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Today in "it's a bit of both". I guess this is a very Dutch thing, but usually the GP here sends you home with the advise to take some rest, an antipyretic and

Today in "it's a bit of both". I guess this is a very Dutch thing, but usually the GP here sends you home with the advise to take some rest, an antipyretic and call again if it gets worse or it doesn't go away after a week. Still, interesting read - good this is thought and discussed about.

braymundo 3y ago
Yup, paracetamol being prescribed for everything is a bit of a meme here.
- AstralStorm 3y ago
  These days it tends to be ibuprofen.
  - salad-tycoon 3y ago
    Or both, “studies show that both taken together is just as good if not better than opioids and narcotics!” Yep! I’ll save you all the rant about opioids.
    - cnity 3y ago
      I would like to sign up for the opioid rant.
    - refurb 3y ago
      Yes, they work better used together, but except for a few specific types of pain (e.g. dental) they are far inferior to opioids.
    - User23 3y ago
      I had a severe muscle pain once, like so bad that I literally could not stand the pain. I had to hold on to someone or something to move. The doctor prescribed an opioid and it did nothing. Then he suggested I try 800 mg tylenol for arthritis and it got me to the point where I could at least walk. Analgesia is pretty weird.
- maxboone 3y ago
  Yeah, sometimes it's a bit much. Especially because I already do the paracetamol & wait myself before I go to the GP to begin with, but at least my current GP understands that.
BrandoElFollito 3y ago
Same in France, especially for children. The time is that you send a kid at school until they "have temperature". Before that they sneeze, cough, whatever, together with the rest of the pupils. Eventually everyone gets ill and the general immunity increases. When they are are ill it is paracetamol. It used to be also antibiotics, now an increasing number of GP do tests before. EDIT: following up on comments, please note that I am neither the Ministry of Health, nor the Ministry of Education - just relying the status in France. And a parent who suffered of this first-hand.
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago
  > Before that they sneeze, cough, whatever, together with the rest of the pupils. This is not a good thing - repeated infections with the same virus only cause damage. Then they infect parents or grandparents. Especially now that covid is about, and life expectancy has fallen across the world by several years. Schools could install air purifiers for a few hundred bucks per room and greatly reduce infections PS: a lot of responses perpetuate the urban legends about immunity. So I thought I would respond here: 1 - getting many infections as a child does not keep you safe when you are a pensioner. Immunity does not last the rest of your life. Most vaccines need to be refreshed every 10 years. The proper term is Immunological memory, and is a complicated subject I don't fully grasp. That's why we had booster shots for COVID, immunity from it disappears quickly. 2 - getting infected is not consequence free. Just because you gully recovered does not mean you have no lasting damage. Serious infections cause microscopic damage in your organs. That damages is patched by connecting tissue / scar tissue. That tissue is not functional - if it patches a kidney, that kidney is less capable. You don't need to get Ebola to suffer damage - even a serious case of flu takes a toll. 3 - many immunities are worthless - for example the flu mutates every year, and if you want immunity from it, in UK we do flu vaccines. So if you want immunity from it, take every vaccine when it's offered. But if you got a vaccine 3 years ago, chances are that particular mutation will not reoccur in your life, and it offers no particular benefit ever again. 4 - pathogen load is a thing - you don't need to fall ill to generate immunity. When you are walking about, your body is getting tiny amount of pathogens - and most of the time the quantity is too small to get you sick, but your immune system deals with them. You do not get infected because someone sneezed 20 miles downwind and you inhaled 1 virus particle. Schools / kindergartens with poor ventilation create pathogen hot-tubs with unnaturally high pathogen loads. This is like an infection hot boxing. We know ventilation is terrible because often have CO2 concentration in excess of 2000. There is nothing natural about this, cavemen did not encounter such conditions. Improving ventilation reduces how many pathogens are floating in the air, even if the same number of kids are sneezing. Bottomn line is, immune system is not like a dog that you train once, and it's also dangerous because you can get allergies or autoimmune diseases. There is no evidence that subjecting people to excessive number of infection by creating disease petri-dish conditions in school has any benefit. Also Kurzgesagt has many videos on immune system: https://youtu.be/M-K7mxdN62M https://youtu.be/M-K7mxdN62M

braymundo 3y ago

Yup, paracetamol being prescribed for everything is a bit of a meme here.

