231 Comments

Me on my soapbox again, but how can they ban the original Sudafed for being too meth-y… while at the same time overseeing the multibillion dollar adhd drug industry which is all about getting 5 year olds hooked on amphetamines?

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They're making it obvious now. If the word got out that iodine and magnesium (etc.) could settle ADD/ADHD, who would pay for the golf membership of the dear little pharmaceutical guys?

*wrings hands*

Or that stuffy sinuses clear up with either garlic (roasted with oil and salt is lovely) or apple cider vinegar which is not only cheap, easy to take, non-toxic and has side benefits, what will make the poor little pharmaceutical guys so repulsively wealthy?

https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/sinus_congestion.html

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Or sinus rinses.

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A neti pot is one of the best things I ever bought.

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If you like the Neti Pot, get the squirt bottle. It works even better. Also, don't buy the salt packets. Make your own mix. The formula is: 1 quart filtered water, 2 to 3 teaspoons canning salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda. Make dang sure your water is filtered. Use canning salt because it has no additives, and it is cheap.

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This is my go-to for chronic sinus infections now. I take zero antibiotics as a result and the chronic part is also much diminished. Holistic health for the win!

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One of my favorite sites I use all the time!!

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We've been doctor-free for 15years thanks to that brilliant site. :)

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Do you have a link about the iodine/magnesium etc. for ADHD? Would love to find an alternative to get my son off his prescription medication. Thanks!

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Ginger Breggin here. My husband Peter Breggin MD wrote The Ritalin Fact Book that many have found very helpful. Important to learn about tapering the meds and working with your child https://www.amazon.com/Ritalin-Fact-Book-What-Doctor/dp/0738204501/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1498PVBXYN5KU&keywords=Ritalin+fact+book&qid=1694730657&sprefix=ritalin+fact+book%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1

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Iodine itself can be tricky to take, but it's the first step in stabilising the body and mind. (I speak from experience in trying to find answers.)

It's not a quick fix, one must start low, but it *is* a fix - a means to be free of pharma.

Earthclinic is a good site to start with, and also the 2007 iodine protocol. Lynne Farrow wrote a good book about it too. 'What you don't know about Iodine can Wreck your Life.'

There are a couple of people on Sstack who write about it too. I'll probably be one of them sooner or later... (I treated our cat again this week, took some photos as his gruesome chin wound healed). Some names to look up here: Phar Percheron, and Jennifer DePew @ DeNutrients

Covid is just the torch shining on the tip of the iceberg. My take on the history of our ADD situation (among others) if you have the time/inclination:

https://ariaveritas.substack.com/p/waiter-theres-a-persecution-psychosis

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thanks for that link- lots of good info there !

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It's not banned.

It's OTC (BTC) vs. ADHD meds. Controlled Substance Schedule-II - the most tightly regulated

Huge difference

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If a drug is so tightly regulated that 40% of boys in a given school take it daily, any college kid can get it in a quick online appointment, and we’re facing national shortages because the drug makers themselves can’t keep up the skyrocketing supply, is it still tightly regulated? A question for Socrates…

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Tightly regulated does not mean not available, or not widely used. And you know this - or certainly should know this if you're a physician. The increase in use has been ongoing, but accelerated with the pandemic. Online prescribing of C-II was a pandemic-era phenomenon which has ended. You know this also.

Adderall (with generics) is the most prescribed C-II in USA by far. In 2022 it was the only C-II in the top-50 drugs by prescription volume.

Every lot, and every bottle of tablets (100 tablets, or sometimes 30 tablets) is indeed tracked in multiple databases. DEA can trace individual lots back through distributors and wholesalers to the factories they came out of. The manufacturing lot number is included with every prescription dispensed.

Every prescription written is tracked, most intensively at state level, where searches by patient and prescriber are possible.

The supply issue was/is largely due to DEA restrictions and quotas on precursor chemicals - And on straight up greed and opportunism by manufacturers and distributors (and at retail level).

If you don't like the situation, contact your elected representatives and your professional societies - but maybe try to understand how things actually work before ranting.

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I seriously doubt the level of tracking you outlined here. No dis on you at ALL, but they can't keep track of a the record for a child who died from their EUA jab or keep track of safety records for the jab.

There is a shortage of ADHD drugs, not because they are not pumping them out ASAP. What would be the value in their actually tracking? Value to them. I could be wrong. It would actually give me hope if I was.

