Guest Post by Duane Norman
“Doctors are men, who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, for men, of whom they know nothing at all.” – Voltaire, The Emperor of All Maladies
If you read this site, you should already know that a healthy lifestyle with lots of exercise is extremely important. However, everyone will eventually still get sick or hurt, and need to visit the doctor eventually. And these days, when you go to the doctor, their first answer to whatever ails you is usually to prescribe medication. It seems that more and more, doctors are just throwing medication at the problem, hoping that it will go away, instead of actually figuring out what ails the patient and trying to figure out what lifestyle changes the patient needs to make to solve the problem. Big pharma is big business, and oftentimes, doctors get kickbacks from pharma companies to prescribe medication. Popular drugs are sometimes prescribed just because the patient wants them, or has heard of friends who like taking them.
And the worst part about all of this is? These medications are often very dangerous. The side effects and dangers are oftentimes not discovered for years, and by then, patients who have been prescribed these medications are either in worse shape, or in some cases dead, as a result of taking them. Gluteus Maximus recently wrote about the dangers of chemotherapy and what you need to know about before pursuing it, but it goes far beyond that. I firmly believe that a majority of prescription drugs are largely poison, and should be avoided if possible.
If you go to the doctor, you should be prepared for a virtual guarantee that a prescription will be written for you. It is reasonable to assume that the doctor often has little idea in regards to the true dangers of the medication, and knows even less about you as the patient. Many prescription drugs popular among young men are also some of the most dangerous, and you need to be aware of the dangers before you just blindly take whatever is prescribed to you.
Now, I’m not telling you to ignore your doctor’s advice. I’m simply saying that you need to do your own research, and make your own decision as to whether or not you should take a prescription medication. And, if it ends up harming your health down the road, no amount of money you receive in a settlement will be worth it.
While this could very well be relevant to all prescription medications, I have already written about how prescription opioids are far more dangerous than gun ownership. The active ingredient in most prescription painkillers is Hydrocodone or Oxycodone. These drugs are derived from the opium poppy, just like Morphine and Heroin. It is commonly prescribed to patients for things as minor as joint aches and pain in the form of Percocet or Vicodin, and in more powerful forms such as Oxycontin and OxyIR. I was prescribed one of these drugs in a very low dose after getting my wisdom teeth removed. After taking a couple and seeing what it did to me, I realized I was better off with Advil and got rid of them. Any drug you are prescribed to with either of these two active ingredients is extremely dangerous and addictive, and should be avoided at all costs. They are so similar to Heroin that patients who are addicted to them will often use Heroin as a substitute, because it is cheaper. My advice? Avoid taking opioid-based prescription painkillers whenever possible.
Kids and adults, who are more often than not male, are commonly prescribed Ritalin or Adderall for “ADD” or “ADHD”. Students of all kinds will purchase these drugs on the black market to prepare for exams, particularly college students. An extremely powerful stimulant, when crushed up and snorted, Adderall can be more dangerous than Cocaine. Adderall is extremely dangerous and addictive, and often leads to increased blood pressure and heart attacks. If you have been prescribed Ritalin or Adderall by a doctor who thinks you need it to “concentrate”, you should do your own research to see if you actually need to take it or not. I can’t stop you from buying it on the street if you feel you need it for a test, just know this is extremely dangerous stuff, and the side effects aren’t all known yet.
Xanax and Valium are depressants that have been prescribed for years, primarily to treat anxiety. These extremely prevalent drugs are also addictive and commonly abused. Xanax is commonly mixed with alcohol to magnify the effect, and this combination is particularly dangerous. If you told a doctor that you get anxious when you fly or whatever, and they just give you one of these, you should think twice before taking it.
Not solely used by old guys with ED anymore, young dudes are taking Viagra to perform better with the ladies, often in conjunction with alcohol. Since Viagra’s release 20 years ago, more and more dangerous side effects are coming to light as time goes on. Viagra can cause drastic changes in blood pressure and lead to heart attacks. You’ve got to be really careful taking this sort of stuff, and if you’re a young guy, you almost certainly don’t need it anyway.
In principle, I’m strongly against psychology and psychiatry as a rule. Simply visiting one of these doctors can cause you to be put on blacklists or to have your gun rights restricted. The worst part about them, though, comes from the dangerous medications they prescribe, including Risperdal, Abilify, Zoloft, and Prozac. These drugs are, or were, commonly prescribed for long term use. Recently lawsuits related to their harmful side effects have been settled. Some of these drugs have even been recalled because of contamination and mold. If the manufacturer doesn’t even know what’s in their drugs, you should be very wary of taking them.
Mass shooters have been frequently determined to have been taking prescription medications that have heavily altered their state of mind. What these drugs actually end up doing to the brain is largely unknown. Psychiatric drugs are extremely dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs. If you’re having mental issues, you’re almost always better off just talking out your issues with a friend or family member, than visiting a specialist and taking medication.
