Dealing With Headaches

Last year, when my Mom was getting consultations for spinal sugery, (which turned out to be successful), we walked into her surgeon’s office. It was stacked with trays of gourmet food. “Ah,” said Mom. “I see the drug reps have been here.”

“I don’t prescribe drugs,” said the surgeon, and then laughed at the absurdity of his statement.

Mom’s surgeon will still be able to get free food sent to his office by representatives of Big Pharma, but that’s about it. All of the free office supplies emblazoned with logos (making a pen, coffe mug or notepad look like it was ready for NASCAR). All of that has now been banned by the Phramecuetical and Research Manufacturers of America (The ban is, of course, just in America). The ban takes effect in January, 2009.

Why The Free Stuff?

Since doctors are the only legal people to prescribe drugs, companies make sure they court evey doctor they come across with the same ardour as Howard Hughes collecting actresses (except the doctors see the drug reps a lot more than Hughes was suppossed to see his harem). They shower doctors with all kinds of goodies — not just lunches and office supplies. Years ago, doctors were given such perks as free vacations, free concert tickets or even free small appliances. They got all of this whether they actually prescribed the company’s drugs or not.

Those more expensive gifts were dropped to legal pressure on Big Pharma to stop wasting on so much money pimping their drugs. That’s when the first annoying drug television ad campaign hit American airwaves. Big Pharma does anything it can to keep the costs of their drugs high — and that means big bucks spent in advertising. In this way, they can “justify” costs.

No Free Lunch

Gradually, the general public and lawmakers are catching on to all of Big Pharma’s tricks. This ban is the latest modification to start forcing Big Pharma to lower the costs of their products. It remains to be seen whether Big Pharma will actually lower their costs — chances are, they will just find some other way of blowing a huge bundle on advertising. I can just see Imitrex logos now on race cars.

The Non-Profit Group No Free Lunch offers a “pen anmesty program” where it offers to replace pens that doctors would otherwise receive from drug companies. The doctors have to send the drug-emblazoned pens to them in exchange for pristine pens that only have the brand of the penmaker on them. The group then donates the evil druggie pens “to a worthwhile cause”.

Just on a personal note, when my doctors discover that I am a freelance writer, I suddenly get showered with pens before I leave the office. The pen I’m using right now (when not on the keyboard, that is) has a Zaditor logo on it (Zaditor has nothing to do with treating any medical problem I have, sadly). My doctors are clearly as sick of free pens from drug companies as the Pharmecuetical Reasearch and Manufactuerers of America.

However, they won’t give me any of their coffee mugs.

This post is aimed more for American readers. My apologies to non-American readers. You can go look at Brad Pitt photos here.

Anyway, American Migraineurs…

A petition to Congress has been started by Diana Lee of Headache Blog Carnival and Somebody Heal Me fame. It’s currently up on iPeteitions.com. This is a non-profit site, so expect to be asked for a donation after you electronically sign the petition.

This petition is to ask Congress to rethink the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, which suggests all public places replace their lighting with CFL bulbs. (I’m really paraphrasing the Act here, so if I painted the picture of potential public lighting with too broad a brush, I apologize.) These bulbs have been proven to trigger migraines in the headache-prone.

Although the makers of CFL bulbs constantly say their bulbs do not flicker, they sure do. It’s very slight, but it is enough to make my life and the lives of many other American migraineurs miserable. I can’t have them in my house. I hate to think I’ll be trapped in my house because I can’t tolerate the lighting anywhere else. I think they’re a great idea, but needs a design overhaul to elimnate the flickering.

What About the Planet

Considering all of the crap things we humans are doing to the planet, lightbulbs are really far down the list. Cutting out human overpopulation, strengthening public transportation, curbing our ridiculous buying habits, dropping our consumption of red meat and taxing the tar out of Big Oil will should be far up on our priority list because they have far more impact ont he planet than trying to these little piddling things like ban cigarette smoking, ban trans fats and change out lightbulbs.

