The FDA has frosted my balls yet again!

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Old Goat

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May 5, 2008
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Had to go to the ER a couple of nights ago, spent most of yesterday in doctors' offices, all from these horrible leg cramps! Electrolytes are fine, calcium and potassium levels fine, no deep vein blood clots - the doctors don't know what is causing them.

Here's my beef: It used to be that all you had to do for leg cramps was take quinine ( the malaria medicine) - cramps gone in about 10 minutes. But you can't get quinine anymore for leg cramps ( I don't think America has an FDA approved drug for leg cramps at this time). It is so frustrating to know there is a drug that will stop the horrible pain, but you can't have it. Plus to have a doctor standing there telling you, " I wish I could prescribe some quinine for you, used to prescribe it all the time, but you can't get it anymore."

I haven't been this flustered with the FDA since they banned Vioxx. I'm sorry about the 100,000 or so heart attacks/strokes related to the drug, but most of those folks were taking Vioxx everyday for chronic pain. I only had to take it a couple of times, and only then for a day or so. It worked great for me, now I can't get it anymore.

Why can't they (FDA) just put warnings on the bottles and let the consumer decide if they want to take the risk?

Yet another case of a few people having a problem and the rest of us paying the price. Let's throw out the baby with the bathwater!

:mad:
 


From my experience most legcramps at night are due to dehydration. I read it somewhere and tried it. It works. Try drinking more water.

It is summer now. Have you been sweating more without drinking more water?
 
If the FDA let consumers take the risk, smaller companies would suddenly be able to offer prescription drugs, breaking the monopoly of the larger companies and ultimately driving down prices.

Which is why it will never happen.
 
Drake said:
From my experience most legcramps at night are due to dehydration. I read it somewhere and tried it. It works. Try drinking more water.

It is summer now. Have you been sweating more without drinking more water?
Click to expand...

Yup, I found that to be the case too. During the last week of school I drank heavily and didnt drink nearly enough water and I would wake up with some nasty cramps in the middle of the night.
 
In addition to more water, have a banana a day, potassium helps a lot.

Do you know where the saying "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater," came from anyway? I only bring this up because I don't like it when people use sayings that they don't know the meaning behind. When people used to only take one or two bathes a year, the father got the clean water, then the sons, then the women and the girls, finally the babies. by then the water was so dirty that you couldnt see through it and it was a very real possibility that you could throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Just a tidbit of information :)
 
Yep

They also do that with ephedra. You use to be able to get it cheap.

The pills used to come coupled with an expectorant (cleans the lungs of mucus). It was the best way to clean your oxygen delivery system. Probably still is. The only drawback I ever heard of was, you felt like you had a hangover when the pills wore off.

But, as usual anything that works and is cheap becomes unavailable!!! @#$%
 
My wife has these from time to time, normally at night.

Yes, she also does not drink enough if she doesn't watch it.

What helps her are Magnesium Tablets.

You can get those over the counter.

Now we both got into the habit of taking a multivitamin/multimineral tablet in the morning and her cramps are gone.

BTW.. yes, at the doctors office, all her values are great as well... guess some people need more electrolytes than what is considered "normal".

::emp::
 
Tonic

I seem to remember that commercially available tonic water (as in gin&tonic) contains quinine. I don't know if the concentration is anywhere near where it might do some good, though. Might be worth a try, in the worst case scenario you're just blissfully drunk on gin.
 
Armakuni said:
I seem to remember that commercially available tonic water (as in gin&tonic) contains quinine. I don't know if the concentration is anywhere near where it might do some good, though. Might be worth a try, in the worst case scenario you're just blissfully drunk on gin.
Click to expand...

Yes... next day went out and got some Tonic Water - but I don't have any Gin and I live in a dry county so it takes a special trip to buy booze. So I drank it by itself - yuk. Then I mixed in some Coke - better but still yuk. I don't know how much Tonic water I'd need to drink to get a proper dosage.

Thanks for the tips everyone - none of the doctors mentioned possible dehydration. I'm drinking more water - and Tonic Water. That will help in the long term, but it still makes me mad about not being able to stop the horrible pain with 1 little capsule. 1 little capsule would have stopped the pain, everyone in house would have gotten a good night's sleep, there would be no ER co-pay ( plus the bills that will follow), no doctor's visit co-pay, no prescriptions for drugs that aren't specifically for leg cramps, and no having everybody at the dinner table giggle at me when that SOMA pill kicked in and made me goofy and dizzy to the point of having to be helped to bed. And my legs are still sore! 1 little capsule the FDA says I can't have would have stopped all this.
 
