Posts by wanderingcobra2

Brian Gomez28 said:I haven't seen a doctor in maybe 7 or 8 years, so I decided it was time to go get some full blood work done.
... should I be worried?

My stats:
Male, 43 years old
175cm, 95kg
Physical activity: Pretty much zero
Diet: All over the place. I almost never eat breakfast, often skip lunch, and just grab dinner.

Man, this should definitely have you sweating. You're basically asking for trouble here. You've got every single red flag in the book for developing atherosclerosis, which is probably already well underway. The thing is, you won't feel a thing or notice anything until "something" suddenly hits you.

If you happen to smoke too...

Don't sweat the eggs. Recent studies show they're actually a necessary part of a solid diet.

Gregory Ramos5 said:I think you're off base here. I was deep in the addiction game myself—didn't quite hit the needle stage, but I was definitely in the thick of it—and I can tell you firsthand that Suboxone saved my skin. I stayed on it for about two years before realizing I just didn't need it anymore. I started tapering off naturally, and honestly? I never once dealt with withdrawal or felt even remotely weird about it. Maybe everyone's biology is different, but the whole "drama" people make about quitting seems pretty unnecessary to me. A lot of it is mental—if you're just sitting around at home with nothing to do, you'll find a way to invent a crisis if you look hard enough.

Glad you made it out, but you're still carrying that weight.

When it comes to heroin, methadone, or Suboxone...
People need to realize that once heroin messes with your brain chemistry, there is no "reset" button to get back to how things were before. We're talking about the physical structure of the brain here. Heroin is basically the perfect drug in terms of how it hijacks those opioid receptors.

Anyone who gets hooked on heroin and then quits can't honestly claim they're "cured," because that state of being cured simply doesn't exist.
Addiction is a brutal, incurable disease. You stay in abstinence for the rest of your life. It doesn't matter if you're shooting up, snorting, smoking, or swallowing pills.
For actual addiction, the method of delivery is irrelevant.

Only about 2% of the population is biologically incapable of getting addicted to heroin.

Pfizer actually produced pure heroin commercially for a short stint as a powerful painkiller because it hits harder than morphine. They realized pretty quickly that it was a massive mistake.

driftingpanther42 said:What about the ones who actually manage to quit? Are they still mentally broken?? I'm not being sarcastic, I quit a long time ago but damn, I still feel like a junkie... I don't take any meds and I function normally in society (well, except for the occasional meltdown), but I am broken deep down inside. For my depression, all I have is work, just endless work...

Yeah, for life. Once your brain chemistry gets hijacked, it stays wonky. The only real fix is staying clean forever. There isn't some magical "cure." Addiction is like a sleeping beast; the second your brain figures out a way to get its hands on an opioid—whether it's heroin or methadone, doesn't matter—it's game over. It doesn't care if you've been sober for five years or twenty.

Having your act together and staying busy—like having a steady 9-to-5—is the closest thing to a "cure," but let's be real, that's the hardest part for anyone struggling with addiction.
Hang in there.👍

You can't just talk about buprenorphine "Subutex" in such half-baked terms. It’s a heavy-duty analgesic that, honestly, should be avoided—just like using Suboxone as a painkiller. Since it’s packed with naloxone, which ER doctors use to kick drugs off receptors and pull someone out of an overdose, you're messing with serious chemistry. These meds hit three different types of opioid receptors in your brain, so playing around with them is basically playing with fire. If you want the straight truth? Only about 20% of addicts actually stay clean and get kicked out of treatment for good.

But even that isn't the full story. The real truth is much more brutal. This is clinical data for the general public, but honestly, you might be better off not knowing the actual percentage.

It’s enough to say that heroin addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease.
The brain gets permanently damaged, but that’s not even the worst part. For almost every addict out there, life is absolutely trashed, and clawing your way out of that hellhole is a mission that's practically impossible.

So, stay far away from heroin. It will wreck you. And I don't just mean your brain... it's this vicious, endless loop: heroin-methadone-heroin-Subutex... death.

