Effexor - an antidepressant medication

Effexor is a treatment for depression and has been in the news recently for the slogan "the change you deserve" which is also being used by the Republican Party in political marketing.

Effexor information is here

Rash Diagnosis

Family Doctor has a great chart for the diagnosis of rashes:
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/tools/symptom/545.html

And here's a nasty little slideshow for diagnosing rashes:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/skin-rash/SN00016&slide=5

There are now a lot of medications for rash treatment, ranging from over the counter mild treatments to powerful antibiotics by prescription only.

Two over the counter meds that often will take care of rash problems are Zanfel wash:
http://www.zanfel.com/help/

And Generic Hydrocortisone Ointment. Old advice was to avoid Hydrocortisone cream in favor of the ointment, but not sure if that still prevails.

Hearburn Medications Part II. Generic Pepcid AC, Zantac, and Prilosec

My personal battle with heartburn appears to be over thanks to generic Pepsid AC made by Equate and featured at Wal-Mart. Equate features generic versions of the following at lower costs that vary depending on the drug:

Zantac
Prilosec
Pepsid AC

All are used for the treatment of digestive problems, most notably heartburn. My personal experience was to try Tagamet which brought some relief but did not seem to do nearly as good a job as the generic Pepsid AC.

Here's a nice summary of Heartburn issues:

http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/heartburn.jsp

Tagamet - Non Prescription Heartburn Relief

Tagamet is a drug that moved from Rx to non-Rx status some time ago. Tagamet is taken to prevent heartburn and treat current symptoms using "H2 blocking".

The following WebMD link has a neat test for Heartburn:
http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/

I'm going to write more than the usual about heartburn meds because I'm experiencing a bad bout of what I think is heartburn for the first time and have been researching options. Common over the counter meds include Pepto Bismol, Maalox, Tagamet, and Prilosec. The latter two were prescription drugs until recently.

Housecalls are free online

Free advice from highly qualified physicians is starting to appear at many places online, and it's often helpful to your own physician if you have done some research on symptoms beforehand:

www.medhelp.org is a great medical resource and has a lot of participating physicians to answer your questions.

Heparin Sodium Injection - an anticoagulant

Heparin is in the news after what appear to be serious allergic reactions by a small number of patients to this anticoagulant when used in high dosages. The FDA and Baxter, the maker of about half of all the Heparin used, are still unclear on why some 350 patients have experienced problems, some very serious, usually immediately following injection of their Heparin in high dosages.

The FDA's release on Heparin is here and the information appears to be restricted to the following high dosage Heparin products from Baxter Pharmaceuticals:

Products affected are: Baxter’s Heparin Sodium Injection multiple-dose vials (1000 units/mL concentration, 10 mL and 30 mL vials; 5000 units/mL concentration, 10 mL vials; and 10,000 units/mL, 4 mL vials).

Note that the concern is with high doses of Heparin and not the normal small amounts commonly used for intravenous flush or other medical uses. Heparin remains an important

Official Drug Information Online

There are many sources of prescription drug information online. Although the least biased information is probably going to be found outside of the official drug websites, those official sites often offer the most extensive detail about a drug. We recommend that you *start* at general drug information websites, review the official corporate sites, and then branch off to forums and other general information specific to your needs. Often you'll be able to find others who have used the medications or have knowledge of them, though use caution and generally you'll want to carefully follow the advice of your own physician regarding any prescription medications.

Prescription Report is a good source but there are many others including:

www.WebMD.com
Medicine Net
Drugs.com
Rxlist.com

AcipHex for Acid Reflux Disease

AcipHex is a treatment medication for sufferers of Acid Reflux Disease.

If you have 2 or more days a week of heartburn and over the counter meds are failing to help, you may have acid reflux disease and should consult your doctor for the most appropriate medications or lifestyle changes. Acid Reflux is also sometimes called GERD for "gastroesophageal reflux disease".

More about AcipHex from their corporate website:

General AcipHex Info

Acid Reflux Disease

Eating Better

Heartburn Relief

Heartburn Causes

Resources

Vitamins and Health - new study suggests some dangers

Although it is still very generally accepted that vitamins are a good way to supplement all but a perfect diet, a new and very large sample sized study has cast significant doubt about "life extension" claims for a class of vitamins called "antioxidants":
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/16/vitamins.health/index.html

Clearly more research is called for in this area, but in my view one should err on the side of results that go *against* the vested interests of an industry rather than supporting those interests. Vitamins are a huge multi-billion market and vitamin manufacturers are hardly to be expected to underplay any health benefits and likely to exaggerate any real benefits. It is for this reason that we should pay very careful attention to well documented, independent studies of vitamin effectiveness.

I'm not clear yet what this study suggests about the effectiveness or dangers of Resveratrol, commonly cited as the most effective of the anti-aging antioxidants. Resveratrol is a non-prescription over the counter extract usually made from grapes.

Vytorin Study Stuns Doctors

Vytorin may not have any effect on heart disease says a recent study of the drug. Zetia, an active component, and Vytorin are used by a large number of people to control cholesterol, but based on the new study doctors say a return to statins may be the best approach for those with high cholesterol.

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