Regulation by the United States Food and Drug Administration

From 1969 to 1992, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received 157 reports of health problems related to quinine use, including 23 which had resulted in death.[8] In 1994, the FDA banned the use of over-the-counter (OTC) quinine as a treatment for nocturnal leg cramps. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals had been selling the brand name Legatrin for this purpose. Doctors may still prescribe quinine, but the FDA has ordered firms to stop marketing unapproved drug products containing quinine. The FDA is also cautioning consumers about off-label use of quinine to treat leg cramps. Quinine is approved for treatment of malaria, but is also commonly prescribed to treat leg cramps and similar conditions. Because malaria is life-threatening, the risks associated with quinine use are justified for that condition. But because of the drug's risks, FDA believes it should not be used to prevent or treat leg cramps.[9]


looks like you can still get it... just need the right dr
 
157 cases, in over 20 years, in a country of 400,000,000...
Fucking FDA...

From what I hear, the FDA has also suppressed pretty much all medications that cut down on your body's fungal load as it can play havoc with your cholestrol... So now, if you have a fungal infection, you get something that treats the symptoms, but does nothing to lower your fungal count (like viruses, fungus cannot be removed from the host organism without killing it. Unlike viruses, fungus will survive death of the host).
So people are having all these problems crop up that could easily be cured by fixing up things like cholesterol imbalance and deficiency of certain trace metals like zinc or gold (yes, you need to eat a small amount of gold over your lifetime. No, eating an ingot won't do it).
 
I see someone beat me to it and so did you. But when you mentioned Quinine, first thing I thought was quinine ( tonic) water. I actually had never heard of quinine in any other context. The restaurant where I worked for 10 years had a Q on the gun for quinine water and for some reason I remembered that from long ago. I drank it a few times for the same reason.
 
Old Goat said:
Yes... next day went out and got some Tonic Water - but I don't have any Gin and I live in a dry county so it takes a special trip to buy booze. So I drank it by itself - yuk. Then I mixed in some Coke - better but still yuk. I don't know how much Tonic water I'd need to drink to get a proper dosage.

Thanks for the tips everyone - none of the doctors mentioned possible dehydration. I'm drinking more water - and Tonic Water. That will help in the long term, but it still makes me mad about not being able to stop the horrible pain with 1 little capsule. 1 little capsule would have stopped the pain, everyone in house would have gotten a good night's sleep, there would be no ER co-pay ( plus the bills that will follow), no doctor's visit co-pay, no prescriptions for drugs that aren't specifically for leg cramps, and no having everybody at the dinner table giggle at me when that SOMA pill kicked in and made me goofy and dizzy to the point of having to be helped to bed. And my legs are still sore! 1 little capsule the FDA says I can't have would have stopped all this.
Click to expand...

If you went to a sports doctor they might have. Most doctors dont study all that much. They went to medical school, they studied things. But they do not study natural things and they know they cant get rich telling people to drink something that is basically free.
 
HarveyJ said:
157 cases, in over 20 years, in a country of 400,000,000...
Fucking FDA...
Click to expand...

That was basically the reason for my venting. That is why I said they threw the baby out with the bathwater. A few problems pop up with a drug, and they pull it off the shelves for everybody.

Bring back Quinine for leg cramps! Bring back Vioxx for acute pain! Put the warnings on the bottles and let the consumer take the risk if they want to. Why do we have to hurt when there are medicines out there that will stop the pain?
 
Fuck! Our Federal government has released new "drinking guidelines" that are pretty much politically motivated rather than scientifically based.
From now on, 4 standard drinks = binge drinking in Australia...
(WTF happened to the country that was run by the man that holds the Guinness book of Records record for skulling two pints?)

This goes hand in hand with a reduction to our Pharmaceuticals Benefit Scheme for prescribed drugs that are meant to help you with dealing with your addictions for the "recreational" kind.
 
hmm...

I am always worried about the "quick fix" mentality when it comes to medication.
The "hell, let me take a miracle pill" approach when taking the - maybe longer - route such as healthy eating, enough fluids and some sports might bring a myriad of benefits along with the intended cure.

"Give me my diet pills" is along the same lines.

Now... I DO take medication and I am a huge supporter of pharmacy. I have said before and I will say again, I would be dead a few times if not for modern medicine.
So.. no new age homeopathic crap from me.

Still, as I know what I am talking about... think about this some more..
a few big glasses of fluids (mineral water / juices) and a banana a day or a potentially dangerous drug. I know what I would do.

Let's keep the potentially dangerous drugs for recreational purposes. :D

::emp::
 
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