You made a solid point there, though you can't exactly go laying down new hardwood or rugs if you're dealing with this inside your house🙂
Those little eggs hiding in the cracks and under the floorboards are a total nightmare to fully wipe out. Plus, if you've got a cat running around the place, you've gotta be super consistent with their Fipronil treatments to keep things under control.

Actually, I misspoke earlier. Regent definitely uses active fipronil, while Biokill relies on Permethrin. Honestly, if you aren't someone who actually understands chemistry, don't try to DIY your own "Frontline" substitute—you're just asking to poison your pet.

Dog fleas aren't even the worst part; it's the cat fleas that go absolutely ballistic when there aren't any cats around to feed on. If you’ve got them in your house, just know they own the place now—it's a full-blown invasion. These little monsters hide in every crack in your hardwood floors, tucked away in corners, buried deep in the carpet, laying eggs like it's their job. Their survival instinct is terrifying; those dormant stages can hang around for up to 15 years. Your only real move is heavy-duty vacuuming and blasting everything with Biokill twice a month. Biokill kills the ones running around, but the real headache is that it doesn't touch the eggs.
You have to stay on top of treating your dog or cat with Fipronil, like using Frontline, to gradually wipe out the population.
Honestly, trying to totally eradicate fleas from an American home is an uphill battle because there's always some stray egg lurking somewhere, waiting to hatch into a new generation later on.

People should realize that while Frontline works, the active ingredient Permethrin is actually what does the heavy lifting here. But here's the kicker: Big Pharma is basically robbing you blind. Permethrin is used in much higher concentrations in Regent, which is an insecticide meant for controlling Colorado potato beetles. That stuff is classified as a Category 2 toxin, and if you head down to a local farm supply store, you can get a whole $3.75 gram 🙂 bottle for next to nothing, whereas a single pipette for a 40+ kg dog costs $18

Brenda Rodriguez said:They aren't thinking straight.

So, here is the situation... I have been lying in a hospital here in the States for eight days now, dealing with sudden weight gain and massive water retention. I assume they’ve drawn about a liter and a half of blood from me over these last eight days. I managed to put on 30 pounds within a single year without changing my diet at all. Fortunately, I can still manage to burn some of it off...
I just hide my stomach and use some blush to mask the puffiness, and then I can tolerate being around people. But it is taking a toll on my health. I have stretch marks on my abdomen, high blood pressure, breathing issues, exhaustion even with minimal movement, and moments of fainting...

And while I have to wait a month or two for the hormone results, the doctor's diagnosis is simply that I am "healthy overweight."

I truly cannot believe it.😲

Please, I am asking for your help.
I need to get this fluid out of my system. And honestly, I'm exhausted...

Look, if you were retaining fluid that fast, you should have already gone through a full workup with an internist. If your kidney function is actually fine, they should have you on some heavy-duty diuretics to get that extra weight moving out. Honestly, if things were truly hitting the fan, you’d be sitting in the ICU right now.

Just wait until you get your lab results back to see if everything checks out. In the meantime, brace yourself—you're looking at a strict diet with way less salt.

Terry Howard said:Has anyone else dealt with this? Does anyone know where else in Washington, D.C. I can get a dermatoscopy done?

It’s common knowledge that if you try to go through the Mayo Clinic, you'll be sitting on a waiting list for months. Everyone flocks to them or to Vineyard. Honestly, they aren't even rude if you show up in person and play it just right so they can't just brush you off.

In my case, they were actually pretty helpful—told me straight up that there are plenty of dermatology clinics in Washington, D.C., and that any decent dermatologist should be able to spot changes easily, so why wait three months for an appointment with them? Then she started listing some local offices for me...

So, I took that same referral, swung by a local health center, and got exactly what I needed at a dermatology clinic that same day. I saw a doctor I really trust, and after a super thorough exam, all my worries were cleared up.

Douglas Fowler said:I used my brain, kicked Crohn's to the curb, and realized all this talk about the disease and its "treatments" is just a massive scam designed to keep Big Pharma at the top of the food chain.
If you don't want to believe me, fine. If you don't want to look into alternative options, that's your call too. I’m not out here forcing anyone to go the holistic route (or any other route, for that matter). I'm just pointing out that a cure exists—and by the way, it actually works—so the ball is in your court.

