2005-06-08-1117Z


Reading Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game reminded me: hey, I'm smart. Ever since sometime in High School when I decided it was better to be popular than smart, I sometimes forget that (even though I never managed to become popular anyway). So I've been training myself to cough only productive coughs; that is, when there's no more phlegm tickling the back of my throat, stop coughing. Avoiding useless dry coughs helps keep the throat from becoming raw. It seems to work but it requires constant effort, and I can't always accomplish it.

These so-called "natural remedy" providers are so fucking devious it isn't funny. I was googling "herbal expectorant OR expectorants" and found this Naturade product. Note that the first paragraph makes no mention of Guaicum nor Guaifenesin, though that's what's listed as the "Active Ingredient" in the 3rd paragraph. Turns out Guaifenesin is an over-the-counter drug, and though it perhaps originally was extracted from the Lignum Vitae tree, it probably now is synthesized artificially, that's why Naturade wimped out on listing it with the "natural" ingredients. I've seen this many times before, of course, but the brazenness still shocks me at times. Stuff like this only goes to show how goddamn useless the FDA is. I only buy the herbal products that come in a clear plastic envelope and all you can see are flowers, leaves, twigs, wood chips, etc. Of course that's not foolproof either but at least you aren't trusting some fuckwit bunch of marketroids who like making neat little pills or syrups in pretty little plastic bottles, and attempt to mislead you about what is in them.

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