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Why or why not?
You stole that from your astra article! LOLGravyRPH said:No, livers are hard to come by. Muscles are even harder.
AgreedCosmoDaNP said:Only if the package includes a mini LFT test with a guide on how to read the results.
Even then I think it's a HORRIBLE idea!
Cosmo
CosmoDaNP said:Only if the package includes a mini LFT test with a guide on how to read the results.
Caverject said:Giving a cholesterol test at a pharmacy is increasingly becoming a common practice. LFT tests are not, and never should be. I do not believe that we should be responsible for an LFT test since it is a little more than a simple diagnostic test like cholesterol.
Exactly. And what about all the people who think, "If a little is good, a lot is better" and decide to take 2 statin pills thinking it will lower their cholesterol twice as much, or pop an extra one after their eggs benedict at weekend brunch and their Big Mac twice a week. This might be tolerable for short-term meds, but not so much for the chronic ones.The vast majority of the OTC preps are made for short-term use. You have a stuffy nose, a headache, dyspepsia, etc. You take the OTC, you feel better, you stop the OTC. There are few OTCs I can think of that are supposed to be taken chronically (ASA is one. Prilosec OTC is shady like that, anything else? Claritin maybe.). The average idiot can tell when his HA goes away or his Kleenex use decreases.
The National Lipid Association (NLA) is lobbying the FDA to remove the requirement for liver function test from statin labeling. Reports of liver failure due to statin are only 1 out of 1 million prescriptions. While statins increase liver enzymes (AST, ALT), many experts believe the increase is not associated with liver dysfunction.
Overdose on tylenol, however, causes about 50% of acute liver failure in the U.S.
Reference: McKenney JM, Davidson MH, Jacobson TA, Guyton JR. Final conclusions and recommendations of the national lipid association statin safety assessment task force. Am J Cardiol 2006; 97(8A):89C-94C.