Oh, okay, so you're a total genius then. I honestly can't figure out why millions of people across the country haven't just "used their brains" to permanently kick Crohn's to the curb. Instead, they’re stuck dealing with surgeries and living in constant fear of when their next flare-up is going to hit.
I guess everyone else is just an idiot waiting for some brilliant wisdom to drop from your head.
Since you've supposedly mastered curing chronic illness once and for all, why aren't you out there posting advice on every medical forum under the sun?

There are whole threads dedicated to cancer, too. I bet those folks would be cured in a heartbeat if they just tried your "magic water," especially the ones in the terminal stages with metastases everywhere. So come on, go help them... what are you waiting for? People are dying... hello?? Where's this miracle cure at???

Douglas Fowler said:If you're asking what I take for it, the truth is I don't take anything. I’ve dealt with Crohn's myself, and I don't personally know anyone living with HIV or showing symptoms. That doesn't mean I can't see that this stuff actually works.

Besides, you can easily go look up the trial results they had running over in Africa...

Honestly, what you're typing right now is beyond top-tier nonsense. 😛

Come on, Douglas, why don't you explain to everyone how you managed to cure your Crohn's? If this supplement of yours is really that much of a miracle worker, you'll be picking up a Nobel Prize any day now.

Hey Sam Hall15, just close this thread already. It's pretty clear Douglas thinks he's found some kind of industrial bleach—like Clorox—so at this rate, we might as well start treating people like toilet bowls. 😁

Douglas Fowler said:AIDS, much like any other disease caused by pathogens, can be cured pretty easily. Honestly, it doesn't even matter if you use MMS (which is how I cleared up my own Crohn's), because there are plenty of ways to wipe out pathogens. It’s simple: kill the pathogen. Once you wrap your head around that, you'll realize HIV is just another pathogen, which means you can destroy it easily and without breaking the bank.

What you just typed is pure, unadulterated nonsense. Seriously, please, give me one single example where scientists have actually managed to eliminate the HIV virus from people living with it—people who, thanks to current therapy, live totally normal lives and hold down regular jobs.
Cite a scientific journal or something and share the actual data with us.

Look, if you actually know how to purge HIV from the body, either post the method right here or better yet, contact every major research team in the world that’s been chasing this for decades. If you’ve cracked the code on handling viral mutations and permanently wiping them out, you’re looking at a Nobel Prize in Medicine. I am being dead serious.

"It's simple to kill pathogens"... man, give me a break. If that were true, why are antibiotics losing their edge? Why isn't Vancomycin doing anything against MRSA anymore?
Why are scientists sweating bullets over bacterial mutations? Do you have some magic formula for all that? Why is there a legitimate fear of a super-pandemic from an unknown virus hitting us right now?

And why do they have to tweak the flu shot every single year because scientists are worried they might not have hit the mark—not that the shot kills the virus anyway, it just keeps things manageable while the virus stays one step ahead.

But sure, you claim you know how to destroy every pathogen out there. How, exactly? You got a magic wand or something?

I'm telling you straight: if you truly have the answer to all that, a Nobel Prize in Medicine is practically sitting on your doorstep. You'd be more famous than anyone else who's ever won one.

Just stop posting this garbage. It’s obvious you don't even grasp the fundamental difference between a virus and a bacterium. And don't even get me started on prions.

Who does someone think they are, deciding they have parasites just because they sat in a certain chair or saw a stray bug? If you're actually worried, you can just head down to a local pharmacy and grab some unnamed, or maybe just focus on some preventative cleansing 🙂
It runs about $8.25. You can also get it with a prescription if you prefer.

It’s pretty wild when you realize that unnamed uses the exact same active ingredient—mebendazole—as VERPANYL, which is that stuff you give your dogs and cats to keep them clear of worms.