I used to tell my bartenders I tracked the booze bottles (measured and 86'ed) and what they sold by shot. Did I? Hail no. But those dopes believed me and that kept the theft down. They never questioned that I could or would.

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My whole blurb above was about United States Controlled Substance Schedule-II Prescribing.

Vaccine cards always record manufacturing lot number and dose given - but tracking at state level varies widely to not at all.

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I think she’s saying that they’re blowing smoke up your ass and they ain’t really tracking it as well as they claim. Since when is the government competent?

To give my two cents- worth what you paid for it- they should not give small children Ritalin, adderall, or any of these other behavioral drugs. They destroyed my brother’s life and he died at 23. I know it was the Ritalin- his personality changed drastically after they put him on it. He went from sweet to absolutely off the rails and violent. And these schools demand these boys be drugged because they want them to sit still like they are old men for eight hours every day. Read the book Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker. I’m sure Mr Whitaker was real popular with the pharmaceutical companies. Lol

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Yes. There was a doctor in Auckland who was busted prescribing Ritalin and Concerta thousands of times last year; he claimed he was doing it to help sufferers of ADD/ADHD, and the patients accepted his help gratefully. But he wasn't qualified to prescribe it. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-doctor-accused-of-prescribing-adhd-medication-without-specialist-approval/4FHDWX4ZDJUHW7EQUZFIDEWXAQ/

And yet... In USA the 3rd largest cause of death is properly prescribed medication...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25355584/

and the first and second are simply considered 'natural causes' (heart attack and cancer), although in light of the last three years, perhaps we can look at the medical industry and start to realise they are literally killing us.

Arguably as they have been for the last 7-800 years.

https://ariaveritas.substack.com/p/tldr-medicine-priest-class-and-deep

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I don't know about NZ regulations - or what your point is - other than discontent and alarm. Your NZ Herald article shows that stimulant prescriptions are more tightly regulated in NZ than USA.

That citation you pasted - 10-year old thought piece from a fourth tier Polish language journal - - That article appears never to have been cited by any other English-language author.

In any case, medication injuries/deaths are exceedingly rarely attributed to this class of medication. So - whatever the point you're attempting to make is - you have not.

Try again. This and related topics are subjects of extensive study; Numbers of iatrogenic deaths and injuries, medication-related injuries and deaths. Plenty of legitimate sources out there.

I love Substack.

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I love Substack too. Sorry to take so long to respond, things needed attention.

My point is New Zealand regulations are the same as US, Canadian, British, Australian etc. regulations, and global regulations come from the US, from a place in Texas called the Federation State Medical Board. Presumably with your attitude you are a friendly Yank. If you don't know about the FSMB, now is the time to look.

All the rot comes from the US/UK, no offence, and Europeans are aware of it- those who have their brain switched on anyway.

Does it make a difference to Truth if something has been cited by an english author? If so why? Do english language authors have dibs on truth?

If that is the case, I'll back away slowly.

We are on the same page. It sucks you were 'force-vaxed', it sucks millions of people were. I'm sorry. But as for the the attitude, I'm on your side, Friend.

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Citations from credible sources matter. English-lsnguage excrement is still excrement.

Controlled substance regulations are not "the same" across five eyes, nor are prescribing regulations as a whole.

FSMB does not regulate anything. US state medical boards do not regulate pharmacy practice in their respective states. And Texas? They have an office in Euliss but headquarters are in Washington, DC.

I'm more than familiar with FSMB - the one that exists in reality, not the one in Substackers delusions.

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How? Easily. They are disgusting pigs. Nobody should forget that. It makes all nonsense make sense.

But marvelous point made on that Soapbox Adrian.

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prescription amphetamines...gotta get their cut.

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The other possibility is, Phenylephrine is useful in treating the next bio weapon they have in the hopper. 😳 With FDA anything is possible.

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Oddly that’s exactly what I was thinking. They’d only ban it if it was useful as an end-run for something they’ve cooked up.

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Sep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023

No. The stuff doesn't work. I recently tried to find Sudafed while on a vacation. No shops carried it as they were not pharmacies. Everyone tried to sell me this junk and I refused because I have known for years since it was first substituted that it does not work. Also, it is not innocuous, it poses a risk for those with high blood pressure.

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Ditto. For years I have always asked the pharmacist for the "real" cold and flu tablets behind the counter, after trying the 'PE' versions once and finding they didn't work.

