Ugh...now i am scared to even take one medicine

[Kalis]

I am 64 years old and do not take any prescription medicines at I thank my wife for this as she has always fed us wholesome healthy food and another reason is that I don't trust the medical profession at all and I can tell you some stories that will curl your hair and they are not what I have heard but experienced.

I am 41 years old and do not take any prescription medicines...blah, blah, blah...took a a lot of non-prescription ones, but that's neither here nor there...blah, blah, blah...and I can tell you some stories about people that didn't listen to the medical profession and they are not what I have heard but experienced.

My anecdotal evidence is worth as much as yours, i.e. bugger all.

[Noomz]

News Flash: Doctors are not perfect fonts of medical knowledge. Drugs are not magical cure-alls. Sometimes things happen that shouldn't. Oh, and you're going to die one day. Just thought you should know that too. Do please continue tinfoil-hatting the evil Big Pharma out to kill you and steal all your money.

Thank you! I'm glad someone has some common bloody sense in here.
People expect way, way too much from doctors and medications.

I've taken a lot of different medications both for physical and mental problems. ANd I willl tell you, that the stuff for your head will OFTEN have very different effecte dependign on the individual. Some feel nothing, others feel absolutely terrible. And so on. That's how it works. Medicine is complicated. The human body is even more complicated. Doseage and effects vary so much from person to person taht it's impossible to predict who gets what side-effects or who gets none of them, because of individual body structure, weight, hormones and many many other things.

[Deleted]

Well, your choice really. Lets put it this way: which feels more bad, possible side effects vs. symptoms of illness. Usually drugs are safe and tested, if one in a hundred gets side effects that is pretty good. Some drugs have side effects two out of ten got them.

Usually side effects are nothing serious but minor things. Some can be even deadly but they are rare.

I think you're just being paranoid or you're trying to find any reason to justify not taking your medication.

[Theodon]

One example: They test a drug on 100 people, if one is showing one weird side effect, they just ignore it and put a drug on a market.

Straight up; a false example. They don't just ignore it. They list it as a side-effect. If 100,000 people took a drug and one of them had a unique side-effect, that side-effect would be added to the list of side-effects you get with every drug.

Just look at Paracetamol:


Bloody or black, tarry stools
bloody or cloudy urine
fever with or without chills (not present before treatment and not caused by the condition being treated)
pain in the lower back and/or side (severe and/or sharp)
pinpoint red spots on the skin
skin rash, hives, or itching
sore throat (not present before treatment and not caused by the condition being treated)
sores, ulcers, or white spots on the lips or in the mouth
sudden decrease in the amount of urine
unusual bleeding or bruising
unusual tiredness or weakness
yellow eyes or skin

[cherb]

1) A video on youtube does not prove anything. Pharmaceutical companies decide if put the medicine on the market? False, FDA decides that (if you are in the US) which is an administration paid by your taxes (or your parents').
2) Everything in this world has side effects, there is nothing that does only good. But if your doctor is giving it to you it is because the good largely outweights the bad.
3) Anytime you do anything you need to weight the good and bad of your actions. Usually when you take a medicine you do it because you are feeling bad and you want to feel better. If you can do without, kudos.
4) If you compare the risk of an adverse effect of a medicine to the risk you take every single time you ride a car, well, let's say it's better if you take your medicine and walk.
5) These videos are largely biased, the reason is that exists a large market of "alternative" medicine that makes a lot of money with selling bullshit, just look how many books about the argument are printed every day. Or homeopathy, which sells you sugar pills at an enormous price.

If a YouTube video isn't a good source, then nothing of what you said is. You have anything to cite that helps further any of your points?

Except homeopathy, you probably don't need a source to show that people who buy into that type of thing are complete morons.

[DeltrusDisc]

Do what I do: take as little medication as possible and drink and eat healthy! Don't drink soda, it's one of the worst things that is super accessible to put in your body. I've always had a spectacular immune system, but ever since I got off soda, not only did I lose weight but I have also gotten sick much less often!

[Heladys]

Eh i am woried abauth those *cheap* ones that are lying abauth side effects. I trust medicine like aspirin for example (too much can cause nosebleed)..

You wouldn't think that way if you knew the real potential effects of taking aspirin.

[ParanoiD84]

You should see the side effects on my ritalins for example, there is between 50-100 side effects (like sudden death lol) yet i have had one or two side effects in 4 years.

[Deleted]

You wouldn't think that way if you knew the real potential effects of taking aspirin.

Most of the generic public is too stupid to understand the dangers of basic drugs like aspirin and paracetamol. But of they all know better than the trained medical professionals.