You can actually give unnamed to cats too, especially since there's a syrup version out there that's easier for puppies and kittens to handle.
The mebendazole in it is heavy-duty; it knocks out everything from the eggs and larvae to the fully grown intestinal parasites.

Look, his issues aren't actually about the medication itself. Patients who have been on this stuff for years are usually pretty happy with it. It clearly did its job controlling his blood pressure. The real question is how high his numbers were to begin with. Dosage is basically a balancing act—you adjust based on the blood pressure readings and how much it drops his resting heart rate, while the cardiologist calls the shots. For younger guys, a 5mg dose as a standalone treatment is usually plenty.
Once you're diagnosed with essential hypertension, it’s just a matter of annual checkups and moving on with your life. Honestly, there's no real point in seeing Magdalena; it'll just be a massive drain on his wallet for nothing.
He needs to be monitoring his own pressure at home every now and then. If he truly feels like his current cardiologist isn't cutting it, he should go grab a second opinion in Washington, D.C., maybe over at the Srcan clinic at 123 Main Street www.srcana.hr

What dose are you on? 2.5, 5mg, or 10mg? What were your blood pressure readings looking like before you started, and how much did Concor actually knock them down? Also, what’s your resting heart rate at?
These are the potential side effects for Concor (bisoprolol), but honestly, your body usually adjusts after a while. The one thing that might stick around is a drop in libido. Generally speaking, Concor is pretty easy to tolerate—usually better than those other selective beta-blockers doctors tend to prescribe for younger folks, depending on what symptoms you're dealing with.
Don't even think about quitting Concor cold turkey. That's a recipe for disaster. You should definitely have a sit-down with your cardiologist and ask them about nebivolol. It just got added to the supplemental formulary, so you'll probably have to wait until it moves to the primary coverage list.
The reality is, hypertension meds are usually a lifelong commitment... at least until someone invents a better way to manage essential hypertension.

Look, if you aren't going for a classic—which, let's be honest, is the only way to actually rely on the numbers—just grab an Omron. Forget all those cheap knockoffs or even the mid-tier stuff that tries to measure via your wrist; they're mostly just glorified paperweights. Even the American Heart Association puts their stamp of approval on Omron.

OMRON M6 $266, OMRON M7 $330, OMRON M10 IT $326, OMRON 705 CP $0.62 , OMRON 907-professional grade $1.75

Look, it’s not some "one size fits all" situation with meds. Some stuff stays good, some doesn't. Honestly, if you've got something that's been sitting in a cool, dark spot—like a basement pantry or a dedicated medicine cabinet—and it's still in its original, factory-sealed packaging, it might be perfectly fine even five years past the expiration date. A huge chunk of medications can actually still be used after their label expires. But here’s the kicker: nobody is going to tell you that officially. Doctors and pharmacists won't touch that subject because they have to play by the book. Just do me a favor and don't toss old pills in the trash; find one of those pharmacy drop-off bins at a CVS or Walgreens instead.

Can you actually tell me which blood pressure meds are messing with the thyroid? Like, are we talking about hypo and hyperthyroidism being caused by the pills themselves?
Some drugs can just mask thyroid issues if they aren't caught early on. Honestly, you're just talking nonsense.

Lisa Martin50 said:Speaking of weird stuff, I’ve got this genuine phobia about some kind of creature jumping out of the toilet
like a rat or a lizard 😲

Is that even a thing? 😲

Actually, yeah, it’s totally possible. I remember reading about it in the news a few years back.

There was this old guy who couldn't move much, just sitting on the toilet in his apartment on Filipović Street in New York, when a rat bit him right on the tip of his penis 😲 and he ended up in the hospital. The building was hooked up to the city sewer system, obviously.
That’s exactly how the story went down.

Another case I recall happened at a vacation home. The owners came back after being away for a couple of months and found... well, a mess. They had left the toilet lid up and the bathroom door wide open. Rats were basically using it as a highway. Since the house was connected to the septic system, it was an open invitation.

The rats wandered into the house and set up camp right in the bedroom.

Man, stop digging up old news from the archives; everything regarding this is already laid out in the main thread.
This whole thing needs to be shut down.