If you’ve been prescribed one of these medications in the past, and experienced their harmful side effects, you may have some recourse. Lawyers will find a group of patients who have taken these drugs, and bundle them together into a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer. Oftentimes the government will also do this, if the drug is deemed to have been extremely dangerous. While joining one of these lawsuits will typically not net you very much cash, and will certainly be more beneficial to the lawyers who receive a percentage of the total settlement, it is one of the best ways available to really stick it to these big pharma companies who have developed, distributed, and offered financial kickbacks for the widespread use of these dangerous drugs.
The website Recall Report is a great resource to determine which drugs have pending class actions. Heavily cited in this article, it is an excellent resource not just to educate yourself on the potential dangers of commonly prescribed drugs, but to see if you have any financial recourse against the companies who have distributed them. If you have any concern about any prescription drugs you have already taken or may be prescribed in the future, I highly recommend you check out Recall Report.
I sometimes pay attention to the list of possible side effects rattled off after the constant commercials “Ask your doctor if XXX is right for you!” advertising prescription drugs and wonder why in the hell anyone would ask the doctor for something that could cause any and all of those side effects. My husband almost died in a car accident after sleep driving when taking the sleep aid Ambien, getting up from his hotel room, getting into a rental car and driving several miles before hitting a bridge and waking up in the hospital.
So, I pay attention to the warnings now.
Even though it has happened to many people, the drug is still on the market.
Your best bet is just to stay away from anything advertised on television.
Good start Anon, but not nearly good enough. At least half of the prescriptions drugs I’ve taken over my lifetime have either been withdrawn from the market or have current lawsuits pendng. Now I won’t even consider a prescription drug if it hasn’t been on the market at least 20 years so I can get an idea of the long term side effects.
I call bullshit : these are still very safe when compared to alcohol abuse .Alcohol is by far the most dangerous drug besides nicotine in tobacco products.Learn the Damn FACTS .God I Hate Meathead bloggers.
According to a quick check of various sources. Alcohol accounts for approximately 88,000 deaths yearly in the US plus another 10000 deaths due to alcohol-impaired driving. So since the year 2000 that makes approximately 1,568,000 deaths due to alcohol. In that same time period there have been approximately 1,775,000 deaths due to adverse drug reactions and approximately 16,747,000 deaths due to chemotherapy which could also be considered prescription drugs. So who’s the one not checking the facts?
Right on Annie, cancer does not kill, but chemo does.
Pete, the greatest person I have ever known, died from the chemo after his cancer was gone. My mom was overprescribed drugs by a psychiatrist, and died in hospice from an overdose. I have several friends whose children became addicted to opioids after being prescribed painkillers for various injuries. My struggle to get off them after breaking my back was epic. Recently I was prescribed anti inflamatories that are physically addictive, and cycling through various anti inflamatories gave me gastritus and an ulcer. You are better off suffering than taking prescription garbage.
Try turmeric. It is probably the greatest anti_inflamatory there is. Must be very pure and mixed with peperine(black pepper) or take with coconut oil.
Back in the day, it was unlawful to advertise prescription medication.
Now, the airwaves are full of commercials pushing the latest innovation in pharmacology.
The funny part is the “fine print”. One of the TV commercials warns of numerous side effects, “including paralysis – the inability to move.”
I guess it’s just me, but if someone is so ignorant that she doesn’t know what “paralysis” means, she’s too ignorant to be choosing her own prescription drugs.
Firstly, ALL drugs CAN be dangerous, usually if “consumed to excess” – and that applies even to lowly Aspirin (gastric ulceration / perforation / bleeding -> anaemia). HOWEVER if used (i.e. Prescribed) correctly, we can minimise the risk whilst retaining maximum benefit (especially in my field – ID. Without effective antibiotics there’s not much I can do).
That’s the “Good News” – now for the bad news. When I trained decades ago in London (St Bartholomew’s) the emphasis was on Prescriber’s RESPONSIBILITIES, not “Rights”. When charting ANYTHING I made sure that I knew how the drug(s) worked (class of agent), and how they might affect other medications charted – also, “Approved Name Only” prescribing – any “Trade Names” and the Pharmacy would cross out the ENTIRE chart – so we’d have to re-chart everything. Once that happened a few times we certainly “learned the lesson”. The ONLY time “Trade Names” were permitted was as a “Consultant Only” request – and even then the “need” for a specific Branded product had to be clearly justified, both on the Chart (as a signed footnote) and in the Progress Notes.
Nowadays? I have to work with the “product” of our Medical Schools – and they certainly know their “Rights” as Prescribers, but attendant responsibilities? “Someone else’s problem”. Negligent prescribing is the norm, with my “record” being FOUR PPI’s charted on the SAME Patient’s ONE chart, by the SAME Prescriber – all as Tradenames – two Omeprazole variants, two Pantoprazole variants, even though each Chart CLEARLY states “Approved Name Prescribing ONLY”. If I’d have prescribed like this, as a Resident, I’d have been in front of the Dean, and certainly been facing a severe reprimand (which would really “help” future career choices), or possibly de-registration by the General Medical Council (pending a “retraining” programme, which translates to a Career-ending event).
To give you an insight into how bad things are in our Hospitals, here are a few memorable events from last week only.