[zorkuus]

Any medicine can have side effects. In most cases the benefits outweigh them. Which would you rather choose: a diarrhea side effect of the medicine or death?

[xindralol]

at the time you're prescribed a medication, your doctor tells you about those adverse events ("side effects") that happen to a small % of people taking the drug. nothing is without risks in life, just have to find the right amount of risk you want to take.

for example chemotherapy which slows down proliferation of cancer cells can also cause a new type of cancer. but the chance is small enough to justify using it anyways, because guess what, if you don't treat the cancer you already have there's a really good chance it's gonna spread and cause even more pain.

[MerinPally]

You trust aspirin? Did you know it damages your stomach lining?
You trust paracetomol? Did you know it damages your liver?
You trust ibuprofen? Did you know it damages your kidneys?

You say you only trust brands, let me give you a little science lesson - Aspirin is Aspirin. It is a very specific chemical structure. It doesn't matter whether it says "Produced by Bayer" or "Produced by Tesco" or "Produced by Bill the hick" it will contain aspirin equivalent to what it says on the outside of the packet. The only difference will be what makes the rest of the tablet - calcium carbonate (chalk), sugar, caffeine and some other sugars are the common ones. A 500mg ibuprofen tablet from Walmart would have the same effect as a 500mg Nurofen - but over here in the UK, 12 Nurofen costs something like £3 but 16 Ibuprofen Tesco Own Brand costs about 65p. There is no difference in how they affect your body - the analgesic effect at least. If they have caffeine then other changes happen but the painkilling power is identical.

If you don't want to take medicine then don't, noone will force you. However, please don't ever promote the idea of not taking it (not that you seem to anyway - preemptive strike here). In many situations it's incredibly beneficial for the human race as a whole (Antibiotics) so please do. If you have children, don't suggest that they don't take them. Be skeptical yourself but please please never try to suggest to others not to take medicine.

Hell, aspirin is one of the worst painkillers we have. The amount of pain reduction you get for the damage you do to your body is really not worth it at all. You're far better off taking different medicines.

- - - Updated - - -

Do what I do: take as little medication as possible and drink and eat healthy! Don't drink soda, it's one of the worst things that is super accessible to put in your body. I've always had a spectacular immune system, but ever since I got off soda, not only did I lose weight but I have also gotten sick much less often!

That doesn't prove in any way shape or form that carbonated drinks are what caused you to be ill. Correlation does not equal causation. You're going to get ill anyway, I'm yet to meet a doctor that says you should not have things like soft drinks or in some few cases, alcohol and smoking. In a moderate amount (moderate varying depending on the substance) you're not going to harm yourself. The human body can survive a gunshot wound with a little help, it is not some delicate, fragile creation that can't look after itself as long as you don't abuse it. You've got to enjoy life and that involves doing some things harmful to your body - which in turn has probably a more beneficial effect. There's evidence that just "being happy" and not pouring too much poison into your body leaves you pretty damn healthy.

[haxartus]

On every medicine I've bought in the past years there was a relatively huge list of possible side effects, ordered by probability. So they inform you about it and it's your choice whether to take it or not.

[OzoAndIndi]

One example: They test a drug on 100 people, if one is showing one weird side effect, they just ignore it and put a drug on a market.

Honestly, if it's just one person, what's the big deal then. Do further testing, if the rates of weird side effects show no further increase then I don't really call that a worry.

It's not like no one can individually have a reaction to something already on the market. There is very little I've ever had issues with, but even then I found that I "can't" take some simple over the counter cold meds that contain a particular ingredient because it makes me dizzy. However, a greater number are fine with it.


I think the stupidest warnings I've hard though are the commercials for depression meds that mention possible suicidal thoughts... Wtf. Is that not counter to what it's actually trying to accomplish?

[Elegiac]

Try smoking a whole marijuana instead of taking one medicine.

[Mnevis]

1) A video on youtube does not prove anything. Pharmaceutical companies decide if put the medicine on the market? False, FDA decides that (if you are in the US) which is an administration paid by your taxes (or your parents').

That's not absolutely true though. The pharmaceutical industry spends hundreds of millions on lobbying and campaign donations, has lots of people doing the revolving door thing with the FDA. I get that the regulatory agencies need experts, but I wouldn't claim that the FDA decides independently of Big Pharma what goes on the market.

Take Vioxx, for example. "Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/po...5fda.html?_r=0
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/...xx-cover_x.htm

Vioxx killed thousands of people, yet even after settlements and paying a $321mil (lol) fine for misleading everyone about the potential side effects, near as I can figure, Merck still made billions.

I'm not a Luddite. Pharmaceuticals are wonderful. Usually. And shit happens, I get that too.
I just think the companies that make them have too much influence in government.

