A program aired on PBS last night with Bill Moyers, a long time advocate of health care. The show was a startling revelation only because the guest confirmed something I have suspected all along. Doctors receive incentives (kickbacks … rebates) for prescribing medications. Americans take more pills that any other civilized countries. For this, we only have to look to heavy advertisement campaigns and doctors who have become indiscriminate pill pushers. Turn on the television on any given evening and many possible health problems will be described, including the most intimate concerns, and then a treatment will be suggested. After mentioning a list of possible side effects, as if rattling off the specials of the day on a restaurant menu, the speaker will say, “Ask your doctor if this medication is right for you!”
Supposedly, it is of little or no consequence that the pill you consume might, indeed, be the “final solution,” the equivalent of the “Black Pill” on the television program, “Mash.”
Pills are no laughing matter, unless perhaps one is a pharmacist or other person who stands to gain financially from the millions of dollars that are spent on unnecessary and potentially lethal chemicals that are consumed each year. Why aren’t more people talking about this? They should be. Most folks want to believe that the solution to their woes is only as far away as their own medicine chest.
I have known about this situation for a while now. A doctor asked me if my legs jump at night and before I could answer “no,” she was ready to write me a prescription for RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) of which I had never heard before. In the same visit, she asked me to hold my hands out straight and thinking that she detected a little “shakiness,” she announced that I am beginning to have Parkinson’s Disease, a statement I do not believe. She advised me that I was a “border line” diabetic and would probably have to start using insulin “the next visit.” However, laboratory work proved results that were all within a normal range.
In the meantime, I had been taking Pravachol for high cholesterol but that drug managed to increase joint pain to an intolerable level. I quit taking the drug and felt instantly better. I also stopped taking an estrogen replacement pill that no one should take for more than five years … after I’d been on it for eight years. That person is no longer my doctor. I feel healthier than ever. Luckily, in a free society, we can make choices.
Perhaps it is time that we take back our lives and stop listening to our formerly “trusted” health advisers, or perhaps find doctors whom we can trust. Of one thing I am certain, I will not live a day or a minute longer than is ordained by a higher power. I am not thrilled about becoming a potential victim of the drug industry, just so someone else can make a dollar.
The guest on the Moyers’ show pointed out that hundreds of people die each year, not because they overdosed on a medication, or didn’t take it properly, but simply because they took a drug. New medications with their catchy names are pumped into the system frequently. The name of the game is money, pure and simple. Think about the chemicals you ingest. That might just save your life.
Put your faith in the Almighty and keep your hand on your wallet. Remember to advocate for yourself, and ask a LOT of questions if a health care provider suggests a new medicine. Know why you are taking a new pill, what side effects it will potentially have, and what the ramifications would be, if you chose not to adhere to that regimen. It’s your life and it’s up to you to live long and live healthy.
Be well.
Patricia Cummings
