By Kate Blake
When I am not blogging about TV I work in the pharmaceutical industry and am a firm believer in the advancement of science and medicine- but only when it is prescribed correctly.
Re: Heath and his death. Much is being made about reports that he had all kinds of prescription drugs and was anxious at the holidays and the speculation is that he must have been going through some issues which led to his death.
I am going to assert something here- the initial findings by the ME in NYC were inconclusive and reports are that it was most likely an accidental drug death due to a drug interaction. Much like Anna Nicole Smith and her son as well.
How is this possible? Well- doctors like to prescribe pills instead of asking people what is really wrong and getting them to deal with it. Heath had been on a rough back to back movie shooting schedule where he was travelling a lot and by all accounts complained he had developed insomnia and was not sleeping. The doctor didn’t recommend that maybe you should just take a weekend completely off , eat a big turkey dinner and catch up on your sleep- no the doctors all prescribed powerful prescription medications.
Insomnia is usually treated with a combination of anti-anxiety meds and sleeping pills both. The problem is these are two very strong and powerful classes of drugs and you should never take them with other medication unless your pharmacist can tell you they will not interact. Ambien- the sleeping pill Heath was taking has its number one side effect that is dangerous as hell- is that there have been many reported cases of people having anaphylatic reactions that can lead to death.* That is right- a huge allergy type response especially when taken with any number of other drugs that you aren’t supposed to take with it. This is the same thing that happens when people with peanut allergies get something with their deadly nemesis included- your throat closes and you can’t breath and you pretty much suffocate or worse and there are no obvious signs that this is what happened especially if you are asleep when it occurs.
If you or anyone you know takes a lot of doctor prescribed medications it is well worth taking the time to make a point of taking everything in to your pharmacy at some point and asking your pharmacist to please assure you that what you are taking is not going to lead to problems due to known drug interaction issues. Medical doctors know very little about pharmacology. They take one class in medical school and assume that is all they need. Your pharmacist has completed a full doctoral program in drugs and drug interactions and will look up powerful databases of cross reactivity for you that can tell you exactly what you can and can’t take together.
I had a very bad experience in December where I took too many over the counter decongestants which interacted with my asthma meds and landed me in the ER with breathing distress. Three treatments of oxygen and powerful lung clearing drugs later I was told that you should never do that. Something nobody had told me and was nowhere on the labeling of my packages. Doctors told me that to overcome the extreme stimulant effects of my asthma meds and releive my congestion as an asthmatic I should take the very safe, very mild, very low risk and well characterized over the counter anti-histamine Benadryl to help me sleep. Benadryl has been around since the 1960s and is one of the few medications still deemed safe enough to give to children. Most over the counter sleep aids have this as their main ingredient. It is non-habit forming and it works! And it is cheap. $4 for a bottle of 50 tablets at WalMart.
Heath Ledger is not the only man to be prescribed the combination of drugs that may have led to his death. I know countless executives who travel who all take the same cocktail to overcome constant time zone fluxing when they travel globally on a weekly basis. From here on out this frequent flyer is sticking to a hot bath and an allergy pill to knock me out!
*http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic/zolpid_ad.htm See this link for other side effects of Ambien
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