There is no magic bullet to climate change and the environmental crisis. Heck, in the state of Pennsylvannia, you can’t even get the citizens to agree that there IS such a thing as a climate crisis. But making everyone in the country use light bulbs that make us sick is not going to help anything exept get the 30 million or so American migraineurs really ticked off.

Thank you and good light…I mean, good night!

Here’s one from the “Say It Ain’t So!” Department:

A study from the University of Pennsylvannia has come in about how barcodes on medication given at hospitals were to cut down on errors. Turns out, barcodes don’t seem to make a positive difference and also seem to contribute to errors by already overworked nurses.

Perhaps the Hospital Had A Bad Day?

Nope, sorry. The study lasted a lot longer than a few days — it lasted a few years covering five different hospitals that have a barcoding medication system already firmly in place. The study also suggested that the barcoding system that we currently have often cuases more problems than it solves. When a harried nurse encounters these problems he or she will try to use shortcuts in order to get whatever medicine they think the patient needs.

The conclusion from the study wasn’t “Technology is bad.” Rather, it was, “We can make this SO much better by concentrating on changing these areas.”

And, quite frankly, we need all the suggestions we can get with our hospitals. Another study which came out in 2007 showed that errors in hopsitals (including being given the wrong medication or wrong dosage of your medication) rose 3% from 2003-2005 alone.

But I Gotta Go To The Hospital Tomorrow

As medical systems go, ours is still about the best around in care (if not cost). If you have surgery scheduled for tomorrow, don’t freak out reading this! Still go for your surgery, please. But there are some things you can do to help reduce the chances of medical errors while you’re loopy on painkiller.

• Put identification tags on your luggage or daybag to help nurses coming on shift idenify you while you’re loopy in your hospital room
• When you get your ID bracelet, make sure they put the right name on there (no, I’m not kidding).
• When you have a test done in the hopsital and never hear about the results, that could be a mistake. Unless you are specifically told “no news is good news”, keep asking about the results.
• Write down a list of your allergic reactions and medications and tape them to your forehead.
• When you can, ask what any medicine is and what is it for. When my Mom had her last surgery, she called me to Google information about the drugs the nurses wanted her to take. I was able to help confirm that she was to get the meds.
• If you’re in the hospital and loopy and can’t figure out what’s going on, call someone you know to call or visit the hospital and find out for you and then give you a report. If you don’t have a friend or relative to do this, call your primary doctor to do it.

Hope this helps

People with migraines and chronic headaches go through a lot of worries, one of which is that they will get Alzheimer’s. We’re not alone in this worry. A recent study from the MetLife foundation showed that more Americans are afraid of getting Alzheimer’s than they are of getting heart disease or diabetes. And we are far more prone to getting heart disease or diabetes than we are of getting Alzheiomer’s.

Yet, out of all the diseases you could be dealt with, Alzheimer’s seems to be the big one that we all fear. And will continue to do so.

The Bad News

A very promising drug, Flurizan, that passed one clinical trial has failed it’s latest one. It included volunteers from all over the nation, including those in the Greater Philadelphia area (mine). Today, Myriad Genetics Inc issued a rather terse statement that they found Flurizan to show no significant help to Alzheimer’s patients.

This is the second Alzheimer’s drug to fail in clinical trials this month. The other one was made by Wyeth with the eye-blinking name of Bapineuzumab. (Gezundheight).

The Good News

The good news is that two evil Big Pharma companies gained some karma points by being honest that a drug didn’t work BEFORE the drug was sold. You don’t hear about that every day. Usually, they never admit when a drug doesn’t work. They hint that the drug does work in some way but is not being developed due to financial reasons.

What Have We Learned?

Never trademark your experimental drug until its passed its Phase 3 Clinical Trial.

One of the things migraineurs live in constant fear of is having a migraine strike at the most awkward times in our lives. Like at our wedding.

This has just happened to Kim and James Fisher of Arizona. The day before the wedding (gee, no stress for Kim on that day, eh?) a migraine came calling. It was so severe that she had to go to the hospital.

