FitSugar

Drugs Manufactured in Filth

FitSugar — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 02:00:00 -0800

I hope you haven't been using any drugs or supplements made by General Therapeutics. U.S. marshals in St. Louis took more than $300,000 worth of drugs, vitamin supplements, and pet treatments from the company.

Why? The FDA found that some of their products lacked FDA approval and were manufactured under grossly unsanitary conditions. Inspectors found one of their products infested with live and dead beetles, as well as dead cockroaches and rodent droppings near the manufacturing equipment. Um, gross.

That's not all. Roof leaks resulting in water damage and contamination of food and drug containers were also discovered. Officials also found deteriorating chemicals that were potentially explosive. Sounds lovely.

General Therapeutics Corp. makes products such as Vitrin, a multivitamin; NC Solution, an antifungal product; and Pyran-50, a pet de-wormer. So check your bottles and ditch any products you have made by this company.

Fit's Tip: Always buy supplements with the USP Verified label. The USP label means an independent lab has verified the contents of the supplements have been made under good manufacturing practices.
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During Childbirth, Do You Plan on Getting an Epidural?

FitSugar — Sun, 13 May 2007 02:30:00 -0700

No one needs to tell you that giving birth is a painful experience - we've all heard our fair share of horror stories. Thanks to modern science, an epidural is available if a woman doesn't want to or can't deal with the pain. It's basically a shot given in your spine that makes you have a loss of sensation and pain from your waist down.

Some women see giving birth as a natural experience, and want to be completely aware and in tune with what their body is feeling, so they wouldn't dream of getting drugs. Plus some women may argue that it's bad for the baby, and makes labor longer for everyone involved.

Other women go for the drugs because the pain of labor is way too unbearable not to. They'd equate it to getting a cavity drilled - would you go without Novocaine?

So I want to know...

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Taking Allergy and Asthma Meds - Timing is Everything

FitSugar — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:00:00 -0700

For some people, seasonal allergies are all about itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, a runny nose, and heightened asthma symptoms. If you are one of those people, prescription and over-the-counter drugs might be a necessity. I just found out that when you take your drugs can greatly affect how well they'll work.

For allergy symptoms, if you take meds like Allegra, Clarinex, Claritin, Zyrtec, Singulair, or nasal sprays like Astelin, Flonase, Rhinocort: Take your pills at bedtime to ensure that it will be in your blood stream in the early morning, when symptoms are at their worst
For asthma symptoms, if you take inhaled steroids like Advair or Flovent: Take your meds in the late afternoon (3 pm) so that they'll be in your system by 4pm when symptoms are often at their worst.

Do You Lie to Your Doctor?

FitSugar — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:45:00 -0700

When I go to the doctor for a check-up, especially when I see my gynecologist for my annual, I always get inundated with personal questions about my health.

How often do you exercise?

Are you in a monogomous relationship?

Do you have protected sex?

Have you ever had sex with someone who was HIV positive?

Do you have pain during sex?

Have you ever had sex with a man who had sex with a man?

How often do you drink alcohol?

Do you smoke cigarettes?

Do you smoke pot?

Do you use any other illegal drugs?

Some of the questions I have no problem answering, but some of them are not for sharing.

What do you think?

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Drug Testing in Public Schools, A Good Idea?

FitSugar — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 03:00:00 -0800

We have all heard about random drug testing in our respective places of employment and in professional sports, but what about in public schools?

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy recently announced that it would be holding four regional summits promoting random student drug testing in public middle and high schools. The program, which has actually already been implemented in almost 1,000 schools across the country, requires that kids submit to random drug testing if they would like to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities. The tests would be looking for cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, opium-based substances, oxycontin and steroids.

Do you guys think random drug testing in our schools is a good idea?

Are Prescription Drug Ads More Harm Than Help?

FitSugar — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:00:43 -0700

Chances are you've seen more prescription drug commercials than you can count - Viagra, Cymbalta, Celebrex, and Yaz are just a few that I can name from memory. The ads are pervasive and influential and pharmaceutical companies know that. From 1997 to 2005, drug companies tripled their spending in television ad campaigns from $1.3 billion to $4.2 billion. In 2006 that number bumped up even further to $4.6 billion.

Though the ads do inform consumers of what's available to them, health advocates say they present drugs and symptoms in very general terms and can confuse consumers into thinking they have something they don't. A national study found that one-third of all Americans have asked for a drug they saw on a commercial and of those that asked, 82 percent were given a prescription of some sort.

To give your opinion and hear more about this issue, read more.

