Archive for December, 2011

Just in time for New Years Eve New Stories Report FDA “approves:” a hang over pill

Posted by on December 30th, 2011

It’s almost the end of the year and if you’re planning on saying goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012 with a few glasses of champagne to go along with a kiss at midnight the FDA has a little holiday present for you ready to go. It’s marketing “approval” of a “hangover pill” called “Blowfish” that will start hitting the shelves and be available for over-the-counter purchase in 2012.

We will put approval in quotation marks because while news reports like this one from the New York Daily News make it sound like the FDA has approved it, all they have really done is adhered to packaging requirements laid out by the FDA for marketing purposes. This “Blowfish” pill is not a new drug; it’s just the combination of several common over-the-counter remedies into one new tablet. There is actually no FDA-Approved designation toward Blowfish because Blowfish is just a mix of aspirin, caffeine and an antacid, all of which are already FDA approved. So it’s a situation of “Buyer Beware”.

The pill contains 1,000 milligrams of aspirin, 120 milligrams of caffeine and a stomach-soothing agent. It’s to be taken in two sparkling tablets much like Alka-Seltzer, the morning after a night of heavy drinking. The manufacturers claim it will work in 15-30 minutes. It will only be available in New York City, the home of the famous midnight dropping ball and Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve, but if enough people find it useful it will be more widely available later in the year.

A hangover is a collection of symptoms that emerge when alcohol’s intoxicating effects start to wear off. Research on hangover treatments is scarce, but alcohol is thought to trigger an inflammatory response – a process blocked by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin. The inflammatory response is similar to the body’s defense against flu, and is linked to lethargy – an energy lull boosted by caffeine. Finally, the chemicals produced by the body to break alcohol down are hard on the stomach – collateral damage tempered by an antacid.

The question for those looking at this pill as a magic bullet to wipe that morning headache away is how is it any different than having a cup of coffee, an aspirin, and taking a few Tums or having a glass of gingerale. It combines all these traditional hangover cures into one pill, but really won’t work any differently and nor should you expect it to let you get away with drinking too much and feeling fine the next day. The best advice for avoiding a hangover is to drink plenty of water, and don’t drink too much alcohol. And if you do enjoy a few too many drinks, remember to never drink and drive because no hangover pill can fix the tragic results of mixing booze with cars.

Everyone at Canada Drugs, Canadian Pharmacy wishes you the very best this New Years and hope that you don’t feel the need for a hangover pill at all on the first morning of 2012.

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Canada Drugs Celebrates a Milestone: Reaching 500 Employees to serve you!

Posted by on December 27th, 2011

As 2011 wraps up and comes to an end everyone at Canada Drugs will look back at this year as important one for the growth of our company. In the spring we celebrated 10 years in business, and in November we celebrated growing to an organization of over 500 employees.

As a company we never take any of our customers for granted and genuinely value each and every one of you that have helped Canada Drugs grow and prosper over our 10 years in business. We work hard everyday to meet the standards of excellence that our CEO and founder Kris Thorkelson demands that we meet as a company and hope that you see this reflected in your dealings with us.  We work to be the Global Leader in Prescription Drug Savings and offer you both value on your discount prescription medication orders and also the best customer service in the industry.

Our customer’s patronage helped us grow to 500 employees in November of this year. We are an organization with our head office in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and CanadaDrugs.com Group of Companies offices in 4 other countries around the globe, with every location filled with staff dedicated to delivering prescription drug savings. To mark this milestone we held a celebratory event at all our offices where every staff member made a hand print on a large banners which were delivered to each office and will hang proudly at all our locations reminding us that we are 500 hands working as one to help our customers. We also took some time to share some delicious desserts from each of the 5 countries that we operate from.

Our commitment to our customers has allowed us to grow and make a real difference by offering an affordable alternative to the high cost of medication.  We will continue to be focused on how to provide better value and better service to our customers. We’ve been dropping the price on many of our products over the past few months to offer even greater savings and we invite feedback from our more important source, you, the customer. Help us continue to offer even more value by letting us know if you have a found a better price at your local pharmacy or from another online pharmacy. We have free shipping and a price match guarantee so we’ll beat it, give you better customer service, and use the information you send us to be even better in the future on working to offer the highest quality prescription medication at the lowest cost. Contact us at 1800-CAN-DRUGS, at our Facebook Page, leave a comment on our blog, or email us.

2012 will continue to be a year for growth and savings and we’re excited to continue to serve you and your family.

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CanadaDrugs.com is an affordable prescription drug alternative to the over 9 million US adults who lost health coverage during the recession.

Posted by on December 23rd, 2011

The recession of 2007-09 has cost an estimated 9.3 million American adults their health insurance coverage due to unemployment according to a newly published study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Canadian pharmacies, like CanadaDrugs.com are offering low cost health solutions to these millions struggling to afford prescription medication.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Winnipeg, Manitoba – (December 23 2011)

The “Great Recession” of 2007-09 — the longest and most severe U.S. recession since the “Great Depression” of the 30’s — has cost an estimated 9.3 million American adults their health insurance coverage due to unemployment, reports a research paper published by researchers at Cornell, Indiana and Carnegie Mellon universities.

