How many pills do you take every day?

PSA everyone please get a lipid panel if you haven’t already. Or another one if it’s been a few years. Don’t even need to fast beforehand for a screening test.

3 per day, one of which is baby aspirin to go with the statin … I kinda don’t count the fish oil as a pill for some reason or another, despite being the side of a horse suppository

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1x baby aspirin
1x milk thistle
1x valerian root
men's vitamin 2-3 per week

I tried ashwagandha awhile back, but I think it was giving me the shits

now what is a lipid panel?

a lipid panel is a group of blood tests that track your liver function. livers are complicated so just one blood test isn't enough. they only have to draw the blood once; they take enough to do all the tests.

right, I feel like they might have done that when I had cancer but I'm not sure. I'll keep in mind.

Lipid panel results can be addictive; I try to match this year's results with last year's

I don't want to see my liver test results, thank you

Xpost a lipid panel measures cholesterol and triglycerides (a type of fat that circulates in the bloodstream). Elevations in LDL cholesterol are linked to increased risk of heart attacks and stroke. Typical treatment is a statin (e.g., Lipitor).

A liver panel tests ALT and AST (tests of liver injury) and bilirubin (assesses gall bladder function). There are all sorts of reasons why liver tests might be abnormal so your GP might recommend additional evaluation as a first step

thank you for correcting me

Three pills: A near-microdose of Wellbutrin (100 mg), Strattera, and a antihistamine.

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I take one prozac every day, along with vitamin D. Up until fairly recently I was taking mirtazapine most nights a week to help with sleep, but I don't need it so much now. Still, I'm glad I still have them for times I might (WILL) need them.

Recently I had to take these really expensive antibiotics to help with shingles, and I was hiccuping all day and night for the first 24 hours! Weird.

My parents used to joke that they should just dump anti-cholesterol medication in the drinking water.

Me: Multi-vitamin with D/C/zinc, sometimes a ginger tablet or ibuprofen. Sometimes (rarely) at night a melatonin.

i don't take any pills but i think Dan S has a good attitude

i do have a lot of herbal tinctures prepared by herbalist friends who practice TCM & Ayurveda etc, and they have instructions written like "take 4 drops 4x a day" that i mostly ignore, but some of them really do seem to help.

i find St John's Wort to be very energizing when i'm feeling the general depression-fatigue malaise. i probably reach for that one the most

i find St John's Wort to be very energizing when i'm feeling the general depression

Good to know.. I used to write off most herbal supplements as money-wasting scams (or, at best, placebos) but I think I'm coming around to some of the old standbys. It's funny how they come in and out of vogue, though

I'm on mirtazapine but unfortunately it hasn't done anything to help me sleep in years. I could probably take it in the morning and it wouldn't make any difference

It is quite effective as an antidepressant though tbf. Prozac stopped working then they put me on amitriptyline for a bit until a different GP wondered why the hell I was on it because apparently they don't prescribe that for depression any more

I was prescribed mirtazapine (Remeron) years ago for depression. I once took 15 mg at bedtime, and it was a good thing I was sitting on bed afterwards because it just knocked me the fuck out for hours. It was nice getting sleep, but I felt drowsy the whole next day and then couldn't sleep the next night. I'm not going to try that again unless I'm in deep pain and want to be comatose.

I have friends and one relative who have taken it regularly and it seems like it maybe has a paradoxical (or acclimatizing?) effect, with higher doses being less sleep-inducing

Regarding lipid panels:

You want your total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL) components of the lipid panel to be low, your high density lipoprotein (HDL) component, the “good cholesterol”, to be high. A higher HDL than LDL is a good sign.

The often cited ratio is the total cholesterol divided by HDL. If your ratio is above 5:1 you definitely need to be on a statin. It should preferably be below 3.5:1

Xp it did knock me out at first but tbh not as much as amitriptyline did and after about 6 months it wore off

I'm an insomniac and come from a family of insomniacs. Good sleep is rare for me and I highly value it. I took benadryl every night when I was a college student needing to sleep to be fresh in the morning, it worked then thankfully.

But I am completely immune to it at this point in my life. I've been taking Ambien (zolpidem) for years, and it never fails to help me go to sleep, but it doesn't keep me asleep for that long. I listen to audiobooks in the middle of the night, they give me a sense of community and help me block out the feeling that I've had since childhood that nights are a time of total isolation and loneliness

The first time I took benadryl I didn't realise it makes you drowsy, I bought it because I had hayfever and I fell asleep in Central Park at lunchtime. Unfortunately if I have insomnia it does nothing

Good to know.. I used to write off most herbal supplements as money-wasting scams (or, at best, placebos) but I think I'm coming around to some of the old standbys.

tbc the stuff i take is not commercial but grown and processed by an herbalist friend and delivered to me in a bottle with a lovely hand drawn sun on it

if you buy it from the vitamin shoppe be aware that not all brands are equal, do your research

I'm an insomniac and come from a family of insomniacs.

same

yeah at this point staying asleep is the problem

sometimes i wonder if it's all the radios and tv sets and white noise machines i leave running all night because i can't fall asleep without them :)

I took a Valium once and once only several decades ago to get me through a stressful interview. Kind of worked but then I went home, fell asleep for 10 hours and missed going to see Dutch instrumental noise-rock band Gore at, if memory serves, the Fulham Greyhound. Probably not for me (Valium not Gore).

Pretty typical old man meds, one for thyroid, one for prostate, one for plaque. Plus a multivitamin, melatonin for sleep and this one weird ass supplement that is the only thing that keeps me regular.

Is this the ILXers over 50 thread?

i heard interesting things abt ashwaganda but idk how much it would interact with all other other fkn meds i’m taking

good turn out, interesting results

I'm on mirtazapine but unfortunately it hasn't done anything to help me sleep in years. I could probably take it in the morning and it wouldn't make any difference

Sorry to hear this dude - I've been on a low dose of it for over a year. My partner's experience similar to yours tho I personally found the opposite - usually sleeping OK but still often depressed tho not severely. Was also on Ami for a few years before this (more for nervous tension) and same. The morning grogginess from them can be brutal in its own way thankfully never enough to make me have to say "but first coffee" only think it every morning.

sometimes i wonder if it's all the radios and tv sets and white noise machines i leave running all night because i can't fall asleep without them :)

I sometimes listen to the Sleep With Me podcast. It’s great for putting me to sleep, but if I wake up while it’s still running it can be really jarring for some reason.

tbh if I can't sleep I think there is something going on in my brain that will fight literally anything you put in it. maybe I'm just a night owl. I don't think I've ever had anything that works long term, I get used to everything after a few weeks and it doesn't work any more. he says eyeing the clock that says 4am.

when i was on Remeron i used to eat sugar out of the bag

xp I can’t imagine having that kind of insomnia. When my sleep is interrupted more than maybe once or twice a night, I wake up feeling like the world is going to come to an end.

i probably didn't sleep much at all for 1.5-2 years. even my prescribed Sleep Aid did nothing - but after they put me on a beta blocker last year and paired it with that, suddenly I am sleeping again.

also find that I have to jump in the shower for like a minute before sleeping, it just makes me feel more comfortable when I get into the bed

xp fwiw it's not something I have to deal with all the time, at least not recently, it's just odd nights here and there when my brain just won't shut down

I do tend to wake up a lot in the middle of the night though. it's rare that I sleep through the night

Thread reminded me to take a blood test, so should get results on cholesterol soon...