If lisinopril causes coughs for you, you might want to switch to losartan instead.
Wouldn’t a megadose of loperamide give you horrible constipation, in addition to making you high?
Yeah, if my patients have a cough/congestion problem with a med that has a “pril” at the end, I’ll generally switch 'em to losartan or valsartan.
The ACE inhibitors (lisinopril, benzapril, enalapril, etc) do a very nice job of lowering blood pressure and helping to protect the kidney from the damage elevated glucose levels can do to them, but they do tend to increase histamines in the body. The ARBs (losartan, valsartan and others) do the same job without ramping up histamines.
That would be a possible side-effect. Of course, that never stops a good opioid addict from taking whatever opioid they can get their hands on.
imprecise only if the stuff sat around long enough to evaporate. (Which mine often does, I admit. I start with a small amount, and take a little more if it doesn’t work. I also dilute the whole bottle with an equal part of cheap brandy if it’s sat around more than a couple of years. I figure the brandy will keep bacteria from growing in it.)
hope not! I only use it once a year or less, but when I do, I really appreciate having it. Hmm, mine is mixed with guaifenesin, not acetaminophen. Acetaminophen scares me. 
and that’s why I prefer single ingredient drugs. I buy plain “tussin” otc cough syrup, and sometimes take a largish dose of it. I find it very helpful when I have a gooey sort of cold. And I don’t think it’s very dangerous.
Yeah, these days I have to check cough drips to make sure they don’t have DXM. Plain cough drops, with menthol or thyme or just honey, can be helpful, too.
Guaifenesin makes me have to pee a lot, and hypes me up. It’s like I had 5 cups of really strong coffee. I know several people who get the “hyped” effect, but I’m the only one who has to pee, but I have bladder problems anyway-- very sensitive bladder wall from numerous infections.
Yep. Years back, when I had absolutely crippling knee issues (I’ve had a replacement since, worked like a charm), whenever I was planning a vacation, my doctor would give me a prescription for a bottle of Tylenol 3.
It really was an all-purpose magic bullet for traveling. The main thing was that I could walk and climb and hike all day. It dealt with a cough, if I got one. It did wonders for any diarrhea I might pick up sampling the local cuisine. And, if I couldn’t sleep at night, it helped with that, too.
Unfortunately, these days, it seems like you can’t get a prescription for painkillers for anything short of end-stage terminal cancer.
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Was it perhaps Tussionex? It’s thick and yellow, and is hydrocodone and chlorpheniramine.
And it works too.
Was it brown, with an unpleasant, vaguely caramel odor? It may have been paregoric, which contained a nearly homeopathic dose of morphine. It used to be available OTC with a signature, and last I heard isn’t even sold in the U.S. anymore because it was just plain old no longer being used.
p.s. Loperamide abuse is nothing new. You have to take dozens of them to see any effect, and some people are using it not so much for the individual high as to potentiate other drugs.
Iirc, when I had a terrible cough what worked for me was hydrocodone and a steroid. Shame that so many are addicted to opiods now and that’s making life difficult for those who have a legitimate need. I did have an euphoric feeling while taking those medicines. Which I can see the danger of.
It would be nice to have 5 day’s worth locked in a cabinet for emergencies.
I use one shot of equal parts whiskey, lemon or lime juice, and honey or agave nectar. This will usually give me relief for 3-4 hours and then I take another shot.
OTC dextromethorphan hbr and dextromethorphan polistirex does zero for me.
Paragoric definitely has more than a “homeopathic” dose of nothing’s I took too much, once and couldn’t poop for a couple of days. It didn’t knock me out, though. I was able to play bridge decently well.
I think I would have remembered it if it was hydrocodone. AFAIK, the only time I’ve ever had hydrocodone was as Vicodin after a wisdom tooth extraction (no euphoria there, either. I was a little disappointed, as I was sort of looking forward to feeling something other than pain relief.)
At any rate, I did months later try to get a refill on whatever the opiod cough syrup was, and found out my doctor had his license revoked for over-prescribing opiods. :eek:
ETA: On the other hand, thick and yellow does sound familiar (this was about a decade ago), and it’s possible I just didn’t see “hydrocodone” written on the bottle, only the brand name or something.
With my latest bout of illness, I was fortunate / desperate enough to try a little bit of everything! I just needed to quiet the cough to get a decent night’s sleep, but there was at least one night that nothing would cut it, not even codeine.
Menthol drops work okay, but wear off really quickly, and they’re not ideal for when you’re trying to sleep. (Not that it stopped me from going to sleep with one lodged in my cheek).
Chloraseptic works fairly short term, but honestly, the spray hitting the back of my throat gags me, hard, and I think I end up aggravating my throat more than helping it.
Dextromethorphan sort of works for me, I guess? It seemed like the cough impulses were less insistent. 4 hour dose schedule isn’t great.
Benzonatate does work for me, pretty well, and that’s what I used for the majority of my cold / sinus infection. The generic is pretty cheap. The only downside is that the ‘pearls’ do not keep for very long. Moisture makes them kinda stick together, so you’d need a new script just about every time you’re sick.
Cherritussin (guaifenasin with codeine) was the best of the bunch - I had some left over from a sinus infection last year - and really helps me sleep, though last year it did lead me to a middle of the night fainting spell during a trip to the bathroom - vasovagal oopsie led to a faceplant on the bathroom floor. I think I used it for three nights during my two week stretch of hell, and it helped on two of them. I was more careful this year when I got up in the middle of the night to pee. 
Word. A few years ago I was hospitalized for a severe kidney stone condition, and put on a drip of the morphine-based opioid Dilaudid. A cough that I’ve had for decades magically disappeared for the duration.
Obviously, not practical as a long-term medication.
They used to make Dilaudid Cough Syrup. :eek: That surprised me too.
They used to make heroin cough syrup too, you know.
True.
Looks like it might make you dead too.Here’s one article. Google for other articles.