Posts Tagged ‘Things’

15 Exciting and Crazy Things to Do After you Quit Smoking

Are you a smoker who spends at least $ 3. 50 for a pack every day or $1,277. 50 a year? That is a lot of money, so let us look at different ways of utilizing your ?cigarette? money once you quit smoking.

For the single pack smoker you could:

1. Go to the movies with your friend once a week, every week.

2. Buy pizza 122 times a year.

3. Take a Hawaiian or Alaska Cruise once a year.

4. At $3. 00 a gallon, buy 409 gallons of gas which equals filling your car?s 13 gallon gas tank over 30 times a year. It is like driving your car for free six months out of the year.

Even if gas prices were to double, you will still be driving for free three months out of the year.

5. Eating at the Red Lobster restaurant once a week or going to a Chinese buffet to eat three times a week.

6. You can buy 1277 Super Lotto tickets and possibly win millions of dollars!

7. Shock your neighbors by renting a luxury limousine for 4 hours once a month all year around.

8. Take private lessons weekly to learn the second language or take dancing lessons

9. Stay in the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel, the glamorous hotel in the movie “Pretty Woman” at one of the world?s most famous intersections Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard, for three to four days every year.

10. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Mc Donald over 100 times a year.

11. Get a three year subscription to a gym of your choice to work off all that Mc Donald?s.

12. Buy 25 lady?s dresses or 51 men?s dress shirts.

13. You could buy 315 pairs of pantyhose or 426 pairs of men’s socks every year. (It probably is not a good idea if you live in the Caribbean. )

14. Drink over 300 cups of Starbuck?s chocolate mocha lattes. That sure will give you a buzz!

15. Buy 61, 350 tongue depressors to see how pretty your white teeth look.

Ok, your wish list is ready. Just choose what you would like to do and finally quit smoking!

10 Things to Know About Pain Reliever Drugs Abuse

A disturbing fact sheet?

Pain relievers are medicines that reduce or relieve headaches, sore muscles, arthritis or related aches and pains. There are many different pain reliever drugs. While some of them are prescription drugs, yet many of these are available over-the-counter (OTC) e. g. aspirin, naproxen (Aleve) & ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) etc. Many such non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs are available only at prescribed doses. Some of the most powerful pain relievers come under the category of narcotics.

In the United States, data generated by some recent surveys on drug abuse is quite disturbing. Data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that almost 3 million adolescents and about 7 million young adults from ages 18 to 25 had used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes at least once in their lives.

Today teenagers are not using as much cocaine, crack, LSD, and ecstasy as the teenagers of the 1960?s. Nowadays, kids have found other ways and means to get that high; painkillers & other prescription drugs are being abused at record levels as is aptly indicated in NSDUH data. This up coming generation of prescription drug abusers has been given the name ?Generation Rx!?

Increase in prescription drug abuse is most prominent for pain relievers, but use of stimulants and tranquilizers is also rising as young people who abuse prescription drugs are also more likely to use illegal drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, or hallucinogens. According to a 2005 study conducted by the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, the number of Americans who abuse or use prescription drugs illegally now exceeds the number of Americans who abuse cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and heroin combined.

Abusers sometimes disrupt the time-release formula of the drug to speed up absorption, often chewing the tablets, crushing them and snorting the powder, or dissolving them in water and injecting the drug to get a fast high. This may cause adverse set of cross-reactions and may prove fatal as in the rural areas of the Eastern United States, especially in Virginia and West Virginia where several deaths have resulted due to mixing of Oxycontin with other painkillers, alcohol, and marijuana.

Pain reliever drugs can affect regions of the brain that mediate what we perceive as pleasure, resulting in the initial euphoria that many opioids produce. They can also produce drowsiness, constipation, and, depending upon the amount taken, depress breathing. Taking a large single dose could cause severe respiratory depression or death.

Some people mistakenly think that prescription drugs are more powerful because you need a prescription for them. However, it’s possible to abuse or become addicted to over-the-counter (OTC) pain killer medications too.

The dangers of prescription drug abuse can be made even worse if people take drugs in a way they aren’t supposed to. Ritalin may seem harmless because it’s prescribed even for little kids with ADHD but when a person snorts or injects Ritalin, it can be serious. Same holds true for most of the pain reliever drugs too.

Some points to prevent the abuse of prescription drugs:

?Always follow medication directions carefully.

?Don’t increase or decrease doses without talking with your doctor.

?Don’t stop taking medication on your own.

?Don’t crush or break pills.

?Be clear about the drug’s effects on driving and other daily tasks.

?Learn about the drug’s potential interactions with alcohol, other prescription medicines, and over-the-counter medicines.

?Inform your doctor about your past history of substance abuse.