Determined to get married “no matter what”, the couple changed the wedding plans at the last minute — to get married at the hospital. I wonder if the wedding guests were able to get opiod painkillers as a wedding present for the bride — and groom.

Yet Another Reason Not To Have A Big Wedding

The reports on this event are not clear on a few issues, such as whether this was Kim’s first migraine. If she was riushed to the hospital, then it does suggest that it probably was a first time occassion — which can be incredibly frightening. When I had my first “official” migraine, my doctor wondered if I had an aneurysm. Perhaps Kim’s doctor thought the same thing.

But this leads to a point — migraines are event crashers. You wind up becoming an unreliable friend because of the sudden cancellations you have to do if a migraine should unexpectedly strike.

All is not lost if you stubbornly insist on having a big wedding and know that migraines can come crashing. If you keep a headache journal, you get to learn what your body’s warning signs are that a migraine is on the way. This is usually slightly different for each person, but many warning signs include (but are not limited to):

• Shakiness or dizziness
• Sudden intense irritability for no reason
• Two or three days before your period
• Pressure behind or over your eyes (or eye)
• Auras

There have been cases where migraines have started and then were cured about an hour or so later with medication and a lie down in a dark room. This happened to Denver Bronco’s Terrel Davis in the Super Bowl (who went on to become MVP of the game), so it might happen for you on your wedding day. Arguably, there’s more pressure on you than Davis had for a mere Super Bowl, but the principle applies.

You could also have a Zombie Wedding, where wearing sunglasses, vomiting and covering the wedding venue in black curtains is normal. If you feel like the living dead, you might as well milk it for all it’s worth.

George Carlin was one of my heroes, partially because of his love of wordplay and partially because his jokes could make me laugh even when I was suffering from migraines. For a while, I could bathe in his soothing absurdity (which often made a great deal more sense that just about anything else you’ll read.) No other human being could say the word F*** and make it sound like art.

As you’ve probably heard, George Carlin died on Sunday of heart failure. The news broke this morning. It makes me wonder if George did this on purpose, another “yet another reason to hate Mondays” sort of thing. I wouldn’t put it past him. He could be a cantankerous old sod at times.

But then again, according to his own jokes about euphamisims help brainwash people into things are much better than they really are, no one ever dies any more. “Dies” is too harsh and final-sounding of a word. They just “pass away”.

I discovered that he’s not very well known in England (to my advantage). George’s monologues helped me adjust to the culture shock of moving to England (especially his diatribes against airplane travel) — and then moving back to America. One of the ways to break the ice with strangers in a country you are not native to is to tell a few jokes. Boy, was I looked on a comic genius in the Bath homeless community, or what? And since I didn’t revcieve any money for those jokes, I don’t think it quie falls under the category of “plagerism”.

Life is full of headaches, both real and metaphorical. Just look at the evening news. Just makes you want to curl up in a ball in the basement, coat your thumb with tramadol and suck on it, doesn’t it? George was a preacher, in a way, but with a far more catholic message than from…well, from Catholics. He wanted to try and get people to think for themselves and demand better from big companies and governments, but he also made you laugh while subtly getting his underlying message across.

At least there are recordings from George’s routines from vinyl to DVDs to help soothe us when life’s headaches get to be too much.

Thanks, George. Hope you’re reunited with Tiny the dog and having the Bong to End All Bongs.

There’s a bit of a buzz throughout the British press about a class of migraine drugs called “gap blockers” that are available in the UK on a limited basis. Unfortunately, these drugs don’t remove Gap stores from the face of the planet. That’s another type of headache altogether. No, these gap blockers are to help prevent migraines by directly affecting brain chemistry to keep certain nuerons from firing. Many of these drugs are still in the clinical trial stage.

Don’t We Already Have Those?

There are a lot of drugs available to prevent migraines, including Imitrex (which yours truly might be moved onto soon if her current medication doesn’t pan out). However, these drugs tend to have some really heavy-duty side efffects, including asthma, hair loss and sudden wieght gain. There’s also the usual “risk of harming foetal development”, but that tends not to apply to most migraineurs because we’re too busy having migraines to have sex.

