Tuesday 27 January 2009

Return of the Wonder Drug

Yet more good news about the all-round wonder drug of our times - Aspirin. In addition to its sterling work in protecting us from heart trouble, dementia and assorted cancers, it has also been toiling away protecting our livers from the regular pastings some of us are inclined to inflict on them. (For myself, I also take Milk Thistle for the liver's sake.) Considering what a miracle drug Aspirin is, it's remarkably thin on the ground on the Painkiller shelves, which are invariably thronged with all manner of fancy variants on Ibuprofen and Paracetamol - which for some reason are seen as 'safer' than Aspirin, though Paracetamol is a real danger to the liver in high doses. Indeed, by a wonderful irony, Aspirin might in future be used to help the liver recover in cases of Paracetamol overdose. The one trouble with Aspirin, in the eyes of 'Big Pharma', is that there's no money in it.
Oh and there's more good news from the world of Research You Can Believe In - a University of California study apparently shows that, once you're into your 50s, you stand the best chance of not becoming immobilised through disability if you're a moderate drinker. No great surprise there - but get this: a heavy drinker stands a much better chance than an abstainer! Cheers!

3 comments:

  1. Serve those know all covenanter's right, trolling round in their wheelchairs, sober as judges, whilst we drinkers in moderation / sozzled wrecks trip gaily hither and yon, rarely requiring assistance from the NHS.
    Prior to the incursion by a white coated tooth mechanics extraction equipment into my north & south, he put me on a course of Ibuprofen, believe me when I say this stuff could immobilise elephants. Never again.

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  2. I on the other hand was saved from the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced when a doctor put me on a mega-dosage of ibuprofen to treat a horribly inflamed scrotum that was a by-product of surgery. I don't, however, otherwise take the stuff, having long been sold on the magic of aspirin.

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  3. Back in the day there used to be a brilliantly effective over-the-counter combo of Aspirin, Phenacetin and Codeine (APC) which would kill almost any pain you were likely to get. Then it turned out OAPs were swilling them down with tea, which abreacted with the Phenacetin, so it was withdrawn. Aspirin & Codeine is pretty good, but not that good...

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