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- Will New Covid Treatments Be as Elusive for Poor Countries as Vaccines?Merck has taken a step to make its antiviral pill available in poor nations, but many obstacles remain for broad access to coronavirus drugs.
- Short on Staff, Some Hospices Ask New Patients To Wait“It causes huge distress to tell a family, ‘We can’t serve you,’” said one state hospice organization director.
- ‘Lurching Between Crisis and Complacency’: Was This Our Last Covid Surge?Rising immunity and modest changes in behavior may explain why cases are declining, but much remains unknown, scientists say.
- F.D.A. Panel Unanimously Recommends Johnson & Johnson Booster ShotsBut many panel members said J. & J. recipients might also benefit from the option of a Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna booster, an action that an F.D.A. official said was possible.
- F.D.A. Issues New Salt GuidelinesThe new recommendations are aimed at food manufacturers and restaurants. Some experts say they don’t go far enough.
Doctor if you could kindly give me some advise on the following high blood pressure medicine :-
Combination A – plendil 2.5mg, dilatrend carvedilol 25 mg and natrilix sr
Combination B – felodipine 5mg, metoprolol tartrate 100mg and natrilix sr
I am suppose to change from combination A to combination B due to costs purposes.
My age is 56 and my readings without medication is around 150/90 to 160/100.
Will the change have any sever effect on my pressure. Most grateful if you can give me some advise. Thanks a lot.
Doctor2008 says:
I don’t think its good to give online consultation as your own doctor knows best. I will only say that personally I would optimise medications as much as possible before adding new ones, so that one is better off with 2 meds than having 3 or more meds.
Dear Doctor,
My 84 yrs old mother recently was hospitalised for peptic ulcer disease probably caused by her aspirin medication. According to blood tests done, she also had a heart attack.
She has been discharged and still on controloc and iron supplements. Doctor has also advised us to put her on aspirin again but we have decided to put that on hold.
We are considering putting her on Plavix’s generic which is supposed to be safer than aspirin.
Please give us your honest opinion.
Thanks and Regards,
Michael Ng
Doctor2008 says : While I generally refrain from online consultations, your plight highlights a common dilemma faced by patients and their doctors.
While aspirin is effective in preventing a second heart attack, it frequently causes bleeding in the stomach. (see my posting An Aspirin A day Used To Keep The Doctor Away”).
You are quite right to replace aspirin with another “safer” blood thinner, but Plavix may also cause the same. An alternative is ticlopidine, but you need to discuss this with your doctor.
[…] Cutting Your Healthcare Costs […]
In Malaysian scenario, the best way to keep the health cost down is to heavily depend on the public health system. Most health problem can be covered reasonably well by public health system. Maybe buy an insurance that cover your bill after exceed certain amount e.g.50k to keep the premium down. Some insurance companies do offer such insurance.
Doctor2008 says: no government in the world,I suspect, can afford to fully take care of its citizens’ healthcare needs, fully subsidized, for too long.Hence, the subsidy for public healthcare is likely to diminish in future.