The big buzz about the gap junction blockers for migraines is that they work just as well as a drug like Imitrex, but without the side effects.

As a point of interest, an article in the Daily Telegraph went on to explain how migraines are treated:

Once attacks happen they can be treated with powerful painkillers such as codeine and anti sickness medication.

Day -YAM! When I lived in England, I was NEVER offered codeine for my multitide of migraines. Where’s my codeine? I think I’m due some codeine!

Tonabersat

Get used to that name if you have migraines. That’s suppossed to be THE migraine drug of the future, although it is still in development. It’ll probably cost an arm and both legs when it comes out. The good news (financially speaking) is that dosage seems to be less than for other drugs.

The thing that really, really bothers me about gap blockers is that I can’t remember if I ever wrote about them before on this blog along with other migraine drugs in development. Obviously, this is proof that all of my neurons definately aren’t firing.

The American Medical Association grew a bigger set of balls when it released a report blasting one of its main sources of revenue — the health insurance industry. Even brain surgeons are complaining that health insurance forms are too complex (see — it’s not just you!) They also report that it’s taking doctors 14% of their salaries just to try and get the money owed to them from health insurance companies.

What’s Up, Doc?

This report blasts the industry as a whole and not just one particular health insurance company, although the AMA did give a sobering diagnosis to some of the nation’s most prominant health insurance companies. This is the number based on how often the particular company did not argue with the doctor when he or she wanted to be paid:

• United Health Care: 62%
• Aetna 71%
• Medicare 98%

Wow. Do you mean doctors may actually be concerned with getting their patients better without bankrupting them? Stranger things have happened.

A Case Study

I remember back when I worked at Macy’s and got a concussion on the job from a Macy’s fixture (don’t ask). Macy’s called an ambulance to take me to the closest emergency room. After waiting ten hours, I finally got examined.

A year later, long after I quit Macy’s, I was still getting reminders about the bill. I just forwarded them to Macy’s, which, to its credit, paid up and I wound up not having to pay anything. But this was over a year of back and forth letters, print outs, postage, yadayadayada between the Macy’s and their health insurance company.

And this is considered normal in this country. And we wonder why our health care industry is so screwed up? Going to voodoo healers makes more sense because insurance forms aren’t involved. You walk in, get some bones shaken at you, given a potion or two, you pay up front and then when you walk out and get on with your life.

Thank you, AMA, for actually giving a damn. And I think bodypaint and grassskirts would look great on you lot.

Oh, for Pete’s sake. Was it a slow news day in the non-profit community or what? We have war, famine, the ecological crisis, natural disasters like Paris Hilton and all the Center for Enviornmantal Health and Justice (CHEJ) can point the middle finger at is PVC shower curtains. On Friday June 13, CHEJ put out an a press release that calls PVC shower curtains toxic. I’ve been dying to get my mits wrapped around this press release, but first 451 Press went down and then my Internet went down. So, stand back, this has been brewing all damn weekend.

Anyway

Granted, new shower curtains suck. They have that new shower curtain smell which I’ve noted has never been duplicated in a line of perfume or as a special aromatherapy candle scent. Strong smells can certainly trigger bad headaches.

CHEJ (which I assume is pronounced either “cheese” or “chez”) claim that new shower smell can kill you…eventually. This is because, in 28 days since the bag is opened, the PVC released 108 different VOCs (volitale organic compunds) which are generally bad news and do every bad thing you have ever imagined (including headaches) and things that only Stephen King could imagine.

However, your shower water also releases VOCs. Are you going to stop taking a shower? And, quite frankly, how much time DO you spend in the bathroom?

Should We Ban Shower Curtains?

Great, that’s all we need — a black market for new shower curtains. “Psst, lady — you lookin’ for a new shower curtain? I got florals, tropicals and pastels.”

First we can’t feed ourselves right and they have a trans fat ban. Then, we can’t ride in a moving vehicle right and have to strap our kids into incredibly expensive car seats. Now, they’re trying to get us in the shower. Hey, there’s naked people in here — go get your bans somewhere else!

