Who Gives A Rat’s Ass

My throat still hurts like hell, but being somewhat of a masochist, I don’t really give a damn.

Yeah, the sambal in that kuey tiow goreng may burn my throat up and make my inner ear throb with pain, but I guess that’s only due to the inflammation.. it’s not likely to aggravate the existing infection. Hell, my inner ear throbs with pain each time I swallow my saliva or speak anyway. The inflammation of my tonsils is THAT bad.

I have finished most of the medication that the GP gave, but my infection has yet to improve. He gave me Cipro as antibiotic, Clarinase to reduce my sinusitis and Ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation.

But heck, sometimes GPs don’t really make good diagnoses. Apparently, NSAIDs such as ibuprofen shouldn’t be used in conjunction with fluoroquinolones like Ciprofloxacin. Furthermore, if my swollen throat is caused by streptococcus infection, the bacteria may even develop resistance against Ciprofloxacin! I’m supposed to be on penicilin-derived antibiotics first, with quinolones being a 2nd choice. Hmmm… And the ibuprofen? I guess the GP gave it to me as a painkiller too, but being a relaxant more than anything else, it wasn’t effective at all at reducing the pain.

So right now, I’m gargling with Cool Mint Listerine to numb my throat. Seems to be pretty effective. Whenever I wanna look for proper medical information, I’ll head over to the PubMed database and do some simple lookups.

It seems that ciprofloxacin does have an effect on streptococcus, so I guess I’m alright at this point.. although the course of antibiotics didn’t seem to reduce the redness of my tonsils at all. Listerine helps to kill streptococcus too, and I hope it’ll work synergistically with Cipro to heal my throat fast.. the pain is pissing me off on a daily basis.

But another study, on the other hand, seems to indicate that Listerine is good for nothing. Now, I’m a little puzzled. Perhaps that particular product, "Listerine with Essential Oils", is one of those ‘organic’ stuff with none of the strong chemicals.

So, how good exactly is Listerine? The list of ingredients include water, sorbitol, ethanol, thymol, methyl salicylate, benzoic acid, poloxamer, anethole and sodium saccharin.

Out of all the ingredients,

1) Sorbitol, thymol, anethole and sodium saccharin are ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURINGS to lend a sweet taste and strong smell to Listerine. Sorbitol is mildly antiseptic, but that’s about it.

2) Methyl Salicylate has a deep-heating effect.

3) Ethanol and poloxamer probably serve as a base to suspend the rest of the ingredients.

4) Benzoic acid? I don’t know.. preservative, I guess.

So what the heck is the active ingredient of this damn thing??!! Based on this superficial finding itself, I’m beginning to think that Listerine is something like an analgesic and a placebo..

The only indication listed at the back of the Listerine bottle says "For general oral hygiene, Bad breath, plaque and the gum infection Gingivitis ". Seems that about the only thing it can positively treat is gingivitis, which doesn’t seem so hard to prevent. And yet, the front label of the packaging says that it’s an antiseptic mouthwash that "kills germs".

Perhaps it’s time to look for mouthwashes based on chlorhexidine and cetylpyridinium chloride. Besides, they sure appear to have pretty positive results in the field of dental science. When conclusions are based on findings from PubMed, I’m pretty sure they’re reliable.

Random picture of the day

The random phrase for today is "Sic vis pacem, para bellum", or in its proper form, "Si vis pacem, para bellum".

The phrase translated literally into "In times of peace, prepare for war", or in its context, "For times of peace, prepare for war" or "If you seek peace, prepare for war". This phrase was made famous in the movie "The Punisher", where Frank Castle (played by Thomas Jane) mentioned that their commander drilled this phrase into them daily.

The origin of this phrase is attributed to Cicero. Entymologically, it is said to be a truncation of what General Vegetius said, i.e. "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum" which means "Therefore, let him who desires peace, prepare for war".

Mmm.. babe… I bet this is during that "time of peace" we’re talking about..

A political caricature by Cox & Forkum..

Collage of the Omega Team, Recon platoon of the 104th Air Cavalry.