April's rep for cruelty

Image from TheArticle: What is it about April?


April's rep for cruelty

To get the full effect of what April can do, click here to read the rotten human-made history of April.

And Syria is still getting the heck bombed out of it!

And, of course, we all had to do our taxes!

Personally: I lost a long-time bosom pal, and then Shopper's Drugs tried to kill me!

I've had laryngitis and itchy eyes for the past couple of weeks. No big deal; it's spring (more or less) and it's not unusual for me to react to the grass/leaf mold being blown on the wind. I simply take an antihistamine, some allergy eye drops and a saline nasal spray, and I get through it just fine.

I couldn't sing of course, so had to bow out of the Thursday evening old folks' Jam session last week, quite confident that I would be able to attend this week.

But then disaster struck.

Instead of getting better, I suddenly got much worse: uncontrollable wheezing, phlegmy coughing, upset stomach, a much raspier throat, though no runny nose or fever (which is how I determine that it's not a cold but an allergy). Then I was shocked to find that, after using the saline spray and then wiping my nose, there was blood on the tissue!!

It's never gone like this before; what am I doing wrong, I asked myself. Finally, I deduced that the only thing different was that I had decided the saline nasal spray in my medicine cabinet was a bit old so I bought new stuff - Life brand at Shopper's Drugs.

It wasn't until after the bloody shock effect that some instinct finally told me to read the ingredients listed on the container, so I did -- and was surprised to see they included a preservative I'd never heard of before, called "benzalkonium chloride" (BKC).

That's right; they decided to toss in a chemical that inhibits microbe growth, knowing full well that it's corrosive and can damage nasal and sinus blood vessels and tissues! Why? Well, I have my theory on that.

I figure it's like fluoride (potash waste) "a highly toxic waste byproduct of the potash companies” -- it's there, they don't know what to do with it; let's pass it off as a protective agent and make bucks out of it.  We can buy enough scientific studies to validate it, and people are stupid anyway; they feel comforted to see big words they can't spell in their medications, soaps, make-up products and pet foods.

You can find all sorts of info on the web about this chemical, but I chose Wikipedia for my reference here, because it links to all sorts of other good references. Take your pick or do your own search. The reasons I suspect that big money is behind the use of it is because Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) is equally as useful as a preservative in saline nasal spray -- and much safer.

BKC is even in some eye drops! You can read here about the effects of it in eye drops. 

•  The most frequently used preservative, benzalkonium chloride (BKC), has consistently demonstrated its toxic effects in laboratory, experimental, and clinical studies.

Fortunately, the ones I've long-used during allergy attacks do not contain it.

It may well be a cheaper, faster way to produce the products in that tap water can be used instead of distilled water. Recipes for home-made saline nasal spray call for boiled water and salt, with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) as the preservative.

If you have a water distiller, so much the better. I use mine for drinking water only (gets rid of chlorine, the drugs being peed into the water system, not to mention the cursed fluoride) being too lazy to whip up a batch of home made nasal spray.

In checking all of the ingredients on the offending saline spray and comparing them with the new, safer one I'm now using, I see that the offending one says: "water" and the non-offending one says "purified water". Need I say more?

It would certainly appear that my suspicion is justified: BKC is a step-saver, therefore a money-saver.

Little wonder that ads for so many products contain the caution: "check with your doctor". It covers the maker's own hiney -- you were warned, eh? Problem is, doctors make a lot of mistakes too because they rely on what the salesperson tells them about new drugs, and/or what is recorded in the Vademecum, which has long been "a work in progress".

In other words, it's still "buyer beware" when you consult a doctor:

NationalPost: Inside Canada's secret world of medical error:
'There is a lot of lying, there’s a lot of cover-up'

• Most instances of the Canadian health-care system hurting rather than healing patients are not even reported by staff internally, a Post investigation has found

Sorry to write such a downer, but it seems we all need to face the fact that it's everyone for her/himself in this dollar-based "democracy".

The good news, for me, at least, is that it's now afternoon, two days since ditching the offending nasal spray and I've taken no medication at all; I'm breathing freely, I can see clearly and my eyes feel comfortable, I'm not coughing, there's no sign of blood, and all that's left is the usual raspy throat I get for a while in the Spring. Hallelujah!

From now on I'm taking my magnifying glass with me when I go shopping. There's a reason the print is so tiny on those bottles.

Related on YYC: 
Knee Surgery Not the Answer
Why I Avoid the Medical Profession