Benadryl

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, right? 

 

 

When I awoke this morning, I was greeted by the sledge hammer to my head that I commented on yesterday.  So I loaded up on Benadryl (MAXIMUM STRENGTH SEEEVEEERE ALLERGY AND SINUS HEADACHE), called my boss to tell her I’d be a couple of hours late, and crawled back into bed. By the time my alarm went off once again two hours later, I couldn’t be sure if it was the sinus pressure that held me hostage in my own bed, or if it was the debilitating effects of the drug.  A discussion I’d had with my friend, Fort, after I’d muscled my way out of bed and to work led me to question why Benadryl seems comparable to taking a tranquilizer (I don’t know that for a fact, but I’m sure it’s a legitimate assessment.)  And me being me, just had to research it.

 

Well first of all, why do we have allergies?  Essentially, there are those of us in this world who are blessed with special histamines (cute little organic compounds) that are released from the prisons of our immune systems when fun things like pollen and dust and pet dander come out to play (why stay in and read when you could go sneeze surfing and snot coasting?)  And so, allergy medicines contain an antihistamine to fight off the terrorist plots of the histamines and spread messages of peace, liberty, and sinus clarity.  Unfortunately, as with most wars on terror, antihistamines cannot actually stop histamines from being produced and released; they can only block their hate-spreading effects on your body.  In other words, it comes in to slap your sinuses around a little bit to show them who’s boss (that’s you; you’re the boss), and counters the histamine by, more or less, sedating the muscles that have the nerve to react to the histamine.

 

Some of you may have already known that, but you didn’t have the fun war metaphor in your first-rate education about histamines did you, smarty?

 

Now back to Benadryl.  Benadryl’s antihistamine is diphenhydramine and it contains 25 mg of it per caplet; 50 mg per dose; one dose every 4 hours.  According to the Drugs and Human Performance Fact Sheet on diphenhydramine by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (that’s the GOVERNMENT, okay? They know) the recommended dose is 25-50 mg every 6-8 hours and should not exceed 50-100 mg every 4-6 hours.  Go ahead, read back and compare…

 

Ah ha!  I’ve finally come to reach my point.  Now, I’m no mathematician, but it seems that the fine Benadryl chefs are essentially directing people to take as much of this sedative (the NHTSA classifies this drug as a sedative, among other things) as they legally can. At the very least, if Benadryl doesn’t clear your allergies, it will sure knock you the hell out.

 

So when they tell you on the package, MAXIMUM STRENGTH: DON’T SCREW WITH ME, they’re just being honest.  And when they recommend that you lay off the booze and drive with caution, mmm you should probably listen.

 

With Alotta Love,

 

zee zee cakes

Tags: allergies, Benadryl, drug, sinus headaches