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Beware Diet Pills: This Article Could Save your Life!

  • Posted on January 9, 2010 at 4:27 am

I tried a diet drug recently – and it nearly killed me! (My doctor says I was lucky I got to the hospital in time.) But this wasn’t the first diet drug for me. I had tried all the others before that. (You can read more about diet pills, natural alternatives, and my long but finally successful transformation from Fat guy to Healthy guy, on my Blogger blog: Celopin Diet Pill. See the Author Box beneath this article.)

Note: I don’t know if they can sue a guy, just for putting his story online to help warn others. But just in case, I’ll play it safe: No brand names will be mentioned in this article. (And no, the pill that nearly killed me wasn’t celopin.)

Anyways, every time they put me on a diet pill, I’d suffer through a list various bad side effects. And after I’d had enough (with barely any weight loss results by the way), most of them would be taken off market due to dangerous side effects (Note: discovered AFTER we all suffered!), or they were proven UN-effective in losing fat.

Besides, have you tried ordering diet pills recently. As I began my online investigation, I was shocked to see the hundreds of complains about diet pill ripoffs!

Here’s a typical quote:

“On 12/03/06 I placed an online order with www.(name removed)… they said they had some wrong info in there system and were going to call my Doc for a fax number… Two day’s later it said there was no information the day after that my account was charged and I checked online again and it said My Doctor had rejected it. I spoke with him and he said he has never heard or received anything from them! I sent them 3 more emails asking what was going on and asked for my money back no reply. Yesterday I checked again and it said they are sending me a non prescription alternative. I sent an email back telling them I do not want it I want my money back because they lied. Still no reply.”

Here’s one with a reply from a consumer advocate website (spelling errors left unchanged in the interest of accuracy):

“Ordered product from (name removed) pharmacy. They substitued a different product than I ordered. I requested to send product back. They stated that in their terms that they can substitue another product. I may return product but they charged $45.00 for processing and cancellation fees plus I have to pay return shipping.”

Response:

“I had the same experience with (name removed) Pharmacy – ordering one thing and receiving something else. So I called them and requested a refund. Of course, their pat line was that the fine print told me that I could not get a refund once the product had been shipped.”

And this beauty:

“My daughter, friend and I all ordered the “free” thin- tabs for the small shipping and handling fee. Before we knew it we had all been charged $149.99, this happened immediately, and we received a large bottle of the pills which NONE of us accepted and all 3 of us sent back ” refused”. We were all told we had agreed to a monthly club type thing and would be charged EVERY month.

…My daughter cancelled her credit card as the only way to get them to stop charging her monthly charges. My friends account was sent to Collections (in Bombay INDIA) and I have yet to see a credit on my Visa.”

After I finally got fed up with diet drugs, I started working out at a gym. The muscle-bound oafs were all recommending various “supplements” (just another word for “drugs”), to all the beginners like me. So like a fellow oaf, I tried some of them. More wasted money and time.

The answer to REAL weight loss is NOT drugs. The odd drug may work for awhile, but it’s just a temporary solution and the bad side effects just aren’t worth it. And the answer is definitely NOT “supplements” either.

I’m just trying to do the right thing, and help people to not make the same mistakes *I* made. Don’t get SUCKERED the way I did for so long. Consider yourself warned!

Now that I’ve “done my duty” and warned you about the worst (drugs & supplements), I need to warn you about the other failures people often encounter on the road to successful weight loss. To find out what IS the right answer to successful weight loss, read the next article in this series of articles posted at my blog (see the Author Box below). You need to read the next article: http://celopindietpill.blogspot.com

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Company Christmas Party — Beware of the Drunken Lout!

  • Posted on January 2, 2010 at 12:06 am

‘Tis the season to be jolly and to attend the yearly corporate shindig — the office Christmas party! The idea of the annual holiday event is rooted in corporate goodwill. A way to show appreciation to its employees for a year of hard work. This is all well and good but the reality is that most working stiffs view the office Christmas party as a corporate-like event that they, being mindful of their career, must attend. And then there’s the inevitable visitation of the drunken lout who takes the celebration a bit too far.


