Are Your Prescription Meds Helping You or Killing You?

If your response is “helping, of course!”, I have to ask: Are you sure? I was, but it turns out I was wrong. And evidence suggests I’m not alone.

The Handmaiden wrote a recent post that highlights two specific items on this subject. First is the subject of Avandia, a diabetic medication that has been linked to increased risk of heart attack. Second is a news item revealing that an anesthesiologist (Scott Reuben) has admitted to faking many studies on the effectiveness of painkillers. The accounting isn’t completely clear, but according to an article Handmaiden linked to, about 30 studies have been or may be retracted so far. That’s only one physician—given the financial stakes in the pharmaceuticals industry, you can be sure there are many more.

Those stories are tangential to my experience, however. Before getting to that, I want to highlight the Handmaiden’s closing paragraph of her post:

Now, I haven’t trusted the American medical system for years and years. But I’m still shocked by these articles. I mean, I knew it was bad, fraudulent and fairly idiotic, the medical system in this country, but even so, these kinds of articles are devastating. What the hell are they talking about when they say “evidence-based medicine”? By evidence I guess they mean those “scientific studies” but now, just like the global warming frauds, we can’t trust them an inch. Be careful out there folks. If your doctor wants you to take some pharmaceutical, then do some research on the web and find out all you can before you take the damn pill.

She is so right on that—learn about what they want you to take, and if you do decide to take it, keep monitoring it. FDA approval is hardly a thorough test of a medicine—for one thing, there simply isn’t enough time, nor are there enough patients enrolled in the studies, for long–term and/or idiosyncratic effects to come to light.

An invaluable resource for checking your meds is Drugs.com. Searchable by generic or brand name, the database offers varying amounts of information, which is also tied to technicality of the information. Don’t let lack of medical/scientific skill keep you from reading the more advanced pages, however; you can learn from them, especially if you have an online medical dictionary open concurrently. One disturbing thing you might discover is the general lack of understanding of how a drug actually works. This is particularly true of the psychoactive drugs (those used for “mental illnesses”, anxiety, depression, etc.).

In my case, I couldn’t understand why the asthma med I’ve been on for years wasn’t working during the winter months. In our previous house, I attributed it primarily to mold, which was an ongoing problem there. But when the problem arose in this house (much newer, and with much less carpeting), I started to get suspicious. A physican I know recommended another med—a daily pill—to replace the inhaler. Even though I was taking both (this is an acceptable practice, to avoid withdrawal from the steroid component of the inhaler), my breathing was consistently getting worse.

I probably would’ve been hospitalized had I gone to a doctor, but stubborn (stupid) Snake that I am, I wanted to figure it out for myself. And I discovered that both of the meds I was prescribed for my asthma have as a possible side effect of worsening asthma. What the hell?! This has been known for years for the inhaler, but it is still approved for use, and millions of people worldwide use it. I was taking it regularly, even increasing my dose to try to get relief, and it was making me worse. Fortunately, I stopped taking the pill after about a week, because it didn’t seem to be helping.

I do not mean to imply that all allopathic medicine is suspect. If I have a broken leg, I will see a doctor to x-ray it and set the bone. But the conditions under which I will choose an M.D. for health concerns are narrowing fast; and the list of medications I am willing to consider are vanishingly small. Somehow, western medicine largely got off the track of healing, and is now stuck in a very deep rut of treating symptoms, and then treating the side effects of the meds given for those symptoms with more meds. It is a vicious and life–threatening cycle.

So, what am I doing now for my asthma? I am undergoing an “alternative” therapy. Many of you might scoff at it for being “woo–woo”, but it has many years of history and research behind it. It also has a fair body of modern science supporting it as well, along with a physiological basis identified for its efficacy. Most important to me is that it is working: I am off both of my prescription meds and am already breathing better than I have for months. Placebo effect? Possibly, but it’s hard to credit it entirely when I remain skeptical. Besides, even if it is pure placebo effect, there are no dangerous side effects to face. It is not a cure–all either; but it does work for my condition, and concomitantly I am learning about dietary improvements and other means of regaining and maintaining my health. And unlike any M.D. I’ve ever seen, I am in charge of my treatment and if I’m not satisfied with my improvement, I’ll get a refund.

One thing I have learned, which is being reinforced by my treatment, is that food/herbs are medicine. This makes sense, if one thinks about it: before the advent of modern science, people found things in nature that helped with pain, healed wounds, cured some problems, and so forth. As has been mentioned here fairly recently, regional diets tended to compensate for nutritional challenges. Technology is revealing the science behind many of these natural treatments, so it isn’t all placebo effect and wishful thinking, either. O’course, there also isn’t big bucks in naturalistic methods of healing ... so if one wants to pursue that path, one must be willing to do some research.

Diet may not be able to cure everything, but it can do a lot. And it’s a hell of a lot tastier and cheaper than all those damn pills.