@Joy Martin Certain medications produce, as a side-effect or adverse condition, what the medicos call "Paradoxical Symptoms". By this, they mean the medication CAUSES instead of CURES the medical issue present. As an example, I'll cite a product named Afrin, a nasal decongestant. Afrin is Oxymetazoline chemically, sold in squeeze bottles to be inhaled nasally. It works. I had been troubled with recurring nasal congestion for weeks, so bought and tried Afrin. The congestion went away after one or two doses, but returned within days. Repeat process. Soon, after perhaps two weeks, I could not think of leaving the house without the little bottle in my shirt pocket, needing a squirt much more often than the recommended dosage schedule. This happened in 1983. Condition worsened, then one day, inexplicably, the congestion ceased, stayed clear all day, all the next day, and I threw the stuff away. Back then I did not know of the Symptom Paradox. Studies seemed to prove it true. Opinion abounded that the makers of the stuff, denying the paradox, but knowing full-well of it, promoted a drug which caused continued sales of it. A truly interesting way of securing addiction legally, like tobacco or alcohol. Frank
And isn't the Afrin a steroid type drug, more dangers.. I have NOT used a drug in close to 25 yrs since Grape Seed Extract has fixed the issues of allergies and sinus stuff. No sore throats either.
Pharmaceutical companies have no obligation to cure or even help anyone. They are a business. Their obligation is to make money from the purchasing public who actually trust them. We have a generation of many baby boomers who are completely addicted to many of the drugs prescribed to them which probably makes them feel lousier in the long run than if they had just avoided it in the first place.
No.....and I never will. Even after my TIA, I refused all prescriptions including insulin. I'm not 5, I can control my diet. I don't want a life propped up by pills. I saw that happen to my Mom and I'm just not going to do it. Truth is, I'm doing fantastic. Probably healed way faster than if I had taken all that stuff. I would never suggest that to anyone else. It's just a personal choice for me.
There are so many drugs whose possible negative Side Effects are worse than the condition they were supposed to cure or alleviate.
Well......I'm darn glad I take my once-a-week prescription cholesterol tablet, my daily (AM) blood pressure tablet, my first-thing-in-the AM acid tablet (prescription) and both my Metformin and Glipizide daily for diabetes. All prescribed by my VA doctor from blood/urine labs done.
I take blood pressure medication, since my mother died of kidney failure from uncontrolled high blood pressure. After watching her suffer with dialysis three times a week for the last 5 years of her life I decided that I would do whatever it takes to manage my blood pressure. I have refused cholesterol meds for over 10 years, though. I agree with Beth that I don't want to eat handfuls of pills each day--including avoiding the latest and greatest supplements. Thankfully I'm pretty healthy so far.
I'll bet pharma never investigated the Cholesterol Myth and all that is published on this issue...cholesterol is bad, statins are good. We need cholesterol and our brains for sure. I've been taking BP med for probably 10 yrs after trying so hard to do it on my own...once they have you hooked, some of the drugs are for life. Both my parents took a "little pill" and both lived into 90's... And I'm sure they never knew anything about cholesterol in their generation, they ate everything and good fats.
Lon, I know plenty about PN, I live with it from Hip Replacement Surgery and I'm on another health board with 100's of members who live with PN and have a friend who has lived with it for decades from years of surgeries and drugs... She has gotten rid of a lot of PN by getting off the pushed drugs and on taking Grape Seed Extract and this antioxidant has helped her a lot with the PN she's lived with. This particular woman took yrs of gabapentin and I saw her going thru some of the side effects: dizzy spells, nausea and lord knows what else, I saw this when she was in our company at our bridge games. She is off the drugs and on Grape Seed Ex probably 8 or so yrs and doing so much better neuropathy wise. You don't understand how HGH works in our bodies, it works to REDUCE so much damage done and aging and this includes the Nerve Damage issues. It works to reduce ALL damage done to the body. If you saw my daughter's ruptured feet tendons you would not believe, how does she walk? And yes the "gel" has taken her out of pain from this ruptured tendons from ABX drugs....and I posted about that class of dangerous drugs...she had no clue and MANY people do not. Oh I know a lot and have you studied what HGH really does in our bodies? The gel is rubbed into areas of our skin where one can see our veins...and not on the actual areas of pain.....
Here's the way that I view pharmacology in the United States. A patient is prescribed a medication for something, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes, which could probably be better controlled by diet. The medication may or may not have the intended effects, but it might also have side effects. When the patient sees the doctor for the signs or symptoms that were the result of the side effect, the doctor does not recognize it as a side effect but adds a new diagnosis, for which another medication is prescribed. That medication has other side effects that lead to additional diagnoses and more medications, and so on. It might be good for the economy but not the patient.
Lon, my lady friend I've talked about with the neuropathy damage, trusted her doctors for SO LONG, she did not question the docs and their drugs.... She finally "heard me" as I talked about Grape Seed Extract at our bridge games so so much of the time and how I questioned all doctors. She is so sold on Grape Seed Ex that she had her 58 yr daughter on the Grape Seed Ex. She buys the Costco brand and that is just fine,it works in her life.
I agree with all this up to a point. But only to a point. In my humble opinion, medicine is keeping a lot of people alive and making life better for many more. Mama's family has a history of hypertension. It caused her to have an aneurism in her brain, it burst and she died. My blood pressure was high at a young age. Diet would not have helped. I take a blood pressure med every day and my blood pressure is fine. It did take a while to find one with no side effects. Daddy's family has a history of blood clots. He had one and he died. I take an 81 mg aspirin every day to prevent blood clots. So far, so good. Without those meds, I would probably have had a stroke or blood clot. Either one would have left me dead or incapacitated.