1. Resident charted Methotrexate 25mg DAILY (should be Weekly). Fortunately picked up by the Pharmacy – NO action taken against the Resident for negligent prescribing (if you don’t know HOW and WHY it’s prescribed, it is YOUR responsibility as a Prescriber to FIND OUT!)
2. Admitting team failed to make ANY effort to find what meds. ED admitted Patient was on. “Patient doesn’t know”. Left to the Pharmacy to do THEIR legwork, and waste their time doing a job that is a Prescriber’s responsibility (this is now “Accepted Practice” where I work – “Pharmacy will fix that” has become a de-facto “get out of meeting my responsibilities” strategy).
3. One of our “Visiting Consultants” (VMOs) having one of their Patients admitted as a Direct Admission – with NO Medication History. Again, this is becoming commonplace – there seems to be no understanding that if YOUR name is on the Patient’s Bed Ticket, it is YOUR Responsibility. Whilst the age-old argument “My Registrar will do the leg-work” is always trotted out, “your” Registrar is also shared by other Teams too (Our THREE Gen. Med. Teams have the same Registrars, under NINE Consultants – 3 per Team to cover out-of-hours / weekend rostering), so that mindset is still negligent.
Don’t get me started on the just as bad (actually worse) attitudes shown by our local GPs – really careless / negligent record-keeping (despite the fact that they have a Legal OBLIGATION to maintain accurate, current records for ALL their Patients – and they have really excellent software to help (Medical Director – I’ve used it, so I know how easy it is to use)). It’s often easier (though completely “not right”) to ‘phone the Patient’s local Pharmacy and ask them for a dispensing history – although they are FAR busier than the local GPs, most are very obliging, AND provide ACCURATE, UP-TO-DATE dispensing histories, which can be a real help. Once again, an example of “dump my RESPONSIBILITIES on someone else, whilst retaining the attendant RIGHTS and PRIVILEGES (which can be pretty substantial, especially in GP-land).
In summary, I’m seeing a very consistent deterioration in the “quality” of Medical Intern coming out of “our” Medical Schools, ESPECIALLY the “new crop” of “Post-Graduate Medical Schools”. They ‘ve all got “The Attitude” (“I’m a DOCTOR so I’m SPECIAL”), but they lack ability, and in many cases empathy (for Staff as well as Patients). Sydney and Melbourne Universities still seem to be producing “OK” students, but the Post Grad. Schools. seem to consistently turn out “Students with Attitude”. Worst one? Hard to say since I’ve not had the “pleasure” of seeing a wide sample, but on the basis of those I HAVE worked with, University of Wollongong seems to be producing Interns who rely on “everyone else” to do the less exciting (but nevertheless essential) work. The three I’ve worked with from there have been “pretty mediocre” (and that’s being VERY polite).
Western medicine only knows 2 ways to “heal”. Pills or surgery.
2 stories.
#1 – I went to a Dr. for neck pain. The diagnosis was herniated disk (c4-c5). The Dr. said to see a surgeon. The surgeon told me I “had to have” surgery. I started to ask questions. The surgeon became annoyed that I would want to understand more about my condition. I was certainly depressed. I read as much as possible about herniated disks online. I decided (with advice from my father also) to see a chiropractor. After 3 months, I was and still am (this was 6 years ago) in fine shape. No need for surgery.
#2 – I bought some cheap ass shoes (your feet deserve good shoes. Don’t go cheap). I ended up with plantar fasciitis. Foot Dr. said I needed surgery. This time I didn’t believe his ass. Still the pain was crazy bad. I spent $250 for custom insoles. Nope, didn’t work. One day as I was driving around town, I saw a shoe store that looked about 100 years old. A sign (I shit you not) on the front of the store had the words Plantar Fasciitis. I went in and the shoe salesman (yes, it had a salesman), said “This is what you need”. Within 2 weeks my feet felt GREAT.
Good for you Wip,
thanks for giving people hope for options
that are not meds/not surgery.
Suzanna
“Kids drugs are bad for you m’kay”.
Well, Wip? What did the shoe salesman give you, weed?
NEVER take any prescription drug until you educate yourself about it first. Be sure to look for information regarding interactions with other drugs and even foods.
ALWAYS ask for an older, tried and true prescription as an alternative to ANY of this new fangled, untested, advertised relentlessly, crap they are handing out today like PEZ. Have your doctor write down his diagnosis and course of treatment then go home and educate yourself.
Investigate natural remedies for any condition that ails you like your life depends on it because it just might.
Check out a movie called The Constant Gardener if you want a real eye opener on drug testing.
Better yet, read the book, The Constant Gardener by
John Le Carr’e, British spy novelist. 2001. I found his
spy novels too dry, but the Gardner book is about big
pharma drug testing trials. It is a fab book, and in the
preface Le Carre says he wrote it to “pay back” the
public that long supported his literary career.
BYW the way, give any credit to IS. I spun off him.
Suzanna
One of my uncles is a medical doctor. He told us that if we want to live a long time, avoid doctors except in an emergency.
Doctors will tell family things they’d never admit to patients.
And that is true! They will tell you much is make work for more
MONEY.