmacist refused to believe her ID that said she was (substantially) older than 18. Granted, it was a California issued ID and the pharmacy was in Illinois, but still, what the hell?

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

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean we can see a demonstrable and quantifiable MASSIVE decrease in meth usage and overdose circa 2005 when the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act went into effect. Also, it's still available without a prescription, last I checked, it was just behind the counter/required an ID to track if you're grabbing a pack from every Walgreens in a 50 mile radius in a single night

> I mean we can see a demonstrable and quantifiable MASSIVE decrease in meth usage and overdose circa 2005 when the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act went into effect. It’s now synthesized in industrial sized cartel owned labs in Mexico using Chinese precursors and smuggled into the US, there’s no reason to keep pseudoephedrine restricted when it’s easier and cheaper to just buy the plentiful and cheap meth on the…

Cheap meth can't compete with free shop lifted ingredients in homemade meth.

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

#239
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The literature on the effectiveness of placebo's is extensive and not in doubt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo#Effects

Considering that link points directly to a paragraph the says > A 2001 Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis of the placebo effect looked at trials in 40 different medical conditions, and concluded the only one where it had been shown to have a significant effect was for pain.[14] That's because placebos do not appear to affect the actual diseases, or outcomes that are not dependent on a patient's perception I'd consi…

And? If you take a placebo for a cold, and you feel better than you would without the placebo - what's the issue?

If you notice they don't make these things for any serious illness, they are all for things where the goal is simply to feel better, while the disease runs its ordinary course.

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

#240
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, Afrin and other similar nasal sprays are by far the best decongestant. The only issue is you can only take them for a few days straight, or you’ll have rebound congestion when you try to quit. There are oodles of stories online of people who didn’t heed that advice and upped their dosages again and again for months. Here’s the best method: Afrin (etc.) at night so you can sleep, and during the da…

Afrin is so incredibly addictive that I highly recommend never using it… use it once and you’ll be hooked for years, trust me!

Yeah stick with the safe stuff, Adderall
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