In an independent survey of 1000 office workers reveal that one out of five workers regret their actions at the office Christmas party. Social fears, boring events and open bars often lead to excessive drinking making office parties a social minefield. Over a third of workers admitting dreading ‘the walk of shame’ to work the next morning, to find out whether they had enhanced or limited their career the night before. The survey revealed that a tenth of workers take the opportunity of their bosses ‘high spirits’ to ask for a pay rise, another tenth confessed to being physically sick in front of colleagues due to excessive drinking — not a great move if you’re bucking for a promotion next year.


A third of workers admitted to regretting kissing a colleague during the party or worse – going home with a co-worker or client. One admitted to kissing the bosses daughter who turned out to be much younger then he thought! Eight out of ten respondents say they “danced like an idiot” in front of bosses and upper management. Most all attendees say they hate the fact that photos are taken during the event. These are often posted on the company website, just so you can share your worst embarrassment with those who may have missed it.


Then there’s the photocopier…workers just can’t seem to keep their body parts off the copier during in-office Christmas parties. People obviously let their hair down at Christmas time and the printer/copier tends to get a bit of extra-curricular activity during the festive period. Copier repairs increase as much as 17% during the holiday season due to ‘non-work related’ incidents. Often these calls are to repair broken glass which had been sat on, or to fix paper jams that revealed evidence of embarrassing images. One technician reported that a customer suggested an office identity parade to find the provider of the incriminating evidence! The survey also discovered bizarre items which had been found in a photocopier such as a snake, a kitchen knife, a sausage, a condom, stockings, a vibrator and even a check for $2000.00.


Statistics from an independent survey of 1000 office workers:

- A third of office workers have gone home with or kissed a colleague or client at their office Christmas party.

- A tenth of workers have been sick in front of colleagues due to excessive drinking.

- A tenth of office workers have told a colleague or boss that they fancy them.

- A third of office workers admitted dreading ‘the walk of shame’ to work the next morning.

- A tenth of workers take the opportunity of their bosses ‘high spirits’ to ask for a pay rise.

- Two fifths of office workers admitted that they regrettably bad-mouthed bosses or co-workers while intoxicated at the office Christmas party.

- A third of workers owned up to “dancing like an idiot” in front of the boss.

- A fifth of employees regretted belting out karaoke songs in front of their colleagues.


Some advice to get help you navigate the Christmas party pitfalls:

- Dress Appropriately – If you’re unsure, ask a more experienced co-worker whose opinion you trust.

- Timing is Everything – You don’t want to be the first to arrive or the last.

- Get Out of the Corner – Mingle!

- Pace Thyself – Avoid the temptation to over indulge at the bar!

- Keep your Hands to Yourself – Avoid any temptation even if you and a certain other ‘fancy’ each other. The party is not an appropriate place.

- Be Merry and Bright – Make the best of it and enjoy yourself. Nobody like a sourpuss!

- Exit, Stage Right – Don’t be associated with the last call bunch.


Though the Office Christmas party can be a potential minefield it’s also a chance to enjoy the company of your favorite co-workers and celebrate — with limitations. Keep the celebrating in check lest you blow that future promotion or worse — become the drunken lout! You don’t want to be seen groping, kissing or acting stupid in front of upper management. The next time you’re up for a promotion they’re going to think about your lack of judgment and control. It is important, however, to attend. You’ll be doing your corporate career duty and, who knows, you may actually have fun.

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Women Beware of Doctors Over-Prescribing Drugs

  • Posted on January 1, 2010 at 11:21 pm

I love the women of the Baby Boomer generation. They demanded world attention for their rights to equality in the sixties, changed the gender rules in the seventies, made their way into executive boardrooms in the eighties, and paved the way for the coming generations of their daughters and their daughter’s daughters. Generations X and Y, and hopefully “Z”, have a lot to thank them.