Folks, how STUPID do we have to be that we need a ban or a warning label on common household items? (Don’t answer that). If you know the new shower curtain is gonna stink, open it up and stick it in a room where no one spends a lot time in (like a basement or attic) and let it air out. Either that, or stick it outside for a couple of days. THEN install it in the bathroom.

Imagine a world without new shower curtains. Remember, folks, extinct is forever. Save the new shower curtains!

Ahhh…I feel so much better now. Was it good for you, too?

The Associated Press and CNN have reported on the rise in survivalists and Americans learning to farm vegeatbles, slaughter their own chickens and stockpile canned goods. In one sense, this is good planning. The future does look a tad bit bleak, what with skyrocketing food, fuel and health care costs and no corresponding rise in wages. Anyone can be forgiven to thik the days of the Revolution — or at least, a really funky riot with a lot of explosions — are soon to come.

Which got me to thinking — will migrainuers have more migraines or less migraines after Armageddon is over?

I Vote Less

I actually have been a survivalist by necessity and not by choice when I was homeless in England. I wasn’t a proper survivialist — I still used stores whenever I had money and begged what I could when I didn’t — but I still lived in the woods in a home I built myself. I used a converted iron stove to heat the place and also had an outdoor fire pit. So I know a little bit about what I speak.

I truly think that many migrainuers will have LESS migraines after then end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine). (In case you’re wondering why the REM clip is there below, now you do). I think this will happen even with the lack of access to modern medicines (even my beloved Excedrin Migraine).

We’ll feel so much better because of two reasons:

1) We won’t have any choice
2) A lot of the things that stress us out will be gone

Let Me Explain

When we say “we won’t have any choice”, I’m not implying that migraineurs choose to have migraines. 99.9% of the time, we don’t. However, our bodies seem to choose to go into rebellion mode whenever we run into the chipper and shredders of life like paying for health care costs, not getting a raise and having to deal with the evil dark shadow on civilization that is Tom Cruise.

We also might sleep better and get to shoot and eat the 1% of the super rich who thrive off the misery of the rest of us. My head feels better already just from thinking about it.

But until then, viva drugs. Sleep tight, kids.

If sheep, spectacular scenery and bungee jumping weren’t enough, here’s yet another good reason to move to New Zealand. Maxalt MLT (rizatriptan benzoate) is now being fully funded by the government there through subsidies. The estimated 400,000 migraineurs in New Zealand would cheer, but that would be too painful.

What Is Maxalt MLT?

This is a fast acting triptan that you don’t need to swallow (a plus for those you are prone to sudden extreme nausea during migraines). It’s a 10 mg wafer that dissolves on your tongue. Some clinical studies show that the drug can work as quickly as thirty minutes after taking it, although the average time is about an hour. It came out in 1998 and has been legal in New Zealand for some time — although paying for it made it far out of reach for most. You can legally get it on over 60 countries, including Canada, England and the United States.

What If You Live In America?

It’s a shame this kind of stuff can’t happen in other countries like the US. But then again, health care is not seen as a right in America. The governement health services are apparantly too cash-strapped to help out the millions of migrainuers in America — or any American with just about any sickness, aliment or injury known to mankind.

And heaven forbid the governement tries to take one penny of profit away from Big Pharma. Who would pay them off for turning the other way when they are in office? Although the massive profits and the words “price gauging” is now under investigation from Big Oil, Satan will be skating to work before any Congressperson aims the words “proice gauging” in the direction of Big Pharma.

I can’t be the only one who sees a new Maxalt MLT drug route happening from New Zealand to America. Great — turf wars over triptans. Gives “trippin’” a whole new meaning.

To get you hooked, Merck is offering a 3 pill trial offer, pending a prescription from your doctor. This offer ends on New Year’s Eve, 2008.

In 2005, I came back to America after living in England. Along with having to experience reverse culture shock and a lot of jokes about my accent, I also couldn’t understand the television, magazine and newspaper advertisments. They semed to be not for over the counter medicines — but for prescription medicines. When I asked Mom about them, she sighed and confirmed my suspiscions. At the time, my Mom worked for the legal department of a Big Pharma company (which I would rather not name).

