Last night I visited my sister and her fiance. My folks joined us and we had an incredible dinner and some good conversation. At some point though, the conversation turned to medicine, and the different types of pills that they take for various ailments. This baffled me, as I only ever take any pills during the occasional headache. And even then the headache must reach legendary proportions before I will reach for medicinal relief! So to hear them discuss medicines for everything from aches and pains to skin conditions left me rather confused. At one point I was sure they were making up names for pills just to mess with me. I had never heard of any of it!
I mean, who comes up with these names? It's like they think "Hmmm, we have a new drug. Best come up with a name that sounds complicated and very effective!" I'm pretty sure they just go "I know, we'll call this flu medicine Tetracaramellobearaprine. That way it sounds important and delicious, all at the same time!"
To give you a few real-world examples, there is Celebrex which is used to treat arthritis, Celexa for depression, Foradil for bronchitis, Palvix for thinning the blood and Lipitor which lowers cholesterol. To me Lipitor sounds like a super-villain from an 80's morning cartoon! Possibly one that kisses people to death! And these are all names approved by the good people at the FDA (The Food and Drug Administration). Maybe there is a logic to their naming convention. Maybe people do look at the medicine standing on the shelf and intuitively know what it is for. If not, there is probably a pill to help you with that. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go take some Hydrofishfingeranex......
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