Why do doctors defend harmful drugs?.

This morning's doctor column has a letter from a woman who is concerned about her Father. It seems he caught a cold a few months ago, so went to the doctor -and the doctor prescribed Prednisone. After 4 days he became delirious and nearly lost consciousness. His doctor was not concerned - he just said "Oh, yeah?"

Now, her Father suffers from fatigue, loss of energy, shortness of breath, and a fibrillating heart - none of which he had before.

The newspaper doctor said prednisone is not an appropriate treatment for a cold - only for severe bronchitis, penumonia, asthma, arthritis, and other inflammatory conditions.

But then - he went on to say that while prednisone has many side effects, including muscle weakness, potassium loss, high blood pressure, thin skin, headaches, seizures, congestive heart failure, and more - it may not have been the prednisone that caused her father's problems.

It could just be a coincidence.

He then mentioned that while she didn't say it, he assumed that since her father is 82, he is on medication to reduce cholesterol and to lower blood pressure, and is taking an anticoagulant such as warfarin or aspirin.

Huh? If he was healthy, why on earth would he be taking all that stuff?

Sounds to me like doctors prescribe based on your age, not on your health.

I mentioned in my last post that older people are too apt to trust doctors and big pharm, just because they did see some incredible medical advances during their lives.

I don't know the answer, or how we as children or grand-children can help raise their awareness, but we do need to try. Maybe just sitting down together and reading the package inserts would help - and making sure that the people we love know the risks and all the possible side effects before they pop that next pill.

Yours for good health,

Marte

Marte Cliff, Copywriter
writer@marte-cliff.com

More deadly pharmeceuticals

This week brought an advertisement from a law firm advertising help for people who have taken Zyprexa, Seroquel, and Avandia. The list of life-threatening side effects that people are experiencing is truly chilling.

The law firm offers to get financial compensation. But what good is that if your health is gone?

Yes, you can hand the money to your family in place of the support you could have offered if you could still work, but it's small comfort to either you or them.

If you're taking any of these drugs, please do the research. Decide if whatever good they'll do is worth giving up your overall health - or possibly suffering heart failure and death.

Then seek out a natural health practitioner and see if changes in diet and lifestyle, combined with herbs and other natural supplements might give you the cure you seek.

Big pharm wants your money - they don't care if it costs you your life.

Test drugs killed how many?

I only caught a part of that newscast - a major drug company doing a test on medications for diabetes and heart disease - and a huge percentage of the test subjects died.

Is that OK as long as the percentage was low?

I realize that drugs have to be tested, and I do hate the idea of testing on our 4 legged friends as if they were inanimate objects.

I know! Maybe the people who formulate these drugs, or the ones who stand to become wealthy selling them are the ones who should be the test subjects.

You can bet they'd be a bit more careful if that were the case.

One can hope that the FDA, that entity that's supposed to be protecting us, will crack down a little harder on big pharm after this episode. But I doubt it.

All of us who truly want to be healthy will just have to keep reading and learning about natural cures and preventatives - and fighting big pharm's efforts to ban the sale of vitamins and minerals without a prescription.