I’m the lucky winner of asthma, and a chest infection has pushed it to a slightly scary place. So I’m currently on a short course of antibiotics and steroid tablets.
I made the serious error of reading the information leaflets for contents and side-effects. Just reading the possible side effects of prednisolone alone is enough to make you feel ill, even if you weren’t before: puffy swollen face, trouble sleeping, sore throat, pains, bruising, abdominal pain, headache, water retention, signs of diabetes…
But what really bothers me is that both these drugs contain artificial food colourings – my steroid tablets contain Ponceau 4R and Sunset Yellow which, in a nice irony, can cause asthma, the very thing I’m being given them to treat! The amoxicillin meanwhile is a technicolor cocktail of Sunset Yellow, Carmoisine, Brilliant Blue (brilliant!), Quinoline Yellow and Titanium Dioxide…
Why are they so garishly and artificially coloured? It’s not as if I had any choice and would have shunned dull-looking capsules for something funky.
Ah, they come for the amoxicillin, but they stay for the Methyl Parahydroxybenzoate (E218)!
Thanks for the change of address notice for your blog. Hope you’re feeling better soon.
Sneakily hacked the atom.xml file on my old blog… and I’m well on the mend, thank you James.
Prednisolone can also give you man breasts and a propensity to shout ‘Arse’ at children and old ladies.
In my case I doubt anyone would notice the difference…
And there I was thinking you’d taken a photo of your meal at Pharmacy.