8-0 0 K R E VI E, W S

have been given excellent advice on howto identify others.

Men who suffer from ErectileDysfunction ("ED") might want to con-sult Dr. Huriash's Handbook before pur-suing Bob Dole's "little blue friend."Huriash lists 200 drugs that may con-tribute to the problem, 86 that maydepress libido, and 81 that may contributeto ejaculatory problems.

A succinct section details the evileffects of smoking and gives sound adviceon how to quit. My only complaint is thatHuriash doesn't answer the question Ihave always wanted to ask: Why do phar-macists, whose business it is to sell drugsto restore health and give advice on keep-ing that precious component of a goodlife, sell cigarettes? Maybe he'll answerthat one in the 3rd edition!

The cover of this work has a prescrip-tion blank printed on it. The prescriptionreads: "Practice self-care to protect yourhealth and improve your quality of life."And the prescription is completely legible!

Given the emphasis on personalresponsibility of patients for their healthissues, and on the value to physicians oftheir patients seeking information and"partnering" with their health care teamsas active members, this book should serveas a valuable resource for anyone dealingwith conditions I;anging from acne tovenous thrombosis.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy called atten-tion in 1996 to the "silent epidemic" thathe described as "a wave of illness, injuriesand even deaths caused by [adverse reac-tions to] prescription drugs" resulting inover two million hospitalizations, an extrathree million visits, and a $100 billion ayear in additional health-care costs andlost productivity.

Solomon Huriash has provided a toolto address that epidemic. Pharmacies,physicians, libraries, and book stallsshould stock and recommend this bookfor the public good.

Richard t Hull, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Departments of Philosophy and Medicine

State University of New York University at

Buffalo, Clarence, NY

Cure: questionable, but perhaps throughelimination of the cause.

A visit to my primary physician.Nothing obvious, like an infection. A visitto an ENT and an audiologist. Some hear-ing loss consistent with age in the 2000-3500 Mhz range. As for the tinnitus, goodluck! Avoid aspirin, try cutting back oncaffeine, alcohol. I had already done thosethings, and left these consultations dis-

couraged.Then this book came into my hands.

Written by a pharmacist who is also anAdjunct Associate Professor of PharmacyAdministration, the book is intended forthe lay user as a guide to dealing with andavoiding the effects of drug interactionsand side effects. Turning to its index andlooking up my malady, I learned thatsome 105 drugs and two herbals canaggravate the condition. Yes, there wasaspirin; but there was also amitriptyline,which I have used for years as an occa-sional sleep aid. And there wasibuprophen, to which I had turned toavoid aspirin. And the herbal wintergreenappears in my chewing gum.

I felt empowered, with alternatives nolonger exhausted by the limits of astranger physician's expertise and meagerknowledge of me, my life, and my quirks.I am now pursuing with my physicianreduction and elimination of these varioussubstances from my daily life with arenewed sense of confidence that the tin-nitus can be licked.

The Handbook is a wealth of informa-tion. It is organized around various disor-ders and diseases, but it also has listingsunder normal conditions, such as beingover 55 if you are a male, or 35 if you arefemale (warnings about drugs that cancause depression). Anorexia can be aggra-vated by 195 drugs and one herbal. 64drugs and 4 herbals may aggravate asth-ma, and, for asthma sufferers with aspirinallergy, 19 alternative painkillers couldtrigger an attack.

Were the lists of drugs to avoid all thatthe book had to offer, it would be valuableenough. But there are explanations of con-ditions like hypertension, and numerouspieces of advice for self-care of hyperten-sives. Nursing mothers should avoid some25 herbals.

For many years I suffered frommigraines and I spent long hours and bigbucks pursuing alleviation. Had I had thishandbook I would have learned to avoid anumber of foods that trigger them, and

Early in January I began noticing anauditory phenomena that I likened to thesound of crickets and tree frogs on a warmsummer night in the south, muffled asthrough the walls of a house. But I was incold and snowy Buffalo, where suchsounds would emit from the night onlymonths later.

The condition was known as "tinni-tus." Cause: any of several possibilities.

Pharmaceutical News, Vol. 8, No.3, 2007 75