Just say Know

[sparky]

6 Kinds of Pills Big Pharma Tries to Get You Hooked on for Life | Personal Health | AlterNet

There are two ways Pharma hooks the US public on prescriptions for life. First, prescriptions that used to be taken as needed for pain, anxiety, GERD (gastroesophageal reflux), asthma, mood problems, migraines and even erectile dysfunction, gout and retroviruses (in some cases) are now full-time medicines. Instead of having a bad day or heartburn, you have a disease like anxiety or GERD which calls for full pharmaceutical artillery. Instead of having body pain to be treated transiently, you are put on an antidepressant like Cymbalta or seizure drug like Lyrica or Neurontin indefinitely.

Secondly, many of the top-selling drugs today are to prevent chronic conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and osteoporosis that people are said to be "at risk" for. Needless to say, in both cases, people never know if the drugs are working or whether they would have had symptoms without them. This creates a loyal customer who is afraid to quit a prescription because it might be working. And why should they quit anyway when a third party is probably paying?

 

[whitehall]

Apparently prescription drug advertisers are required by law to mention the side effects in on-air advertisements. Be wary of drugs that include "fatal episodes".

 

[sparky]

well that becomes a somewhat subliminal issue, given those auctioneer speed warnings are usually accompanied by visuals of happy active people vs. sick and hurt ones whitehall

~S~

 

[Gagafritz]

I think cholesterol meds are the biggest scam going. I absolutely will not take statin medications.

 

[sparky]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBb5v1sJhuU&feature=player_detailpage]Big Pharma's New Drug: Fukitol - YouTube[/ame]

 

[waltky]

Granny says eat yer `sparagus...

'Good' cholesterol doctrine may be flawed: study
17 May`12 - Researchers on Thursday challenged a tenet of modern medicine that higher levels of "good" cholesterol automatically boost cardiovascular health.

In a study published in The Lancet, investigators said they found no evidence to back the belief that higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol routinely reduce the risk of a heart attack. High concentrations of HDL are one of the big markers for blood tests. They are monitored as much as low levels of "bad" cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) as a yardstick of dangerously clogged arteries.

The paper used a method called mendelian randomisation to compare heart-attack risk among people who inherited known genetic variants that gave them higher HDL levels. According to conventional wisdom, these individuals would have a lower risk of a coronary. But the study, which looked at nearly 12,500 people with a history of a heart attack and over 41,000 otherwise healthy counterparts, found this was not always the case.

The results are important because of the use of drugs, sometimes inflicting side effects, which are administered to boost HDL cholesterol levels. "These results show that some ways of raising HDL cholesterol might not reduce risk of myocardial infarction [heart attack] in human beings," said Sekar Kathiresan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "Therefore, if an intervention such as a drug raises HDL cholesterol, we cannot automatically assume that risk of myocardial infarction will be reduced."

In contrast, the study said "bad" cholesterol remained an accurate marker of cardiac risk. Separately, a study, also carried in Thursday's Lancet, confirmed the benefits of LDL-lowering statins for protecting people with no previous history of cardiovascular disease.

Source

 

[Gagafritz]

I have had high cholesterol for years. It runs in my family. Recently i was having some chest pain and they went ahead and did a cardiac cath. They told me my arteries were "pristine" so the cause was GI related, not heart. Then, they tried to give me a prescription for Lipitor. Um, if i have had high cholesterol for decades and my arteries are "pristine", then WHY do i need to take Lipitor? Sorry, not going to subject myself to Lipitor related liver problems and other potential complications if i am not having a problem.

 

[Dabs]

6 Kinds of Pills Big Pharma Tries to Get You Hooked on for Life | Personal Health | AlterNet

There are two ways Pharma hooks the US public on prescriptions for life. First, prescriptions that used to be taken as needed for pain, anxiety, GERD (gastroesophageal reflux), asthma, mood problems, migraines and even erectile dysfunction, gout and retroviruses (in some cases) are now full-time medicines. Instead of having a bad day or heartburn, you have a disease like anxiety or GERD which calls for full pharmaceutical artillery. Instead of having body pain to be treated transiently, you are put on an antidepressant like Cymbalta or seizure drug like Lyrica or Neurontin indefinitely.

Secondly, many of the top-selling drugs today are to prevent chronic conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and osteoporosis that people are said to be "at risk" for. Needless to say, in both cases, people never know if the drugs are working or whether they would have had symptoms without them. This creates a loyal customer who is afraid to quit a prescription because it might be working. And why should they quit anyway when a third party is probably paying?

I do...and have....taken prescription pills for just about everything you named.
Except erectile dysfunction.......damn good thing I don't have a penis!