![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/strawberries-2014-300x225.jpg\")
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Why am I using strawberries for the illustration? Because some people are allergic to strawberries and don’t know it until they eat them. And then they need something to counteract the allergic reaction.<\/p>\n
A cautionary tale: \u00a0AW1Ed advised that he had a bad reaction to an OTC drug CRESTOR** \u00a0 \u00a0that is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug. (NSAID).\u00a0\u00a0**N.B.: I originally put Cortisol<\/strong> in that sentence, because that was the infor I’d been given.\u00a0 The correct name of the drug is Crestor, which is not a steroid bur rather a statin. My apologies and AW1Ed is burying himself in remorse.\u00a0 The side effects of Crestor are serious even when taken according to directions.<\/p>\n There is an entire group of them, none of which require a prescription, and you may not know that you have a sensitivity to any of them until or unless you take the recommended dosage and have a bad reaction, possibly life-threatening, to them.<\/p>\n Reactions to aspirin are common. If you have an aspirin allergy or sensitivity, you may also have a reaction to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve).<\/p>\n In AW1Ed\u2019s case, it was a previously unknown allergy to the chemistry in Crestor.<\/p>\n As an example:<\/p>\n Aspirin allergy symptoms<\/strong><\/p>\n An aspirin allergy or sensitivity, or a reaction to\u00a0NSAIDs, can cause symptoms that range from mild to severe. Reactions occur within minutes to hours of taking the medication. They may include:<\/p>\n Hives<\/p>\n Itchy skin<\/p>\n Runny nose<\/p>\n Red eyes<\/p>\n Swelling of the lips, tongue or face<\/p>\n Coughing, wheezing or shortness of breath<\/p>\n Anaphylaxis \u2014 a rare, life-threatening allergic reaction<\/p>\n If you have asthma, nasal polyps, chronic sinusitis or chronic hives (urticaria), you’re more likely to have a reaction to aspirin or\u00a0NSAIDs. When a reaction occurs, it can worsen symptoms of these conditions. – \u00a0Mayo Clinic online.<\/p>\n There are many, many OTC pharmaceuticals available. Some of them, like Tylenol, are not NSAIDs. Most are harmless. Just use caution, and remember that the recommended dosage on OTC drugs is the minimum dose. I occasionally have to take an antihistamine during pollen season, so I cut one of those (gagme!) pills in half, and it works just fine. The full dose is far too strong.<\/p>\n Just be careful. And yes, you should ask your doctor about the minimum dosage on prescriptions. Sometimes they mean well but fail to take chemistry sensitivity into account when they write prescriptions. Sometimes half the minimum dosage is sufficient to do the job.<\/p>\n On the other hand, you have people like my dad, who would not give up his whiskey when his doctor told him to, so mixing whiskey with his cardiac and blood pressure meds did have side effects.\u00a0 (He may have enjoyed that, for all I know. \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"