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Please understand that diphenhydramine (unisom, nitol, benedryl) can be fatal if taken in doses too high for your body weight.
This medicine also stops itching. (short story: sister had cancer, surgery was performed, pain meds prescribed, pain meds made her itchy, took benedryl three times in one day, she stopped breathing and died on mom's sofa)
I still keep a bottle of it here, it helps sleep, it helps allergies, it helps a lot of things, but if you take it nightly, you can build up a tolerance (sleep wise it will take more and more to help you sleep). If you take too much, it can suppress your respiratory system and breathing simply stops.
Same thing can happen if you take too many pain pills. Or too much cough syrup.. Hell, I broke ribs coughing so much one time.. They prescribed codeine cough syrup, and it suppressed my breathing so much that I had to cut the dosage in half.
Not meaning to be offensive or dismissive to your sisters death.. But. That whole second paragraph seems odd. I mean.. You could just have easily concluded that with "and drank a glass of orange juice" then blamed the orange juice.. Was there some form of autopsy that said that the benedryl was the cause of death? Or a contributing factor? Or is it just your belief that the benedryl was the cause? Because, the pain meds are a big red flag..
Before blaming the benedryl here.. The first thing I would suspect would be the cancer.. The second being the pain meds, the third being a combination of the pain meds and cancer, and finally i'd start thinking about the benedryl combined with the cancer and pain meds.
Not saying it's impossible, and.. Certainly not saying that it didn't have an effect in your sisters death.. but, 3 pills would be 75mg.. The maximum 'safe' dosage, according to drugs.com is 400mg in a day.. That's 16 pills @ 25mg, which is the standard dosage.
Melatonin only helps me if I take the higher dosage tabs, and it's not supposed to be taken regularly, anyway. I believe the information on the label of the bottle I have says not to use it more than two weeks straight. I stopped using it because I noticed I have very unpleasant dreams when I use it, and when I viewed its side effects on a reliable drug information page, that was one that was listed.
I just use a half a tablet of generic Benedryl now. I can't stay awake if I take Benedryl during the day for a cold, so I figured it might help me sleep, and it does. I asked my doctor about it and she it was fine. However, I don't take it every night. If I have two bad nights of insomnia in a row, I take it the third night.
Oh, I never saw that one. Is it called something different? I don't see how it could be called the same thing?
Unisom has two different sleep aid products (that I know of). The original Unisom caplets, and Unisom Gelcaps. The gelcaps are diphenhydramine, same active ingredient as Benedryl. The original, regular Unisom caplets are a totally different active ingredient, docsylamine. Both are sold under the same brand name Unisom.
I think the secret here is: how often do you use a sleep aid? I, for one, do not like the idea of getting used to falling asleep using a sleep aid, and I too worry about the side effects, but when used in moderation I don't think it will hurt. It seems today almost all meds warn of liver disease or liver damage. If anyone is going to depend on a medication on a permanent basis, check with your doctor first.
Same thing can happen if you take too many pain pills. Or too much cough syrup.. Hell, I broke ribs coughing so much one time.. They prescribed codeine cough syrup, and it suppressed my breathing so much that I had to cut the dosage in half.
Not meaning to be offensive or dismissive to your sisters death.. But. That whole second paragraph seems odd. I mean.. You could just have easily concluded that with "and drank a glass of orange juice" then blamed the orange juice.. Was there some form of autopsy that said that the benedryl was the cause of death? Or a contributing factor? Or is it just your belief that the benedryl was the cause? Because, the pain meds are a big red flag..
Before blaming the benedryl here.. The first thing I would suspect would be the cancer.. The second being the pain meds, the third being a combination of the pain meds and cancer, and finally i'd start thinking about the benedryl combined with the cancer and pain meds.
Not saying it's impossible, and.. Certainly not saying that it didn't have an effect in your sisters death.. but, 3 pills would be 75mg.. The maximum 'safe' dosage, according to drugs.com is 400mg in a day.. That's 16 pills @ 25mg, which is the standard dosage.
Yes, the autopsy confirmed that it was the benedryl that kept them from being able to revive her as well as what stopped her breathing in the first place. (Like I said, short story. I wasn't interested in jacking her thread with my sister's death, but rather to let her know that someting as seemingly benign as those little pink pills could shut her down fast and to be careful).
The pain meds were relatively mild, vicodin. She took them in quarter doses (none of us had ever taken anything so strong. I did after my hysterectomy and was sooo sick).
The cancer was stage 1, was a melanoma, but they had to cut deeply to get it because it was in scar tissue.
Unisom is a brand name. Diphenhydramine is an ingredient.
The ingredient is available for sale, through several different manufacturers.
Your question is like saying you didn't know that orange juice is sometimes called something other than Tropicana, and not seeing how Minute Maid can be the same thing.
You are wrong. Unisom is a brand name, but the actual products have different names since the active ingredients are different (already referenced).
Same as Tylenol PM is different from Tylenol since it has different ingredients. Brand name is the same: Tylenol. PM has the sleeping aid included.
It's not the same as orange juice, not even close.
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