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This is exactly my first thought. What are they going to release that they need this off the market. Guafeniesen and one of the ingredients of cough syrup were also on their list of ingredients that “don’t work”.

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If you consider 1) the Canadian government going after supplements, 2) multiple attempts by Senator Durbin et al to do the same in the US, 3) the US establishment floating the prospect of banning acetaminophen several years ago then dropping it after public opinion backlash, and 4) supplement companies in the US having been bought out by big private equity - then this could also be a shift to implement WHO's infamous Codex Alimentarius which also seeks to control food production and distribution (likely reflected in the Dutch and Indian farmers recent battles).

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My thoughts too...

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You have a twisted evil mind.

And you are probably right.

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I really miss pseudoephedrine. I barely used it but when I needed it (and no not ALWAYS when sick) it worked!

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Much like ephedrine, pseudoephedrine is still available, you just need to 1) either ask for it, or 2) find a card on a shelf with the name of the product on it and bring it to the pharmacist or person behind the counter, and...ask for it. You may be asked to sign a form when you purchase as one is currently only allowed to buy enough for personal use and not enough to make (much) meth.

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And provide your drivers license

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I read somewhere in the internet - so you know it's true! - that they're buying street meth and reverse engineering it back to Sudafed.

You don't have to show your ID that way.

*shrug*

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this is more convenient!

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I would laugh at the irony if that turned out to be true.

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I could be wrong but I believe that only inhaled mist ephedrine formulations are approved in USA (behind-the-counter).

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/ob/index.cfm

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Sep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023

Nope, i buy Bronkaid every week for my mom in Texas. 25 mg ephedrine per tablet.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bronkaid-Max-Asthma-Relief-24-Count/834593480?

You have to ask for it, you can't order it online, ofc.

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Okay - good to know.

Remember, I prefaced my whole blurb with "I could be wrong."

Still, those oral formulations have not been "grandfathered in" by FDA - which is an abbreviated process - aspirin, acetaminophen, some old antihistamines, etc. - These have some sort of legal status that oral ephedrine products do not.

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As I wrote, I could be wrong -But that webpage you pasted the link to appears old - like circa-2000, is barely functional and includes an old-appearing un-dated product label. "Find a Store" turns up no sellers in the half dozen zip codes I tried. Actually just error pages.

Likewise "Bronkaid" was not never approvedin USA as tablet.

Might be sold here, though. Plenty of companies sell never-actually-approved but have been available forever OTC products in USA

Companies buy domain names for worldwide use.

Armstrong appears to have been a tiny manufacturer of drug delivery devices (including metered dose inhalers). They were acquired by Medeva plc:

https://www.tmcapital.com/transactions/armstrong-pharma-acquired-by-medeva/

Then Medeva was acquired by Celltech ChironScience PLC

And FDA Orange Book

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/ob/search_product.cfm

Shows that Armstrong Pharma. Inc. has one (ever) approved product; Inhaled epinephrine -

OTC EPINEPHRINE PRIMATENE MIST N205920 001 AEROSOL, METERED INHALATION 0.125MG/INH RLD RS ARMSTRONG PHARMACEUTICALS INC 0.125 Nov 7, 2018

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It's okay; ephedrine is an OTC product that actually works well for asthma attacks; I'm glad it is still available for those who need it.

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I'm glad that it works for you, or whomever. If you're using this more than occasionally, there are better treatments - including in the same pharmacologic class (beta-agonists) - by prescription (and companies have really hiked prices like crazy over the last few tears).

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It’s still available. My daughter buys it regularly for her migraines; she just has to show ID

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It's still there. Just behind-the-counter. You have to ask for it, show ID and sign. A box or two should last you ... long time.

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I always keep a supply of it. That and mucinex got me thru a bout of (I assume) Covid I had in Feb 2020 before I was aware of Covid.

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It is available behind the pharmacy counter, but you must present a valid ID to purchase it. I always keep the box of 96 in my house in case I need it. No one wants to stand in the pharmacy line and present ID when they actually need the pseudoephedrine.

I was on to this bait and switch shortly after it happened. I used to use they cold remedies with pseudoephedrine, Dextromethorphan, and guaifenesin, which worked well on a bad cold. When they replaced the pseudoephedrine with the ineffective Phenylephrine and I had to start making my own remedies buying the individual ingredients.

I’ve taken pseudoephedrine since the seventies when it was a prescription. It always works.

The government bureaucrats think they know better but they just make life worse for us.

