BL> Define side-effect. Aspirin has a side effect of being the most
 BL> effective way to control blood coagulation known to man. It
 BL> also cures headaches. Which is the side-effect? Salicylic acid
 BL> is what it is and clearly understood rather imperfectly even
 BL> after 50 years.

 RM> Picky bit - Hippocrates used it (infusion of willow bark) in
 RM> 400 BC, and it was identified and purified in 1899.

  1893... I've got Encarta too. It's a wonderful brain-substitute.

 RM> There's an article in a recent New Scientist (30 Nov 96) on
 RM> aspirin (and its rellies) and side effects. When used in large
 RM> quantities for extended periods, for example to relieve
 RM> inflammation caused by rheumatoid arthritis, it can cause
 RM> stomach ulcers, and it sometimes masks the pain long enough for
 RM> the ulcers to kill.

  The point I was making is that aspirin is what it is, "side-effects"
and all. We just don't understand it properly, and this is a natural
consequence of the way these things are created by chemists in
pharmaceutical companies... focussed on a profitable use which may be
only incidental to the drug's actual action on the human body. By now,
after 50 years general use (I was right about that, btw, in spite of
the Indian shamans and Hippocrates) we understand aspirin pretty well.

BTW, aspirin is no longer the preffered anti-inflamatory for
arthritis. Diclofenac is flavour of the month.

 RM> One of the patches mentions nitroglycerine - in the blood, it
 RM> releases nitric oxide, which can dilate blood vessels, and is
 RM> used to reduce the pain of angina.

  Nitrogylerine does more than that. It's basically a muscle-relaxant.

 RM> NO can also help protect the tummy against ulcers, so work is
 RM> being done on slow release NO drugs.

  I'm on one of those slow-release NO drugs now (imdur) but the
Australian work on stomach bacteria has made peptic ulcers a dead
issue.

 RM> The article notes that too fast a release of NO can cause a
 RM> fatal drop in blood pressure...

  And it varies from person-to-person, which makes it wonderfully
fatal.

 BL> Life is all about risks and knowledge. Political correctness
 BL> maximises the risk and minimises the knowledge.

 RM> I think they're more into trading dollars for lives, but that's
 RM> life.

  Whose money? This is a decision of the Federal bureacuracy. The
pharmaceutical company would actually prefer it to be on the "free"
lists... and sell more.

  I asked the cardiologist to halve the dosage of imdur yesterday.
It's costing me $1.33-a-day for the bloody things, plus the other 
pills at another $1.33-a-day. "Free" list my arse! I'm looking at a 
$1000 overhead for the rest of my life... plus the friendly increases 
the Fed Bureaucracy manages every year. Great! Interest rates drop 
2% in a year, costing me income, my tax is up $2K this year, and now 
I'm wearing another $1K!

  But I asuppose I should take heart from the thought of all those 
bludging Abos in suits living the life of Reilly. I may give work away 
and join the dole bludgers. I could probably get an invalid's pension 
if I faked another angina attack. I know how, now.

 RM> Here - have some white cells:

  Spaces don't count. I'm already spaced out.

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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