Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Racehorse pharmacology

A professor in my small clinical medicine group told us a personal experience about accumulating water. He had had some swelling in his feet and legs, and had gained weight. He was prescribed a powerful, common diuretic drug called furosemide (lasix). This fluid accumulation was rapidly reversed - he lost 15 pounds of water in one day! I was looking up some general information about the drug on Wikipedia, and happened to notice that it is used frequently in racehorses to increase their endurance and make them lighter (by shedding water weight). It dawned on me that this is probably why an irresistible need to use the restroom is often compared to that of a racehorse. It makes perfect sense.

2 comments:

Ben said...

I hope I can write this comment before I have an accident, I gotta pee like a racehorse who just took a bunch of furosemide!!

Tom,Ana said...

Someone else with experience told me diuretics aren't that bad. Maybe it depends on the dose, and whether there is significant fluid accumulation.