The blog formerly known as   Fake Plastic Fish

Category Archives: medication & supplements

March 15, 2010

Kleenex, Neti Pots, Twitter, and Facebook

So I had another nasty cold this weekend. Sore throat. Moving to stuffed up head. And on to coughing, headache, body aches, and the nose from Hell. Honestly, I was blowing my nose at least once a minute. During the worst part, several times a minute. Literally. And contrary to what that word has become these days, I do mean “literally” literally.

Resorting to Kleenex

By Sunday, I had gone through one and a half rolls of Seventh Generation recycled paper. This stuff is great. It’s got 80% recycled content and comes in a cardboard case with zero plastic packaging. (I get the Seventh Generation Bathroom Tissue from Amazon.com.)

The thing is? After one and a half rolls? Not so great for noses. Now let me say, I did consider cloth. And in normal circumstances or for seasonal allergies, I always use a cloth handkerchief. Several people on Facebook and Twitter recommended cut up baby diapers or old receiving blankets. But there are several… Read the rest

January 29, 2010

Ice Pack, Heating Pad, Rice Sock

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC, commonly known as vinyl), Polyurethane foam (foam rubber), Polyster. All these poly’s. All non-biodegradable plastics. Not so good for our health or that of the planet, right? And yet so many health products are made from these materials. Take electric heating pads and gel ice packs, for example.

My cold packs are made of gel in PVC bags. And my heating pad is made from layers of PVC, polyurethane foam, and synthetic fabric. We worry about the chemicals released when we heat plastic food containers in the microwave: hormone disrupting phthalates, for example. So why would we put PVC in a heating pad?… Read the rest

December 28, 2009

Homemade Cough Syrup & Other Meds

Do you have a cough right now or know someone who does? Then I want to talk to you.

Earlier this month, I caught a cold and towards the end of it was hacking pretty badly. Now, I realize that you don’t want to suppress a productive cough. But this cough was bad enough to keep me up at night, robbing me of much needed rest. So I polished off two plastic bottles of cough/cold medicine: the remainder of a bottle of Nyquil that I bought years ago (yeah, it still worked) as well as the last couple of doses of yummy Prometh cough syrup with Codeine. And by yummy, I mean I held my hose and chugged it down, trying to bypass my taste buds as much as possible.

Not only do these two products come in plastic bottles, but they contain nasty ingredients: alcohol (which I am trying to avoid for personal reasons); artificial dyes; high fructose corn syrup; polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol (petroleum derived products also used in anti-freeze); methylparaben and propylparaben… Read the rest