The study, titled “The Impact of the Macroeconomy on Health Insurance Coverage: Evidence From the Great Recession,” relies on data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation and government unemployment data to draw its figure of over 9 Million American families losing health benefit coverage during the worst of the recession months. The study authors are John Cawley, professor in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University; Kosali Simon, professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University; and Asako Moriya from Carnegie Mellon University.

The lack of health insurance and the growth of prescription drug costs over the standard rate of inflation have resulted in millions of Americans being put in a position of being unable to afford necessary prescription medication to maintain their health. CanadaDrugs.com, the largest and most established online Canadian pharmacy, has reacted to this growth of uninsured Americans struggling to afford medication by raising awareness of affordable alternatives and launching campaigns such as the recent Black Friday Drugs promotion where free generic prescription medication was offered to new customers.

“This study just reflects what we are hearing on the phones and in letters from our customers already, mainly that they are in a real financial struggle to afford medication and without insurance, or having benefits cut back, they are worried about how to pay for the prescriptions they need,” said Brock Gunter-Smith, Chief Business Development Officer for Canada Drugs. “We’re going to work even harder in 2012 in getting the word out to more Americans that CanadaDrugs.com offers real cash savings that add up incredibly over record high U.S drug costs in delivering value.”

The research study shows that besides the 9.3 million figures for those without insurance, that there was also a large decrease in the probability of health insurance coverage even those who didn’t lose their jobs during the recession. This may be because employers dropped coverage, cut workers’ hours to the point they no longer qualified for health insurance or increased employee premium contributions leading workers to decline the offer of coverage. With no premiums, deductibles, or co-pays, Canada Drugs is offering the uninsured prescription drug savings of 40%-80% off the U.S prices on thousands of the most commonly prescribed medications such as Plavix, Crestor, Flomax and Nexium.

The online Canadian pharmacy industry emerged in the early 2000’s during the last big recession and has seen tens of millions of Americans order safe, affordable medication at a lower costs online, via mail order and over the phone. The National Bureau of Economic Research study on the health insurance effects of the 2007-2009 recession shows that about nine times as many Americans lost health insurance coverage in the most recent recession as in the recession of 2001, further fueling U.S consumer need for an affordable source of lower cost medications. CanadaDrugs.com will continue to provide Americans lacking adequate health coverage with an option of lower cost discount prescription medication.

-30-

 

Brock Gunter-Smith

Chief Business Development Officer

CanadaDrugs.com Group of Companies

16 Terracon Place

Winnipeg, MB, Canada

R2J 4G7

 

Office: (204) 654-7950

Mobile: (204) 291-3494

Fax:    (204) 258-7010

brock@canadadrugs.com

www.canadadrugs.com

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Christmas is coming. Beat Stress and Stay Healthy over the Holidays

Posted by on December 20th, 2011

Done your holiday shopping yet? Finished your holiday baking? Got the house ready for visits from friends and family? Wrapped your presents? Did you remember to pick up a turkey for the Christmas dinner or is it going to be a mac-and-cheese sort of meal? If those are just some of the questions swirling around in your mind these last few days before Christmas than you know all to well that as the song goes “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” it can also be the most stressful time of the year too.

Millions of us are still going to be hitting the malls these last few days before the holiday and if you’ve been an especially naughty procrastinator you might even be planning to get all your shopping done in the next day or two in a giant rush. To deal with the seemingly endless demands on time and the pocketbook that take their toll during the holidays the Ontario Kinesiology Association sent out a reminder of a few quick ways you can remain health-conscious by remembering some simple tricks while racing through the mall, waiting in a checkout line, or juggling parcels while playing Santa to your family.

  • Try relaxation exercises. Practicing relaxation techniques can help reduce stress. Relaxation techniques can slow your heart rate, lower blood pressure and breathing rate, increase blood flow to your muscles and reduce muscle tension. Relaxation can also improve concentration and reduce frustration. Slowly tense and relax each muscle starting either with your head and jaw, then moving to your neck and down to your toes or from your toes up to your head. Tense each muscle for about five seconds and then relax for 30 seconds and move to the next muscle.
  • Dress for comfort. Wear comfortable clothes that allow you to move easily so you can increase your stride and heart rate and consider shoes that have proper treads to reduce the risk of slipping on ice or wet floors and allow you to walk faster and more comfortably.
  • Breathing exercises: Short, shallow breaths from your upper chest are a typical response to stress. Breathing using the shoulders instead of the diaphragm empties too much carbon dioxide out of the blood, upsetting the body’s balance of gases. By consciously breathing from the diaphragm, this response to stress can be lessened and help lower your stress level.
  • Take the time to exercise — it’s always worth it. If exercise is part of your regular routine, take the time for your walk, your trip to the gym or the part of your day that you enjoy the most. If exercise isn’t part of your routine, give it a try, but remember start slowly and work your way up.
  • Every little bit helps. Even if you find your regular exercise program slipping, every little bit helps — parking further from the mall, doing an extra lap or two around while there, or getting off the subway or bus a stop early.
  • Find a few minutes to get some exercise and clear your head. Dress for the weather to make it easier and more comfortable.
  • Keep it up to fight the “winter blues.” Not only do these tips and techniques work over the holidays, but they are great to help you cope with the “winter blues” and during all the stressful times in your life.

