Thanks to Andy for the excerpt.

*No purchase necessary, just having some fun with words.

Politics Politics

Over the past few months, I’ve been taking some medications to deal with a couple of issues, and overall I have to say that this treatment has been a success. Last week I paid a visit to my doctor and found that my blood pressure was higher than it should be (under the medication). The result was an increase in the medication which appears to be working now, but it got me thinking: why would it increase if I have been doing most of the things I should to control it?

Apart from the obvious (more exercise), there is another element that I started to research that could contribute to this increase. This is drug interactions.

I found a great site (drugs.com) that lists many of the more commonly available drugs on the market, and each listing provides you with major, moderate or minor interactions with other drugs (including supplements).

I was surprised to find that the tummy fixers (like Rolaids, Tums, etc.) have a moderate interaction with my BP medication. These fixers are based on calcium product, and the BP medication is a calcium blocker, so by taking these fixers, I am making it more difficult for my BP to work. My multivitamin is also a moderate interaction, as it includes calcium (it’s important to note that it is the amount of extra calcium that may cause the problem, not calcium itself).

So I went through all my supplements and cold/flu/allergy pills to find out which ones work with no interaction or minor interaction, and I was actually relieved that my daily allergy pill is fine, as is the DayQuil that I took a few weeks ago when I thought I was coming down with a cold.

It’s worth checking out if you are on any medications, or just want to see what interactions exist with the common supplements that you may take.

URL is here: http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html

Health

Thanks to Ed for continuing to share what Marilyn shared with him.

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

• If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic, different.’
• Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
• If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
• Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.
• Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
• Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.
• If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works, and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.
• If your total resume is: local sports announcer, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a man in his eighth decade.
• If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.
• If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a true Christian.
• If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
• If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.
• If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.
• If your husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Politics