Capitol Hill Blue Forums Science and Technology Health, Medicine & the healing Sciences Zicam vs Lipitor

Acupuncture is covered on the provincial medical plan here in British Columbia.

It should be covered on American plans. It works at least as well as other medical procedures.

But the mantra of the Medical Establishment is:

Only poisons and knives, please! That's where the money is!

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Right. That would explain why my chiropractor bills my insurance before he bills me.

My HMO covers chiropractor too, just wish it worked as well, tried for over 2 years with only a slight alleviation of the problem, change in diet did more than the chiro ever did.

This is a very interesting take on the matter, CR. The government, for the most part, doesn't invent the drugs, produce them, or sell them. Blaming the government for the side effects of drugs is kind of like blaming Brian Williams for the events he covers in the evening news.

It's not that cut and dried, not all black and white - and there is some responsibility on the consumer when information is available.

Years ago I went to a doctor with a nail fungus. He offered me a choice - a drug which might damage my liver, or just living with the damn nail. I chose to keep my liver, thank you very much (and then, years later, found tea tree oil to treat the fungus.)

Also years ago, I went to a doctor with a debilitating illness. He offered me a drug that would give me a nearly-normal lifespan, the trade being the destruction of my thyroid, or a much shorter life. This time, I tossed the thyroid overboard and after about 10 years, began taking thyroid replacements.

In both cases the doctor offered me a solution, explained the downside, and gave me an alternative. Maybe I've just been lucky in my selection of doctors (which, in turn, was pretty much driven by the doctors listed with my employer's insurance plan.)

I know that the pharmacological industry is screwing us. I know that doctors are in cahoots with them. But I have had severe hypertension for nearly two years. It has taken that long to find the right medication for me. My cardiologist has said that there is no one medication for everyone, that each person reacts differently. I think we tried 6 or 7 different ones. Meds that worked for others didn't work for me or caused severe reactions of some sort. I am happy now to have a little pill to take very night that keeps my blood pressure normal. I also have an autoimmune disease that a medication is keeping stable and sometimes in remission. So two little pills every night help me move without pain and breathe a lot easier.

My insurance covers acupuncture, chiropractic and naturopathic. I have physicians in the family, but I'd rather avoid seeing them if at all possible. I like naturopathic doctors.

I don't take any drugs other than doxipen off label to sleep. I don't know that I need it now. I do know that you can't simply quit taking doxipen, the withdrawal is said to be less than pleasant. In the fall I'll take a week off and with the doc's supervision I'll ween meself of doxipen.

I've decided at this point in life it is better to exercise and make radical changes to my diet rather than to take a handful of feckin chemicals everyday.

Being a brittle diabetic on the point of dialysis, I have to take a handful of feckin chemicals every day, plus exercise and a radical diet change...

You are very fortunate, Mickey. About four and a half years ago I made radical changes to my diet and started exercising. There are some medical problems that diet and exercise can't cure, unfortunately.

Emma

Yep - a lot of it is just genetic. I can live very carefully - and am much better about choices than I used to be - but nothing will change the fact that I have a 1 in 2 chance of developing diabetes, or that stroke, high blood pressure, and heart (as well as diabetes) were there in some combination in both parents and all grandparents.

Diet and exercise are not going to completely override those genes, or those odds. Which is not to say that I won't do my best.

So long as I have a choice between Lipitor and a heart attack, I'll probably choose Lipitor -- if I have to choose, and if nothing better comes along.

That may be stupid or naive, but heart attacks hurt, and open-heart surgery hurts like hell.

If Zicam and Lipitor attacked the same problem, the comparison would be more reasonable.