171–180 of 613 posts
Phenylephrine does have one use that the author missed: It's used in ophthalmology to dilate the pupils before eye exams. On the topic of other use case medications, I used to take Sudafed (the real pseudoephedrine kind) during allergy season for a few weeks each year and noticed my productivity skyrocketed during that time, when I normally had issues context switching. Eventually I narrowed it down to taking Sudafed…
It might not do much if taken orally, but a phenylephrine nasal spray can be pretty powerful.
This. Derek has missed that spray is rather effective. Also other agents, such as oxymetazoline is used. They all have a rebound effect, so their use should be limited to 7 days at most. Also, this is mostly for comfort. There is no really reason to go back to pseudo-effedrive and risk side-effect (high-blood pressure etc.). Also people value their comfort a lot, they are not so good with assessing risks. Apparently…
Spoken like someone who has never had severe nasal congestion. A week or two of not being able to sleep, taste, or speak with your normal voice would change your view of the importance of good decongestants.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pseudoephedrine is still available -behind the counter-. You literally just have to ask the pharmacist for it. Let’s not turn grad students having a laugh into an actual statement on public policy.
You don't just ask the pharmacist for it. You have to produce an acceptable form of identification that can be used to record the transaction in the universal database. It's unavailable to anyone who doesn't have one of those.
I've recently had to deal with the medical profession a lot more than in the past and I'm finding this sort of thing everywhere. OTC medicines that by current standards would not be made OTC, surgeries that are extremely common but have never had quality randomized trials, official sounding diagnoses that on inspection are actually defined as "we have no idea", lack of consensus about how to treat some of the most co…
I feel like so much of what goes on day to day is one grift or another.
The lack of availability of proper pseudoephedrine in USA led to situation where there are papers describing how to turn methamphetamine into pseudoephedrine, not the other way around. With explanation in abstract that its easier to buy meth than pseudoephedrine.
> With explanation in abstract that its easier to buy meth than pseudoephedrine. People may laugh at this, as they should since it is an absurd situation, but this isn't entirely wrong. Neither my wife or I drive and during the pandemic she gave up her license after getting an appointment at the DOL was difficult. Both of us carry US passport cards as our ID. This has resulted in several situations where we've been t…
Not to spoil the joke, but the paper by "O. Hai" and "I. B. Hakkenshit" is satire--I would be absolutely gobsmacked if anyone is actually doing this.
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Prior to the regulation of pseudoephedrine, NyQuil also contained pseudoephedrine and since the nasal congestion from a a virus can often be the most disruptive factor for sleep (at least, in my personal experience, that's the case) it's considered by some to the be most important component. NyQuil with pseudoephedrine included is now marketed as "NyQuil D" and is available behind many pharmacy counters with the same…
I feel like the true “Cocaine Cola Classic” would still have some of that, um, regulated stimulant in it. Cocaine. Might be good for decongestion?
I've recently had to deal with the medical profession a lot more than in the past and I'm finding this sort of thing everywhere. OTC medicines that by current standards would not be made OTC, surgeries that are extremely common but have never had quality randomized trials, official sounding diagnoses that on inspection are actually defined as "we have no idea", lack of consensus about how to treat some of the most co…
This goes for doctors, drugs, surgeries, devices.
If you want good results, you really have to take matters into your own hands, search for possible treatments yourself, evaluate several doctors until you find a competent one, research possible adverse side effects yourself etc.
Example: somebody in my family had two different surgeries by non-standard methods that gave her significant advantages over the regular methods; one of them offered (to our knowledge) in only one hospital in Germany, the other in three. In both cases her regular doctors didn't know about these methods, and were really surprised to hear about them afterwards. In both cases, she learned about these methods through some non-medical channel (a relative read about it in a newspaper, stuff like that).
If you just go to the next specialist for the field you need, chances are you don't get the optimal treatment, and the rarer the disease, the less like you get a good treatment.
I'd be crippled without Bronkaid. And weed.
I've recently had to deal with the medical profession a lot more than in the past and I'm finding this sort of thing everywhere. OTC medicines that by current standards would not be made OTC, surgeries that are extremely common but have never had quality randomized trials, official sounding diagnoses that on inspection are actually defined as "we have no idea", lack of consensus about how to treat some of the most co…
I agree with everything you said except for this. If resources are finite to approve and regulate drugs, 3rd-party supplements are the first thing I want tossed before any other more critical medication.