It was an unwritten no-no to blatantly advertise prescription drugs — until the about 1999 or 2000. At the time, it was thought that doctors — who spent at least twelve years in college and medical school, after all — were the only decision makers when it came to what prescription medicine their patients should be taking.

Now, apparently, people without a lick of medical training or common sense can tell a drug is for them merely by watching TV. The ads themselves are not too informative.

Why The Change?

Big Pharma made millions, but now they make billions. This is partially due to the insanely expensive prices on their medications. In order to justifyu their costs, Big Pharma looked into how it could raise it’s advertising budget. Usually, doctors were courted by Big Pharma with lavish prizes,gourmet food and other perks, but this practice was getting cracked down on. So, Big Pharma turned to advertising in the most expensive media possible — television, huge glossy magazines and full-page newspaper ads.

Even Congress Says “Enough, Already!”

Congress, about as fast as a tortoise on Valium, is even looking into the necessity and accuracy of Big Pharma ads. Right now, they are hoping to enforce stricter rules to limit prescription drug claims, but hopefully (I hope, anyway) they will just outlaw the price-gouging practice whatsoever.

The moral of the story: Ignore all prescription ads that you see and eventually they will just go away. And don’t think you know more about prescription drugs than your doctor — unless you ARE a doctor.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. “She just can’t shut up about how she hates horse racing, can she?” I wouldn’t be doing a “Part 2″ to Friday’s Kentucky Derby Headache if horse racing was banned. So there are now three good reasons to ban horse racing:

• It’s cruel to the horses by encouraging breeding of horses that can’t even support their own weight, let alone that of a rider
• It’s cruel to families of compulsive gamblers
• It makes me go off on rants. Ban horse racng and I’ll shut up

So, in other words, I had a bad headache all weekend. First, I tried to avoid hearing about the Derby, but my Dad atill thinks I’m a horse raving fan. Horse fan, yes — horse racing fan, no. We go out for breakfast every Saturday morning (my parents are divorced). “Who do you like in the Derby?” he asks.

“Dad, I stopped watching horse racing in 1999. I got tired of seeing dead horses.”

“I like Big Brown.”

I rolled my eyes. Oh, hell, what’s the use? “There’s a filly in the Derby named after an N.C. Wyeth painting.” (And I only knew that because my Mom had to inform me of this over breakfast a couple of days ago. I’m starting to think that having breakfast with my either of parents is a cause of headaches.)

Well, that was the kiss of death for that poor filly, now, wasn’t it? I couldn’t get away from the Derby and there it was all over the television national news, the Internet and the Philadelphia Inquirer. I’m sure it’s no surprise by now that a horse died during the race. This is the first time that a horse has died during or immediately after the Kentucky Derby. It’s been the only race major stakes race to not have a casualty until Saturday.

The Pain

The actual headache that happened I’m guessing was due to stress and depression. It lifted very late last night. I handled it badly — basically, numbing myself with junk food, Nyquil and Animal Planet. The pain itself wasn’t so bad, but I felt a crushing weight on my entire body. It was if it suddenly took all the strength I could posess just to walk up the stairs to the bathroom.

I’m trying not to look at anything having to do with race horses, but I do have to work, which requires me going online, which always throws the headlines out at me. I do have clinical depression, and one of the physical symptoms is headaches. However, I’m also blessed with having migraines, which makes me prone to have all kinds of other head pains.

And yes, I know I shouldn’t take things so seriously. Consiously, I don’t. But my subconscious does and rails at the injustice of it all (whatever cause it takes up at the time), which contributes to headaches and not sleeping, which can contribute to more headaches. As U2 sang, “It’s no secret that sometimes a conscious can sometimes be a pest.”

Anyway, how can I do any good for any animal or taking care of my family when I am sick with headaches because of the damn Kentucky Derby?