Today, younger adult women don’t have to go through what they did for recognition and understanding. When I enrolled at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1981, I was the only female in my first accounting class. Today, there are equally the same if not more women in graduate university and advanced education courses than men. This is how dramatically things have changed. But have they?


Since my mid-forties, I have had reason to visit a lot of doctor’s offices. I have been diagnosed as peri-menopausal, menopausal (differing opinions from different doctors), suffering from hypothyroidism, not suffering from hypothyroidism, Chronic Fatigue, no Chronic Fatigue, stress-related panic attacks, hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia – and the best of all – a recommendation that I should see a psychologist! All of these complaints and symptoms became more relevant when I later discovered I had severe adrenal problems – completely undiagnosed by all the doctors I saw. But for now, I just want to say, “God help the Baby Boomers!”


During the last few years, I have been in and out of so many doctor’s offices, surgeries, and hospitals that I have lost track. I have visited Hormone Specialists, Gynaecologists, General Practitioners and been rushed into hospital Emergency Rooms on countless occasions. I have had more blood tests than any rational person is meant to endure; subjected to ECGs (electrocardiograms), X-rays, brain scans, chest scans, hearing tests, and spent hours upon hours in those wonderful little ER cubicles waiting for tests or wheeled around from testing lab to testing lab. Not once, not a couple of times, but countless times. I have had the top of my palm injected with horrible large needles while I’ve waited for hours for a scan, drip, or blood transfusion.


I have also been insulted, ignored, laughed at, and been given operative procedures, drugs and antibiotics against my expressed concerns. A hospital gynaecologist even asked me on one occasion whether my breasts were real. (I am naturally well endowed.) I believe he was being playful and it was meant to be a joke – but at the time, I was lying in a hospital Emergency Room bed, waiting for a 4-pack blood transfusion. Needless to say, I didn’t find it very amusing at the time.


I am not a feminist. I know what strengths and weaknesses women have and acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses that men have. However, I am utterly astonished and dumbfounded at the way women are still being treated in the medical arena.


I am in total dismay at how the women of that gregarious, rebellious, open-minded, ground-breaking generation, the Baby Boomers, who led the revolution in changing the advertising, marketing, financial, and consumer-driven demands of the world, are still being treated as the 1950s stereotype female by the traditional medical community. And this includes some female doctors I have visited as well.


Every time I have visited a new doctor, the first typical response is, “its probably menopausal changes”. Firstly, if all I have suffered were menopause symptoms, I’d be swinging from the rafters with glee. I don’t wish to invalidate the women who have difficulties caused by hormonal changes, but with the new bio-identical hormone therapy available, menopause is an easier transition now than ever before.


Secondly, it worries me that the abruptness and immediacy of this instant diagnosis for women who happen to be in the 40 plus age group can potentially and dangerously prevent a real disease from accurate diagnosis and treatment or lead to misdiagnoses and serious consequences where there were none in the first place.


Men, younger women and now even teenagers and children are affected by similar circumstances. However, the typical and by far the larger demographic profile of wrongly diagnosed patients who fall victim to anti-depressants and tranquillisers are adult women.


Norma Finkelstein, Ph.D., of the Boston-based Coalition on Addiction, Pregnancy, and Parenting says, “Women tend to get addicted to prescription drugs like sedatives and tranquillisers more often than men do because doctors prescribe them to women more freely”. She estimates that 70 percent of prescribed tranquillisers and sedatives in the US are given to women. In Australia, 2:1 or 66.7 percent is the estimated ratio for women. Finkelstein also adds, “Women have long been seen by the medical profession as hysterical and anxious – so rather than listening to the woman’s problem, some doctors will just write a prescription for medication.”


I recall the wisdom of a friend who once said, “Educate the mother and you educate the family”. He was speaking of higher values at the time, but those words ring ominously in my mind now. Was the Rolling Stones’ 1960s hit “Mother’s Little Helper” a warning we didn’t heed?

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