AstralStorm 3y ago
These days it tends to be ibuprofen.
- salad-tycoon 3y ago
  Or both, “studies show that both taken together is just as good if not better than opioids and narcotics!” Yep! I’ll save you all the rant about opioids.
  - cnity 3y ago
    I would like to sign up for the opioid rant.
  - refurb 3y ago
    Yes, they work better used together, but except for a few specific types of pain (e.g. dental) they are far inferior to opioids.
  - User23 3y ago
    I had a severe muscle pain once, like so bad that I literally could not stand the pain. I had to hold on to someone or something to move. The doctor prescribed an opioid and it did nothing. Then he suggested I try 800 mg tylenol for arthritis and it got me to the point where I could at least walk. Analgesia is pretty weird.
maxboone 3y ago
Yeah, sometimes it's a bit much. Especially because I already do the paracetamol & wait myself before I go to the GP to begin with, but at least my current GP understands that.

BrandoElFollito 3y ago

Same in France, especially for children. The time is that you send a kid at school until they "have temperature". Before that they sneeze, cough, whatever, together with the rest of the pupils. Eventually everyone gets ill and the general immunity increases. When they are are ill it is paracetamol. It used to be also antibiotics, now an increasing number of GP do tests before. EDIT: following up on comments, please note that I am neither the Ministry of Health, nor the Ministry of Education - just relying the status in France. And a parent who suffered of this first-hand.

ClumsyPilot 3y ago
> Before that they sneeze, cough, whatever, together with the rest of the pupils. This is not a good thing - repeated infections with the same virus only cause damage. Then they infect parents or grandparents. Especially now that covid is about, and life expectancy has fallen across the world by several years. Schools could install air purifiers for a few hundred bucks per room and greatly reduce infections PS: a lot of responses perpetuate the urban legends about immunity. So I thought I would respond here: 1 - getting many infections as a child does not keep you safe when you are a pensioner. Immunity does not last the rest of your life. Most vaccines need to be refreshed every 10 years. The proper term is Immunological memory, and is a complicated subject I don't fully grasp. That's why we had booster shots for COVID, immunity from it disappears quickly. 2 - getting infected is not consequence free. Just because you gully recovered does not mean you have no lasting damage. Serious infections cause microscopic damage in your organs. That damages is patched by connecting tissue / scar tissue. That tissue is not functional - if it patches a kidney, that kidney is less capable. You don't need to get Ebola to suffer damage - even a serious case of flu takes a toll. 3 - many immunities are worthless - for example the flu mutates every year, and if you want immunity from it, in UK we do flu vaccines. So if you want immunity from it, take every vaccine when it's offered. But if you got a vaccine 3 years ago, chances are that particular mutation will not reoccur in your life, and it offers no particular benefit ever again. 4 - pathogen load is a thing - you don't need to fall ill to generate immunity. When you are walking about, your body is getting tiny amount of pathogens - and most of the time the quantity is too small to get you sick, but your immune system deals with them. You do not get infected because someone sneezed 20 miles downwind and you inhaled 1 virus particle. Schools / kindergartens with poor ventilation create pathogen hot-tubs with unnaturally high pathogen loads. This is like an infection hot boxing. We know ventilation is terrible because often have CO2 concentration in excess of 2000. There is nothing natural about this, cavemen did not encounter such conditions. Improving ventilation reduces how many pathogens are floating in the air, even if the same number of kids are sneezing. Bottomn line is, immune system is not like a dog that you train once, and it's also dangerous because you can get allergies or autoimmune diseases. There is no evidence that subjecting people to excessive number of infection by creating disease petri-dish conditions in school has any benefit. Also Kurzgesagt has many videos on immune system: https://youtu.be/M-K7mxdN62M https://youtu.be/M-K7mxdN62M