The Point

If you know somebody who doesn’t understand the pain, depression and downright confusion that can arise when a series of headaches or migraines hit, show them this post. It will give some idea of what you’re going through (although the event that sets you off is most likely not the Kentucky Derby).

Crossing my fingers that I’ll get my heada ches under controll and write a more coherent post tomorrow. God, Goddess and Peter Gabriel bless you for taking the time out of your life for reading this.

The national death toll from methodone is at an all-time high (no pun intended), according to a report compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, put toether in February but not released to the press until this month. The stastistics only go from 1999 to 2005, but still the trends are alarming. Last year, in New Hampshire, more people were killed by methodone than by car accidents.

And the reason people are taking methodone more than ever is NOT an attempt to get high, but as an attempt to get low cost pain relief. As a migraineur, I know I’ve been tempted to get relief from my pain through methodone. Other people are also selling their prescribed methadone in order to pay bills.

Not A New Phenomenon

The new report is yet another one warning about methodone-related deaths that have been coming out for years. A 2004 NPR report focused on the rising trends in methodone deaths, especially int he states of Nevada and Montana. In that news report, the specific reason people were getting methodone was as a painkiller. They do state that methodone used alone was probably not as responsible for deaths as was mixing other drugs (even over the counter drugs) with methodone.

The situation was still grim in June of 2007, when Helping America Reduce Methadone Deaths, Inc (HARM) sent out urgent press releases about the apathy towards methodone deaths.

No Coincidence

We shouldn’t be at all surprised that the death toll from methodone has been steadily rising in the last few years. Look at the costs of health care in America. When prices are rising on everything and your wages are not, people are going to try and cut corners financially wherever they can. For many people, self-medication with a dangerous drug seems the lesser of two evils.

It’s difficult to figure out the right dosage of methodone, even when it’s prescribed. People prescribed methodone always have their doctors tinkering with the dosage. The goal is to give as little as possible — I’ve even known someone in England who’s dosage was one TENTH of a miligram per day — but when you are in pain and can’t afford a doctor, you’re going to think “more is better.”

Unless the cost of everything is sky-high, expect more deaths due to self-medication.

I’ve never been a big fan of botox (”Don’t Believe the Botox Hype”.) The “bo” part of the name stands for botulinium toxin A. That means it’s in the botulism family. I’m an even less of a fan of botulism. Why would you risk sticking botulism in your face? Hey, I’ve never understood why “American Idol” is so popular, and that’s popular, too. Besides smoothing out your face, botox was rumored in to help relieve chronic headaches (it doesn’t).

So, as a reminder — botox will not relieve your chronic headache or migraine. And, a recently released study shows that botox can sink into your brain.

As another reminder, your brain doesn’t need smoothing out. It really needs all of those wrinkles.

What About This New Study?

Sadly, the study was done on rats instead of people. I’ve never been bitten by a rat, but I have been bitten by people, so I am admittedly predjudiced about being pro-rat. They were botox injections into the whisker area (that’s gotta hurt!) Thtree days later, the rats were killed and their brains opened up, which showed traces of the botox in the brain tissue and brain stem (which makes you wonder what these scientists do for fun.)

This is a preliminary study, so nothing’s conclusive (except if you’re a rat in a medical lab, you’re screwed). There is a call for similar studies to be done on monkeys (oh, joy.)

Wouldn’t it be easier to not just the damn botox in the first place?

Substitutions for Experimental Animals

Personally, I think we should stop all animal experimnentation. It’s expensive, it’s cruel and often doesn’t relate to what human bodies go through. What about all these criminals sitting on death row? What about that guy sitting for life at our expense who claimed to have something to do with 9/11? I say botox HIS whisker area and then dissect his brain three days later. We have all these prisoners who hate themselves and are a drain on society. Bu giving them a chance at medical becoming human lab rats, then they can feel that they are doing something quasi-heroic.

Surprisingly, I get a lot of strange looks when I bring this subject up.

But seriously, we could also do computer models and in vitro (in test tube) experiments instead of ripping open animals by the millions.

Remember — botox = death.

On that happy note, have a great weekend.