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They took it off the market when my sons were little and I was heartbroken. Was the only thing that cleared up nasal and sinus congestion that didn’t leave them wired up. Our pediatrician gave us about a dozen samples he had left of the toddler liquid version, we were so thankful to have that.

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deletedSep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023
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Is this a version of oregano oil or garlic? ie. natural antibiotic, anti-fungal, anti-doctor etc.?

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Looked it up, thanks for the tip. Explains my gravitation to marmalade in winter. :)

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As an OTC QC chemist, I was working in a product testing lab when the switch happened. We were all pissed because everybody already knew that oral PEH didn't do shit.

Still working at the same location, but no longer on the bench. No direct knowledge, but this change seems to have come as a surprise to our site management. My sense is that they are just starting to think about what (or if?) formulation changes will need to be made and when. It may rest on whether they pull the GRASE classification, and there's currently no meeting planned for that potential decision at the FDA.

I haven't heard of any potential replacement that might be coming off prescription into the OTC category, but I don't pay close attention to the prescription pharmaceutical market. And it would have to be an OTC compound.

Even switching back to pseudoephedrine would probably cause at least half of formulations to just remove it and drop decongestant claims from products. Ridiculous and ineffective as moving the(pseudo)ephedrine products behind the counter has been, it's still a sales killer that none of the (barely) functional idiots in marketing want to touch.

On the bright side, I'm pretty confident in saying that oral PEH at the amounts in OTC cold medicines is completely harmless. Just also completely useless.

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If the amounts are useless you’re saying for therapeutic effect pop about 5 or so then? 🤣

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Toxicologists say, "It's the dosage that makes the poison."

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Ummmm.... Please don't lol

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Sep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023

Kidding😉

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Interesting. Just as I was starting to fee bad for the manufacturers. If they knew all along it didn't work, %%** them.

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Not long ago FDA's own expert neurology panel voted against approval of Aduhelm for Alzheimer's because it's ineffective and dangerous (causes brain bleeds), yet the FDA went ahead and approved it. Three expert panelists resigned in protest. Effectiveness and safety studies don't reflect the bottom line rational, even today as we observed with the 'pandemic'.

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Harmless and useless, but it does give you something to do with your hands and your mouth.

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Since the FDA is owned by pharma, and no one was clamoring for this change from the grassroots, it smells. If this were a bid to regain credibility with the public, they wouldn’t pick something so lucrative. It would be some edge case.

Wonder what’s in the offing.

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Sep 14, 2023·edited Sep 14, 2023

Good point! We should take bets about when Pfraudster will roll out its new OTC decongestant.

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A way to get us used to C0DEX ALlMENTARIUS edicts with a slow IV drip type of roll out. Remember when there was chatter several years ago to ban OTC acetaminophen (Tylenol) and the public blowback proved to be too much? Also note the current battles in Canada over supplements and the fact that private equity has been buying US supplement manufacturers.

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I’m a homeopath, so these incursions are certainly on my radar. I’m classically trained and work only with single remedies, which have been overseen by the FDA for years, but suddenly, Phor some reason, they are a dangerous threat. Threat to whom? I think we know.

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Ok, FDA. Now do remdesivir and covid shots.

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Que the approval of an OTC nasal spray that is safe and effective at stopping Covid 10.0, I mean nasal decongestion.

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That's exactly what I was thinking. They just told us they created an airborne way to spread the vaccine. No thank you.

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ditto

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This was immediately my thought.

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*adjusts tin foil Trilby* Yeeeeessss...

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Am I right in thinking that 'the science' is also inching towards 'fessing up to the hundreds-of-millions of unhappy (otherwise known as 'depressed') people in the Western world that SSRIs never worked either (other than as a placebo)? Now you're talking about some REALLY serious Money there.

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In a reasonable world, Study 329 ought to result in some people getting the death penalty.

It won't though - becaue we don't live in a reasonable world. We live in Clown World. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

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Yes, if we dont trust them when they say sometihng works, we shouldnt believe them when they say something doesnt work. Dont believe them, ever.

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I knew it! I knew it! For years pharmacists have been pushing me to take this when hay fever struck. Made me feel like a druggie looking to score when I asked for the "behind the counter Sudafed". I knew that other stuff didn't work. Redemption!

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Neri invest in buying a liquorice plant, the scent off of them helps hayfever sufferers, they also help asthma as well.