[Sunseeker]

Straight up; a false example. They don't just ignore it. They list it as a side-effect. If 100,000 people took a drug and one of them had a unique side-effect, that side-effect would be added to the list of side-effects you get with every drug.

Just look at Paracetamol:


Bloody or black, tarry stools
bloody or cloudy urine
fever with or without chills (not present before treatment and not caused by the condition being treated)
pain in the lower back and/or side (severe and/or sharp)
pinpoint red spots on the skin
skin rash, hives, or itching
sore throat (not present before treatment and not caused by the condition being treated)
sores, ulcers, or white spots on the lips or in the mouth
sudden decrease in the amount of urine
unusual bleeding or bruising
unusual tiredness or weakness
yellow eyes or skin

AND: they're usually listed in how commonly they happened, and there's often a sub-section of "these were so rare that like, one person had them for like one day and it might be due to our drug or maybe not, but just in case: *side-effects*"

[Felya]

Try smoking a whole marijuana instead of taking one medicine.

How do I smoke whole merijuana? It's main function in health is pain killer and appetite inducer. Pot being a cure all is reverse reefer madness... It's the same sensationalism, just in favor...

[Kasierith]

Drug discovery process -

Step one: Establish an objective.
Step two: Investigate natural products that form a similar effect to what you want.
Step three: Identify and isolate the compound with the desired effect. (steps two and three may go through thousands of compounds unsuccessfully based on hypotheses and ability to isolate)
Step four: Have medical biochemists look at the compound and work to modify its structures to adapt it for medicinal consumption (ie adjust absorption, elimination, distribution, and metabolism to maximize effect and minimize side effects).
Step five: run in vitro models if applicable
Step six: test drugs on "simple" animal (ie rats, rabbits), to look for teratogenistic effects, side effects, distribution, efficacy, etc
Step seven: test drugs on "complex" animals (like monkeys) to look for side effects, distribution, efficacy, etc.
Step eight: Run drug trial on a small population of volunteers who have disease state to test for efficacy.
Step nine: Run drug trial on a large population of relatively healthy people to test for health effects.
Step ten: Run massive trial to investigate for any oddities, most open form of drug trials.
Step eleven: Get FDA approval which requires a mountain of paperwork for records, statistics, data, compound information, and a step by step of everything they've done in the past 2-5 years. Fork over a few million dollars for approval.
Step twelve: monitor the drug afterward to look for any unknown drug problems such as very rare issues or teratogenic effects that were not picked up in trials because in a population of a few hundred, you will usually miss something.

If, once on the market, something is deemed to be too dangerous despite its medicinal benefits, this happens.

"Natural project" process / process that was the typical method for thousands of years -

Step one: Go to swamp.
Step two: Put swamp gunk in bottle.
Step three: THIS GREEN LIQUID WILL LET YOU SEE IN THE DARK!


Yes, truly the pharmaceutical agencies are a massive step backwards in drug development.

[Elegiac]

Drug discovery process -

Step one: Establish an objective.
Step two: Investigate natural products that form a similar effect to what you want.
Step three: Identify and isolate the compound with the desired effect. (steps two and three may go through thousands of compounds unsuccessfully based on hypotheses and ability to isolate)
Step four: Have medical biochemists look at the compound and work to modify its structures to adapt it for medicinal consumption (ie adjust absorption, elimination, distribution, and metabolism to maximize effect and minimize side effects).
Step five: run in vitro models if applicable
Step six: test drugs on "simple" animal (ie rats, rabbits), to look for teratogenistic effects, side effects, distribution, efficacy, etc
Step seven: test drugs on "complex" animals (like monkeys) to look for side effects, distribution, efficacy, etc.
Step eight: Run drug trial on a small population of volunteers who have disease state to test for efficacy.
Step nine: Run drug trial on a large population of relatively healthy people to test for health effects.
Step ten: Run massive trial to investigate for any oddities, most open form of drug trials.
Step eleven: Get FDA approval which requires a mountain of paperwork for records, statistics, data, compound information, and a step by step of everything they've done in the past 2-5 years. Fork over a few million dollars for approval.
Step twelve: monitor the drug afterward to look for any unknown drug problems such as very rare issues or teratogenic effects that were not picked up in trials because in a population of a few hundred, you will usually miss something.

"Natural project" process / process that was the typical method for thousands of years -

Step one: Go to swamp.
Step two: Put swamp gunk in bottle.
Step three: THIS GREEN LIQUID WILL LET YOU SEE IN THE DARK!


Yes, truly the pharmaceutical agencies are a massive step backwards in drug development.

Real life science is so much less exciting than people seem to think.