From Memios
The Longevity Letter
Practical writing and video on living strong and active into your 90s. No hype, no supplements to sell. Just what the evidence supports and what it looks like on an ordinary Tuesday.
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MedicationsPolyethylene Glycol 3350 With Electrolytes
Well established. The evidence for what it does is strong for one thing and weaker for others.
2026-10-10 · 26 min read
MedicationsPropylhexedrine
Limited evidence. As a nasal decongestant, propylhexedrine has almost no modern outcome evidence.
2026-10-10 · 25 min read
MedicationsPseudoephedrine hydrochloride
Limited evidence. It does open a blocked nose, and the effect is real but small.
2026-10-10 · 39 min read
MedicationsPseudoephedrine sulfate
The evidence for pseudoephedrine is real but modest. Cochrane's review of decongestants used on their own found that repeated doses gave a small improvement in how blocked people said their nose felt.
2026-10-10 · 29 min read
MedicationsPyrilamine maleate
The honest summary is that almost no modern outcome evidence exists for pyrilamine itself.
2026-10-10 · 23 min read
MedicationsRacepinephrine hydrochloride
The hospital evidence is genuinely good and mostly modest. For croup, two systematic reviews agree it improves the croup score about half an hour after a nebulised dose and that the improvement is no longer statistically significant at two hours.
2026-10-10 · 43 min read
MedicationsSodium bicarbonate
Disputed. The picture divides sharply by use.
2026-10-10 · 39 min read
MedicationsSodium salicylate
Sodium salicylate is a weak cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor and, in the respiratory-challenge literature, it is described as hardly active on cyclo-oxygenase at all.
2026-10-10 · 28 min read
MedicationsSulfacetamide; Sulfur
It is labelled for the topical control of acne vulgaris, acne rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis.
2026-10-10 · 28 min read
MedicationsThiamine
Limited evidence. The settled part of the evidence is narrow: thiamine corrects thiamine deficiency.
2026-10-10 · 29 min read
MedicationsTriprolidine hydrochloride
The honest summary is that the evidence for triprolidine on its own is thin. It is an antihistamine, so it blocks H1-receptors and causes drowsiness.
2026-10-10 · 26 min read
MedicationsXylometazoline hydrochloride
Xylometazoline does open a blocked nose, and this is better supported than for the older imidazolines: a placebo-controlled trial in people with a common cold showed a clear objective increase in nasal airflow.
2026-10-10 · 32 min read
MedicationsAcetaminophen, Butalbital and Caffeine
The evidence is thin and old for the one thing it is approved for, and essentially absent for the thing it is most often used for.
2026-10-03 · 28 min read
MedicationsAciclovir
The evidence is strongest for severe herpes infections and weakest for preventing the long-term pain that can follow shingles.
2026-10-03 · 21 min read
MedicationsAdalimumab
Where randomised trials are recorded here, adalimumab produces large relative improvements.
2026-10-03 · 26 min read
MedicationsAlbuterol; Ipratropium
For chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the combination measurably opens the airways more than either component alone: in the original 85-day trial peak FEV1 rose 31-33 percent with the combination versus 24-27 percent with either single drug, and in the trial supporting the Respimat device the combination beat ipratropium alone by 47 mL of mean FEV1.
2026-10-03 · 27 min read
MedicationsAlfuzosin
Limited evidence. The evidence for the one approved use is real but modest and mostly short-term.
2026-10-03 · 34 min read
MedicationsAmiodarone
The evidence is that amiodarone suppresses arrhythmias but has not been shown to prolong life.
2026-10-03 · 29 min read
MedicationsAmlodipine; Benazepril
The evidence here is unusually good for a combination pill, because one large randomised trial compared it head to head against the alternative combination. In ACCOMPLISH (11,506 high-risk people with hypertension) benazepril plus amlodipine produced fewer cardiovascular events than benazepril plus a thiazide diuretic: 9.6% versus 11.8% over a mean 36...
2026-10-03 · 22 min read
MedicationsAnastrozole
Anastrozole lowers oestrogen to near-zero in postmenopausal women, which starves oestrogen-driven breast cancer.
2026-10-03 · 22 min read
MedicationsAtomoxetine
The randomised evidence shows a real but moderate reduction in ADHD symptoms on clinician ratings in both children and adults, smaller than amphetamines in the same network meta-analysis.
2026-10-03 · 28 min read
MedicationsAzelastine
For allergic rhinitis, azelastine nasal spray beats placebo with a number needed to treat of 5.0 (95% CI 3.3-10.0) on a global assessment of efficacy.
2026-10-03 · 27 min read
MedicationsBenazepril
Benazepril blocks the enzyme that makes angiotensin II, so blood vessels relax and the kidneys retain less salt and water; blood pressure falls.
2026-10-03 · 31 min read
MedicationsBenzonatate
Limited evidence. The evidence base for benzonatate is thin and old.
2026-10-03 · 21 min read