prescription drugs

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Prince’s death was less original than his music. When Prince died of a self-administered dose of Fentanyl, he was far from the first celebrity to succumb to the use of addictive prescription drugs, and far from the first to succumb to the most dangerous of legal pharmaceutical opioids. Fame has long conferred a sense of entitlement.  The rich and famous who are powerful enough to have things they want have wanted freedom from both physical and emotional discomfort.  The list of them is long.  Their scandals nourish their admirers, often helping them feel superior to their idols. The list is long. The best news is that at least some, like Jamie Lee Curtis CITED HERE, have managed to vanquish addiction and continue with their lives. I applaud them, for I believe their public admissions inspire many.

Read more on Prince’s Death, Unlike His Music, Was All Too Familiar…

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I idolized the American medical establishment. When I was a mere Blue Cross number-collecting lackey working at the front desk of the Emergency Room of Massachusetts General Hospital, I sometimes saw, slipping into the doctors’ lounge, notable people — doctors whose surname in footnotes graced the basic core medical textbooks I was using as parallel reading in France, to prepare myself for my American examinations in medicine. I never wanted to penetrate more than the lowest echelons of the American medical establishment when I returned from France.  I mean I doubted the Harvard-types would open their world to me easily, no matter how clever I was. I proved to be right.  At a Harvard-associated residency program, I was actually asked at the interview if anyone in my family was a Harvard University trained physician. I still remember the program chairman’s barely muffled laughter when I told him my father held a graduate degree from the Harvard University School of music. Read more on Drug Misuse in American Medicine Leads to Possible Catastrophe…

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I heard it long ago, when I was early in my training, at some big international psychopharmacology meeting so I reproduce it here. “What people really want is an on-off switch.” Most people seem to get through life pushing the envelope only minimally.  A few cups of coffee in the morning helps promote “alertness.” A drink or two with the guys after work helps to “wind down” on the way home. Neither of these decisions is harmless. Although there are indeed some beneficial compounds in some forms of alcohol, I have come to believe that civilization has taken a poor turn in validating its use for a very long time.

Read more on Addictive Drugs and Questions They Raise…

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My struggles with obesity are well known and well publicized.  Although my web page regarding weight loss hasn’t been updated lately, that will be changing soon, as I have some new focus on obesity — causes and treatment.

When you have an enforced lack of mobility, if you don’t deliberately lower your caloric intake, you are going to gain weight. Read more on When Life Lowers Your Physical Activity, You Don’t Have To Get Obese…

Filed under prescription drugs, weight by on . Comment#

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I have had a lot of trouble with the idea of criminalization of drug addiction for a very long time.

I am only one of a lot of folks who say “addiction is a real disease.”  People feel every bit as sick as people with other diseases, sometimes more.

The patients are certainly able to die every bit as dead. Read more on Babies Born Addicted…

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I love men.

I mean, I actually went and married one, and I am delighted.

I understand their senses of “maleness” are sometimes a bit more fragile with women challenging them on absolutely every front imaginable.

But they still do quite well.  I absolutely love them. Read more on Cialis, OTC, and Men…

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I do not claim to be perfect but I DO claim to be a good doctor.  Not just a good psychiatrist.  Being a good doctor comes first.

One reason is that despite a lot of medical practice since graduation (I will admit to wincing a bit when I quote the figure in years–34) in multiple specialties, I still believe that taking care of other human beings and trying to help them through life is a sacred trust.  I actually believe that doing what I do the best I can is more important to whatever religious future my soul can scrape up than showing up at public worship.  Honest.

Another reason that I am a good doctor is that I am old enough that an amazing amount of bad medical things have happened to me.  Often before I knew better, they were the side effects of prescription drugs.  I now accept them only as temporary solutions.  I would rather dive into the world of alternative natural substances — which do work — if the practitioner is someone who knows what they are doing which I do. Read more on Cholesterol Lowering and Drugs…

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You know me – Little Miss Skeptical.

I would never give a baby a loaded gun to play with, and I would never give non-medically trained civilians syringes full of drugs with the intent of having them stab somebody directly in the heart and push the plunger.

You probably know what I’m talking about if you saw the movie “Pulp Fiction” – apparently about four people in the world have not. Read more on Too Many Die From Heroin…

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Okay, let me get this straight.

A study, done by people who at least in part are employees of the CVS pharmacy chain, has established to a wildly impressive level of significance that prescriptions for (cheaper) generic drugs are more likely to get filled than prescriptions labeled “brand name only.”

Brand-name only prescriptions are 50 to 60% less likely to get filled.  This is the summary of the article on CVS website.

Of course there is a little more info in the first article linked above — like specialists being more likely to write “dispense as written,” and such. Read more on Brand Name vs. Generics — Again and Again…

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This story does not start with “I was minding my own business, surfing the internet.”

I was seeing a deeply suffering patient with terminal cancer and I was sneezing.  I have a bunch of seasonal allergies and I treat them naturally with Quercetin and related compounds, a bioflavonoid, unpatentable, because I would have to eat a lot of oranges to get enough.  Still, I will admit to the occasional sneeze, followed by the use of a tissue.  She stroked my arm.  “I hope you take good care of yourself, you are such a sweet lady.  Maybe you need some Tamiflu or something.”  I promised her I would look into it, taking her concern for my well being as a sign that she liked me.  When people like me that much, it gratifies me and tells me I am doing the job of doctor pretty well, or at least better than the generally non-emotional most, and I am happy.  Out of sheer curiosity, I actually checked into Tamiflu. Read more on Why I Have Not and Will Not Take Tamiflu…