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By Martin Brown for
Pacific News Service
Martin Brown is science
editor of Pacific News.

When you get your next cold
this fall or winter, watch what
you take for it. Acording to
many leading physicians and
pharmacists, America’s annual
$1 billion spending spree to
battle the common cold is often
a case of throwing good money
after bad medicine. -

Many over-the-counter reme-
dies for America’s most com-
mon illness are at the least
ineffective and at worst danger-
ous. _

Often taken indiscriminately
because of their ready availabi-
lity, commercial cold remedies
can have serious side effects in
large doses and even in regular
doses among sensitive users.

‘*Self medication is being
practiced today with a degree of
sophistication that belongs to
the Dark Ages,”’ says the Amer-
ican Pharmaceutical Assn.
‘‘Abundant evidence...clearly
indicates that they (some self-
medications) deserve to be lab-
eled ‘explosive--handle with
care.”

Consider the most popular
cold remedy of all: aspirin.

Americans spend $500 million
a year on aspirin and aspirin-
containing drugs, consuming

about 30 million tablets per day. ©
But aspirin is a drug that can ~

have unpleasant, even serious,
side-effects.

For many aspirin users, just
one to three tablets can cause
burning pain in the mouth,
throat and abdomen; breathing
difficulty; lethargy; vomiting;
ringing in the ears; dizziness
and decreased blood circulation.

Aspirin may also attack the
stomach wall and lead to bleed-
ing ulcers.

In larger doses, aspirin is the
most common single poison
used by suicides and is respon-
sible for 15 per cent of accident-
al deaths in young children.
Sixty to 90 tablets can kill an
adult; a much smaller number
can kill a child.

While the medicinal value of
aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) has
been known for a long time--

Pliny mentioned it in his medi- |

cal encyclopedia over 2,000
years ago--aspirin has been
mass-produced only in the twen-
tieth century. And just in recent
years has science been able to
discover the biochemical mech-

anism by which it works.
Ironically, the same mecha-

nism that allows aspirin to give
“temporary symptomatic relief
for pain and fever may actually
prolong recovery from a cold.
Aspirin’s effectiveness re-
sults from its interference with
| the prostaglandin system, a
recently discovered class of
chemical substances that appear
to play a key role in the body’s
defensive system.
Prostaglandins are involved
in pain, inflammation and the

chemical reactions that produce
fever, all defense mechanisms.
Thus, while treating the symp-
toms of a cold, aspirin can also

inhibit the body’s ability to fight -
odt

More important, aspirin taken
on a chronic basis may interfere
with the longterm maintenance
of regulatory systems that de-
pend upon the proper balance of
prostaglandins.

The Food and Drug Admin.
(FDA) has tentatively conclu-
ded, for example, that aspirin
may prolong childbirth and in-

hibit blood clotting for mother-

for mother and child if taken in
the last three months of preg-
nancy.

Many other cold remedies
contain chemical substances
closely related to aspirin, such
as acetanilide, phenacetin and
acetaminophen. The latter, sold
under the trade names Datril
and Tylenol, does not harm the
stomach lining and is as ef-

fective at fighting fever and pain

as aspirin.

But all these aspirin-like
drugs--sometimes with as few
as two-to-five tablets--can cause
drops in blood pressure, respir-
atory failure or damage to the
liver and kidneys in some
people, according to the Ameri-
can Pharmaceutical Assn. Such
respiratory or kidney failure can
be fatal.

Other cold remedies consist of
combinations of several drugs in
addition to aspirin, such as

antihistamines and sympathom-

imetics.

While antihistamines are
added to cold remedies to
relieve stuffy nses, the FDA has
reported that commercial anti-
histamines are ineffective for
this purpose. ;

Antihistamines are, however,
a major cause of accidental
poisoning in young children and
an instrument of suicide in
adults. They are especially dan-
gerous when taken in conjunct-
ion with alcohol.

According to Dr. Melvin H.
Weinswig, professor of pharm-
acy at the Univ. of Wisconsin,

side effects of antihistamines at
even regular doses can include--
in sensitive cases--sedation,
gastrointestinal upset, loss of
appetite, nausea, vomiting,

heartburn, constipation and
diarrhea.

Occasional, more serious side
effects even at regular doses
include impotence, convulsions
and toxic psychosis. And, adds
the FDA, some antihistamines
containing meclizine, cyclizine
and chlorocyclizine can cause
birth defects.

