Nowadays, people’s lives are getting faster, so the pressure they bear is increasing. Under high pressure, various diseases are inevitable to occur. Minor illnesses can be treated with medication, but if the illness is severe, a visit to the hospital for treatment is necessary.
Many people pay great attention to health preservation in life, aiming to keep their bodies in a healthy state through health preservation. After all, health is important when nothing else exists. Frequent illnesses not only waste time but also money.
Some people keep essential medicines at home, such as fever-reducing medicine, cough medicine, cold medicine, etc. However, some medicines should not be taken casually, and it is important for everyone to be aware of this.
Case Sharing:
“Why can’t I buy this medicine?”
Aunt Wu has always had compound licorice tablets at home. Whenever someone at home coughed, they would take a few tablets, and the symptoms would quickly subside. This time, when Aunt Wu went to the pharmacy to buy more, she was told that she needed a prescription to purchase it.
This made her very angry, thinking that the pharmacy staff were deliberately making things difficult for her. She had always been able to buy it before, so why not this time?
Not just licorice tablets, a commonly kept medicine known as the “diarrhea-stopping godsend” was recently banned. Check if you have it at home!
Beware of Taking Medicine Randomly: Excessive use of common medicines can be harmful. Have you fallen into this trap?
1. Long-term Dependency
The main adverse consequence of drug abuse is long-term dependency, especially with painkillers. Some patients, due to severe pain from illnesses, may choose to use drugs for pain relief in the short term, but these drugs can lead to addiction.
A common example is morphine, an effective painkiller with good pain control. However, it is addictive. Therefore, morphine is generally not considered the first choice in clinical practice.
2. Multiple Organ Damage
Drugs enter the body mainly through metabolism in the liver or kidneys. Excessive use can burden the liver and kidneys, leading to liver and kidney damage. Additionally, most drugs have a suppressing effect on the body’s hematopoietic system. Excessive use can cause damage to the blood system, reducing white blood cells, platelets, and causing abnormal blood clotting function.
3. Impairment of Social Function
When an individual experiences emotional fluctuations, cognitive impairment, or other issues due to drug abuse, their ability to work, study, and interact with others may be affected. These impairments may strain relationships with family, friends, or colleagues, and even lead to a departure from normal social roles.
4. Dual Infection
Long-term use of broad-spectrum antibiotics can eliminate beneficial bacteria in the body, leading to intestinal microecological imbalances.
As a result, drug-resistant bacteria may survive and multiply, causing dual infections. Common examples include intestinal staphylococci and possibly due to unidentified clostridium botulinum, leading to pseudomembranous colitis.
5. Increase in Drug Interactions
Long-term drug abuse can affect liver metabolism or the brain’s ability to transmit nerve signals, consequently influencing the effects of other drugs. This may lead to overlapping adverse reactions, reduced therapeutic effects, and even serious health risks.
These five medicines should not be taken casually; some have already been banned internationally and domestically, yet many people still consider them essential medicines.
1. Ribavirin
Ribavirin is a synthesized broad-spectrum antiviral drug primarily used for treating children’s colds, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and rotavirus enteritis, especially widespread among preschool children.
Long-term use of ribavirin in children can cause hemolytic anemia and even carry a risk of cancer. Several countries, including the United States and Japan, have strictly restricted the use of ribavirin. Yet, many people still view it as an essential medicine.
2. Pimodine
This drug is a favorite among dermatology, pediatrics, and otolaryngology doctors, with prescriptions often lasting for a month. However, the National Medical Products Administration revised the pimodine instructions in 2018 to include a contraindication for children under three years old.
This is mainly because pimodine is a synthetic thymic dipeptide that stimulates the body for immune enhancement. Hence, it is a bestseller in pediatrics. Although several overseas clinical studies have provided safety and efficacy data in adults and older children, there is a lack of research data on children under three years old.
3. Compound Licorice Tablets
Compound licorice tablets are commonly used cough medicines, but they are actually banned in the United States because they contain opium powder, which can lead to addiction and patient drug dependence.
In 2014, a person was once banned from entering the United States for five years for carrying compound licorice tablets. The China Medicine Evaluation Center has also issued a statement that individuals under 18 should not use cold medicines containing codeine.
4. Propranolol
Propranolol is used for treating arrhythmia, angina pectoris, and other diseases, which is a common medication. However, propranolol can impede the release of glucose from liver glycogen, promote insulin secretion in the body, and cause blood sugar reduction.
Propranolol itself can relieve arrhythmia issues. Therefore, even if the heart rate increases due to hypoglycemia, patients may not be aware. If taken with hypoglycemic drugs, it can easily lead to hypoglycemia.
5. Antipyrine
Some people take antipyrine for fever relief; however, its main components include sodium sulfite and aminopyrine, which have caused severe adverse reactions and deaths both domestically and internationally.
In particular, aminopyrine reduces the number of white blood cells in the peripheral blood, weakens immunity, and can lead to various infections. The United States banned antifebrin as early as 1934 and its clinical use has also been discontinued.
Further Reading – How Long Does it Take for Medication to Take Effect?
The time it takes for medications to take effect depends on the specific drug taken and the disease being treated. Different drugs have varying absorption pathways, metabolic pathways in the body, and half-lives, resulting in different onset times and durations of effect.
If taking ibuprofen or other antipyretic drugs, relief may be felt within half an hour of ingestion; whereas with painkillers, the onset of action is also relatively quick.
However, with antibacterial drugs, it may require a period of treatment for the drug concentration in the blood to stabilize before showing a noticeable effect against the infection.