It's hard to say without doubt if doctors are over prescribing these drugs but it's one of the concerns that's being raised. Other concerns include patients asking self-diagnosing and ads increasing medical costs and patient risks - the advertised drugs are usually newer with higher costs and less testing, making them more risky.

I can admit to asking about Yaz after seeing the commercials over and over again. It's the top-selling birth control in the United States due in large part to its marketing campaign - a campaign that is now under question as health experts step forward with claims that the drug is unsafe.

Have you ever asked your doctor about a prescription drug because of a commercial you saw? Did you end up taking the drug?

Do You Share Prescription Drugs?

FitSugar — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:00:00 -0700

If you pass the occasional pill to your friends, you are not alone. According to a recent study published in The Journal of Women’s Health, sharing prescription drugs is common among young adults, especially 18- to 44-year-old women. The recent survey of 25,000 people found that more than one-third of the women polled shared prescription drugs with friends or took pills from their pals. The drugs included everything from allergy meds to pain pills. I'm definitely guilty of offering the occasional Allegra to friends who also take the drug, but how about you?

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Do You Pay Attention to Drug Interactions?

FitSugar — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:00:00 -0700

I'm always surprised when I read the labels on my prescription medications that they can often interact with seemingly innocent over-the-counter drugs. So I'm very careful to read the texts that come with my prescriptions, to make sure that they don't create a harmful combination with something else. Do you pay attention to the interactions spelled out on your drug labels?

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Tap Water Tainted With Pharmaceutical Drugs

FitSugar — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:00:00 -0800

People toss many things down the toilet, and one popular item to flush is unused pharmaceutical drugs. It seems a logical way to get rid of them, but traces of many drugs are showing up in drinking water nationwide. In 2006 and 2007, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, based in Las Vegas, screened 19 water utilities around the US for 51 different compounds. They found traces of pharmaceutical drugs, with the top 11 ranging from the mood-stabilizing drug carbamazepine, used to treat bipolar disorder, to a couple types of antibiotics, trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole, which is used to treat infections like tonsillitis caused by streptococcus bacteria. Naproxen, an anti-inflammatory used in the over-the-counter painkiller Aleve, was also among the top 11.

The concentration of these drugs in drinking water is a million times lower than medical doses, and is considered to pose no threat to human health. Although pathogen levels found in US drinking water are regulated, pharmaceuticals are not. While the levels of these drugs in our water may not be alarming, their presence serves to remind us about the chemicals that surround us and how we affect our environment.

To see how you should dispose of unused pharmaceuticals, just read more.

The majority of unused pharmaceuticals should be thrown away in the garbage. Better yet, they should be taken to a pharmaceutical take-back program or household hazardous waste collection program. Do read the literature that accompanies the drug, for it is recommended to flush a few highly addictive drugs, and the White House Drug Policy site has a list of drugs you should flush.

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Substance Abuse State by State

FitSugar — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 08:45:00 -0800

I am always fascinated by the national surveys that rank cities and states, like the recent rankings of healthy and unhealthy cities for women done recently by Self Magazine and the safest place to raise a child by Safe Kids USA. Well, now it looks like Uncle Sam has released the new report ranking states by the sordid issue of drug use, and its occasional counterpart mental health. The Department of Health and Human Services issued a report of substance abuse and mental health based on a survey of 136,110 people completed in 2005 and 2006. North Dakota was the cleanest state in a couple of instances, but depression and drug use superlatives can be found all across the map of these United States.

Want to see if your state ranks the highest in marijuana abuse or lowest in depression rates? Then read more.

When asked if they had used illicit drugs during the previous month, the highest number of positive responses came from Rhode Island, with 11.2% of respondents answering yes. North Dakota had the lowest percentage of people reporting use of the illicit drug.

The citizens of Vermont reported the highest percentage of marijuana use and Utah reported the lowest, in the month prior to answering the survey. Seems like Vermont* might be earning its nickname of the Green Mountain State for more than one reason since 9.7 percent of its citizen participating in the survey reported smoking the green bud compared with Utah's citizenry with only 4.3 percent answering positive to the question of using marijuana.

Cocaine use was reported by 2.4 percent of all participants with rates being highest in Washington, D.C. with 4.9 percent and lowest in North Dakota with only 1.6 percent.

On the mental health front, Nevada had the highest rate of reported depression with 9.4 percent and Hawaii had the lowest adult depression rate of 5 percent.

If you are interested in further reading, the full report is available on the Health and Human Services website.

*Vermont was also ranked number one in the Summer Safety Report. Go figure!

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