In nasal decongestion sprays,
antihistamines are often com-
bined with sympathomimetics--

drugs that suppress some cold

symptoms.

According to Drs. Arthur
Zupko and Edward Stempel of
the Brooklyn College of Pharm-
acy, sympathomimetics ‘‘can
have a remarkable habit-form-

ing effect.’’ The more these
drugs are used, the less effect
they have--which usually leads
to larger and larger doses.

This pattern of habituation
can lead to ‘‘congestion re-
bound’’--complete nasal obst-
ruction--which the common cold
would never have produced on
its own.

And, add Drs. Zupko and
Stempel, nasal decongestants
are often ineffective because the
mucous blanket in the nose
prevents satisfactory absorption
of the drug.

All these cold remedies con-
tain drugs that can interact with
other drugs to produce harmful
side effects. Cold remedies
should not be taken with alcohol
or by persons on medication for
high blood pressure, heart dis-
ease, diabetes, thyroid disease
or other chronic diseases, with-
out a doctor’s permission.

Most combination cold and
decongestant remedies are pro-
bably ineffective anyway, says
the FDA. That was the conclu-
sion of an extensive study of
these products begun in 1972 by
a panel of expert physicians and
pharmacologists under the aegis
of the National Academy of
Sciences.

_Prevention--aided by a _mod-
erate, well balanced diet, balan-
ced rest and exercise, limited
coffee and alcohol intake and nc
cigarette smoking--is still the

best alternative to commercial
cold remedies to those who do
succumb to colds, Dr. Sol Katz
of Georgetown Univ. has this
advice: ‘‘Drink lots of hot chic-
ken soup.”

PRE-ORIENTATION

Attention university transfer students
planning to attend the Surrey campus for
the Spring semester. |

Assistance with course planning will be
available through counselling beginning
Monday, Nov. 29 through Dec. 22. —

‘‘Help us to help you’’ by signing up
today at the receptionist’s desk in room

S601.

 

Surrey campus students only: Those
planning to attend New Westminster,
Coquitlam,
should contact counselling offices on
those campuses.

 

la
femme
fatale

Eileen Galuska

The women’s liberation movement is often thought of as a
sexual movement. The male population, in particular, identify
the movement with the sexual morals of a woman who is
involved with a movement or feminist group.

The issue of women’s liberation should not be confused with
sexual liberation. I am not saying that liberated women do not
have liberated sex lives but the implication that liberated
women are liberated sexually is a misconception. What is
often overlooked, when referring to a woman liberationist, are
her objectives or priorities. To a particular woman, being
liberated sexually may be her first priority, but in most cases
this is not true. Women’s liberation is the movement for
political, economical, emotional, psychological and sexual
equality.

When talking to a male on the issue of equality of the sexes,
the topic always turns to the issue of sexual liberation. It
seems that if I am to be truly liberated then I am not to have
any hang-ups about jumping into bed with any Tom, Dick or
Harry. My struggle is not to make myself readily available
therefore creating a large market for potential lays. If I was to
become sexually liberated through the process of female
awareness then I may have the courage to say to my lover that
he is lousy because I've never once got off when making love
to him. It’s true, very few women enjoy sex all the time. They
may experience fullfillment one out of four times. It’s a novelty
to find a female who always enjoys making love to a male
partner.

Males may be in for a shock if they continue to encourage
females to become sexually liberated. Their fragile male egos
may have to take a beating. Females have been subjected to
the grin, gear, and fake mode of making love too long and the
women’s liberation revolution brings out this area because it is
a form of oppression. The sexual revolution is the fad to make
love free of all self-binding morals and not to feel bad about
doing it. For the male population it’s super. Sex without love
or ties is the secret to all their frustrations.

The role the women’s liberation movement plays in this
circus is that of the conscience. What is the truth? This is the
question that a liberated female has to ask herself. If she
enjoys her hectic sex life, then O.K., but if she doesn’t, then
there has to be the surfacing of her true feelings. Once she has
explored these feelings and has successfully developed them
then she may state herself as sexually liberated. It may mean
no to a hopeful male but she will no longer have to falsify
herself in order to preserve the fragile male image of
masculinity.

 

 

 

or Richmond campuses