Keeping just a few of this health tips in mind over the next week or so will go a long way to making sure that once the holidays are over that you actually feel rested and relaxed and don’t need a holiday from your Christmas holiday to recuperate!

CanadaDrugs.com, Canadian Pharmacy is open over the Christmas break to serve you with any discount prescription medication needs. See our hours of operation for our holiday hours. Our No-Risk Guarantee is also a sure-fire way to avoid stress. Order with us over the phone, or online and know that we guarantee you the best price, have 100% free shipping on all our orders, and have a no-hassle return policy that guarantees that your happy with your order, or else you can send it back to us at no charge for a full refund. There is enough stress out there shopping that we want to make it as easy and stress free as possible to enjoy an affordable alternative to high prescription drug costs.

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Some Healthy Holiday Party Eating Tips

Posted by on December 16th, 2011

Shortbread at the office party potluck, some cake at a gathering with neighbors, creamy calorie laden eggnog while watching some Christmas movies with friends, dozens of delicious hors d’oeuvre at a holiday open house, and or course a plate overflowing with mounds of turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy at the big annual family dinner. That’s probably a pretty good description of what is going to be happening to you and waistline over the next week or so leading up to the 25th.

In fact, this blog post is being written in a Canada Drugs potluck food hangover, after some of us gathered today to exchange our office secret Santa gifts and have too much lunch. The fact is that the holidays mean parties, get-togethers, gatherings, and just general food consuming activities with our friends and loved ones. Some smart thinking and a little bit of planning can however help you make smart food choices and not pack on the pounds this Christmas.

On average, Americans and Canadians gain about a pound at holiday time, which may not seem like a lot, but we usually don’t lose this pound very easily once we gain it. Long term, after 10 years, you’ve put on a lot of extra weight and in the short term, all the sugar, calories, sodium and fat that you’ve consumed during the holidays can make your body feel sluggish in January after you wean yourself off the sweets and special treats.

What can you do to avoid the Holiday Party health Crunch?

1. Don’t go to a party starving. Have a small snack at home before hitting your event. A few nuts, some fruit or veggies and dip will make sure that you don’t go overboard on the shortbread at your party because your famished.
2. Focus on family and friends, not food. It’s very easy for food to become the focus at social gatherings — especially during the holidays. But instead of monopolizing your time around the food table, make sure you spend more time talking and catching up with friends or making new friends, rather than just snacking away.
3. Watch your liquid calories. Having too much alcohol is a surefire way to lose control on the dance floor and at the buffet table. But you can enjoy fun, refreshing cocktails without the carbohydrates and calories. Wine spritzers, diet sodas and good old fashioned water are all smarter drink choices. Two cups of eggnog with rum has as much fat and calories as your supposed to have in a whole day!
4. Let your eyes feast first! Scan the buffet, see what is being served, and then choose small portions of the things you love the most. You don’t need to overflow your plate. Keep a mental checklist of how much you’re consuming and if you feel yourself accepting every passed appetizer, it’s your eyes telling you that you need more food, not your brain.
5. Walk in a winter wonderland! A research study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology concluded that eating just one meal high in saturated fat could decrease the ability your “good” cholesterol to fight the plaque that clogs arteries. But that by just getting 30-45 minutes of light exercise that you can expand healthy blood flow. So, make sure that you don’t spend your entire holidays just grazing and sitting in a food daze. Get outside with your loved ones and go for a walk, or if you’re lucky like we are at CanadaDrugs.com to live in a cold weather city like Winnipeg, Manitoba, you have the option of plenty of fun snow related activities to get you outside. We’re happy to save you money on discount Lipitor and other cholesterol fighting drugs, but some physical activity can also combat cholesterol issues as well.

Here are 15 more handy tips for healthy holiday eating from Dianne Oickle, a Registered Dietitian/Public Health Nutritionist in Ontario, Canada at this link.

Everyone at CanadaDrugs.com hopes you have a great holiday season. You can still enjoy a holiday treat, but just try to keep things in moderation. Your health and waistline will thank you once the calendar flips over to 2012. We’re still open 24-7 over the holidays to serve you save you money on all our discount prescription medication needs.

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