The raw liquorice twigs were sold in sweet shops when I was a child, we all used to eat it without even thinking about it being a natural medicine.

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I've never heard of a liquorice plant! Thank you. I'll give it a try. 😊

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They grow at the side of rivers in the wild, they don’t like to be cooked in the hot sun all day so plant it where it’s semi sunny

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Those pharmacists are "pushing" you?

My area pharmacists push me to buy street fentanyl

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OMG! That could be a bit too much pharmaceutical assistance! 😄

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Pushy pharmacists ...

Once a pharmacist forced me to buy oral contraceptive pills even though I was a 13 year old boy.

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Phenylephrine was always junk. I knew it from the first time I took it. Switched back to pseudoephedrine right away.

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I'm scratching my head. In medical school in the 1960s, I learned in Pharmacology class that phenylephrine was useful topically (nasal mucosa), but metabolized too fast in the gut to have any effectiveness orally. I found the topical form very effective when I had sinus congestion, using the phenylephrine nasal spray. Over the years I was perpetually puzzled by the inclusion of phenylephrine in oral decongestion/antihistamine compounds, as I already "knew' from med school that orally it's useless due to breakdown in the gut.

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In view of events of the past 3 years (Covid/mRNA "vaccines"), I'm never going to use any nasal sprays again, as I don't trust the labels to list all ingredients, as I've become deeply suspicious of whatever crypto global agenda is going on. My trust in the FDA and CDC has been completely obliterated.

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Yep!

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What better way to get crap into people then a nasal spray.,.hmm wonder if the new stuff might cross the blood brain barrier.....hmmmm.

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Am I the only consumer who recognized that phenylephrine didn't work? For years I have been handing my driver's license over the counter and requesting pseudoephedrine. Fortunately, my stuffed nose occurred only occasionally, so I wasn't suspected of using Sudafed to cook meth.

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Everyone knew

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Everyone but MDs. I have had so many doctors tell me to use the PE crap and when I tell them that PE stands for Placebo Effect as it is just as effective as a sugar pill on congestion, they give me a blank look. A few admit that they have had some patients that have said that it didn't work well for them either. I hate that I have to be recorded as buying it, but it is either buy the real stuff or go on a killing spree due to the sinus pain.

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Anything to make a dollar; I was a drug rep and this was known from the beginning. Also, multi symptom compounds were discouraged, but came anyway. Just like foods, suggest single ingredient symptom relief is better: congestion (decongestant), allergic symptoms (antihistamine). Wonder why congestion clogs in your head? Usually antihistamine taken when a decongestant is needed. Mucinex (guaifenesin) helps drainage. Keep it simple.

Pseudoephedrine is an effective decongestant and with meth-making, all are punished for the sins of the few. Sound familiar? The suffocating feeling of control is becoming more frequent, and the why now is very curious.

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Interesting. I thought maybe it was just me that phenylephrine didn't work for. This is something I should keep an eye on - lots of seasonal and all-effing-year-long allergy sufferers in my family. Thanks for the head's up, Gato! I've been suspicious since I first heard about phenylephrine and the FDA. Never trust anything in the same sentence as "FDA." We know from plague that they lie outrageously AND try to get you to use their garbage du jour.

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So here’s where I’ve hit a wall. Don’t want to take anything anymore. Don’t want to give anything to my dog or kitties

Have you ever asked your vet the hard questions about pet meds. ? You could leave the office screaming and all the gatos would be terrified. It is ALL about the $$$.

So when something is wrong we have to be our own Drs and Vets. More evidence of the upside world we are living in.

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author

some medicine is great, but take it for a reason and with an understanding of the trade offs.

it's even more true of food. simple, whole foods are very different from the processed crap in the middle of the supermarket. one need not obsess over diet or engage in odd, exotic eating habits. just foods your great grandparents (or at least someone's great grandparents) would have recognized.

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I completely agree with all of the above. But the days of trusting the docs and vets are over. Some of their advice can just be flat out dangerous. A lot can f time and effort is required to sift thru the garbage. And frankly courage. The pushback you get is intense

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"and with an understanding of the trade offs."

“There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”

― Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

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I am my own and my dogs doctor. I figured out how to safely get off scripts for us all. My dog too! She was on Gapapentin. Thank goodness!

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Thank goodness. Yes. That stuff is horrible. Luckily when they tried to give it to my cat I knew better. My mom had been on it and it was horrible. Found a neuro who took her off it and told us how bad it was.

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