Drug companies will do anything

Introduction Post

For about a year I've been having trouble getting the allergy meds I need. Ever since the people who make Benadryl decided it was a good idea to put calcium in the pills. Calcium tears up my stomach. I can't take anything that contains calcium.

It's well documented in Annals of Allergy that people with allergies tend to have acid stomach. It's well known among GI doctors that calcium stimulates stomach acid.
The makers of Benadryl are apparently unaware of this. Their response to my upset emails was basically "come hold our hands and teach us". They don't do research or even read the medical journal in their own field! Since manufacturers copy each other like sheep, store brand versions are the same.

I've been noticing this in other meds also, and even worse. Pseudoephedrine (sudafed) contains calcium now, as does almost every other pill I look at. The few pills that don't contain calcium contain lactose - a wonderful idea when many people are lactose intolerant!

But even worse, the Sudafed brand of phenylephrine (an alternative decongestant) contains vinyl.
That's right, one of the ingredients is known to cause allergies. It's listed as polyvinyl alcohol.

I found a Walgreen's combo that contains acetaminophen with phenylephrine, and another version that also contains chlorpheniramine, with no calcium or lactose. I've been using these since last fall.

This is the only way I've found to get an antihistamine without the garbage that upsets my stomach.

Today I went to the Edgewater Walgreen's to get more. Mold is in the red zone and ragweed moderately high and on top of that I have a cold. I need this medicine more than ever. They had one box of the one without chlorphen. The associate told me they hadn't received the one with chlorphen since July 13. They're either discontinuing or changing it. Great timing, at the height of allergy season!

She checked all the other options and they all have calcium or lactose. A few years ago my stomach decided not to digest corn anymore - The Walgreen's brand of chlorphen doesn't have the other stuff, but it does have corn starch, which seems to be another common ingredient of theirs, and is one of the common food allergens.

I think customers are catching on to the meds that are upsetting their stomachs with calcium, because Walgreen's wasn't out of those. Only the ones without calcium.

Very anxious and disappointed, I looked at the sleep aids. They are the same medicine as Benadryl - an antihistamine. They all contain calcium except one. Sominex contains both calcium and lactose.
There is one that doesn't have either - Unisom.

Yay? No! Unisom contains phthalates! It lists "polyvinyl acetate phthalate" as an ingredient.
They are deliberately putting an ingredient that *causes* allergies in their medicine!

I don't know why they can't just use cellulose and iron oxide to make the pills. Why do they think calcium, lactose, artificial sweeteners, phthalates and other garbage are necessary? Are they trying to make us sick?

I wouldn't put it past them.