Drug pushers or as they're really known, pharmaceutical sales associates...did you know that my physician assistant that I see had applied for a job with one of the big pharma companies as a sales associate when she was in school but they turned her down because they were looking for people who had NO medical background?? Hmmm, wonder why they'd want that...doesn't it make you just a bit uncomfortable to know that they're looking for people to "sell" their product who won't really know any better than what they're told to say? Yeah, not making my insides all warm and cozy, in fact, it makes me feel like there's a snake slithering up my back every time I see one of those go into my doctor's office. So why do people not even QUESTION the health validity of these prescriptions?
Here's a pill for your blood pressure, one for your cholesterol, one for your acid reflux, one for your blood sugar, one for your kidneys, one for your gall bladder, one for your thyroid, one to make you happy, one to give you energy, one to help you sleep, one to calm you down (after the energy one of course), one to make you less hungry... REALLY? This is where we're headed as humans if we don't learn to put a stop to it all! FOOD - the first drug we ever put into our bodies - regulate that, and the rest may well fall into place!
As my husband said to me this week after I went off about two people looking for the quick fixes for two different problems: "humans are inherently lazy". Period. He's right too. But, aren't we better than that? Isn't that one of the things that sets us apart from the other animals, the ability to make choices and overcome our instinctive natures? It just seems that more and more people around me keep looking for the easy way or the quick-fix and it angers me and saddens me to see these people go down that rabbit hole. Once you start giving in to the quick-fix, then, like the druggie on the corner, you're constantly looking for the next quick-fix, probably to fix the side effects of the first quick-fix...and so on... and so on... and so on...
Let's take ADHD for example. ADHD is the new tonsil fad and it just seems to keep going. When I was a kid growing up, everyone seemed to be getting their tonsils removed - "oh, Joey has a sore throat - off with his tonsils!". Later, the medical community realized that they'd made a boo-boo in getting all happy hacksaw... one that lowered the immunity functions of a lot of my peers (because that's part of the tonsils' job). I say my peers because, luckily, I had a brilliant doctor who said "her tonsils are fine and she doesn't need to go through that bullshit surgery", or something like that. He was German so I'm sure it's a very close quote :-D Anyway, enter the 1990's and a bright new beginning of diagnosing ADHD for every child that was/is a little more rambunctious than the "normal" kids, the child that gets bored too easily...oh, and let's allow teachers who are overworked, underpaid and just plain tired to advise parents to get their children tested for ADHD. Then, let's have a regular pediatrician or general practitioner diagnose them and hand out pretty little pills, that may or may not work and that may have the child going from one zombie stage to another in search of the right "prescription". Let's not even talk about the mess that this child's kidneys, liver, stomach, and intestines are going to be in in about 20 years of taking their ADHD medications plus anything else they decide to prescribe to him/her in that time, right? The parents get told their kid has ADHD and BAM, the doctor must be right because they have that nice, shiny degree that says they finished medical school and their residency - they must have my child's health and well-being as a priority... Uh-huh. Let's face it. There's so much on top of these doctors as it is, we can't truly expect them to know everything or to even consider all the alternatives. That's why I think that people should take the time to learn all there is to know first and foremost before saying "yep, sign me up with the drugs...let's speed up those side effects"! Here's a few ideas: Change the kid's diet to more fruit and vegetables (nix the McDonald's and Doritos), focusing on feeding them foods that DON'T have excitotoxins (see book Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills by Russell Blaylock). Get them to exercise but something almost meditative, such as martial arts. There are alternatives - you just have to try them out...and they are far less dangerous than any pill that child could take!
Unless it's a live or die situation, I tend to wait and try alternative methods for everything before I decide to take the meds and even then, I research the meds to learn about what minerals they'll deplete from my body, what interactions they'll have with the foods I eat and other meds, etc. That's what I do. Yes, it would've been easy to have accepted the statin prescription for my cholesterol earlier this year but I chose to change my lifestyle instead and in doing so, dropped my cholesterol levels (to all my doctors' amazement). I feel better for it too!
So, don't give in to your instincts people...don't be lazy about your health! Research and talk with experts. Find out what's going to work for you. No pill can cure diabetes or high cholesterol or heart disease, but you can send those diseases packing with changing your lifestyle!
*Steps off Soapbox*
NOTE: These are all just my opinions and should not be considered medical advice.
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