As I believe strongly in being as informed as possible about medications and drug therapies I thought it seemed like a great opportunity to join the conversation and write a piece for National Drug Facts Week. Thank you to Judy for bringing this to my attention (and thinking of my blog!) and also for providing the informative pictures included below.
This is going to sound like a silly statement to make but
I'm going to make it anyway...It's really important to understand what the
medication you're taking is, why exactly you're on it and what it aims to do for you.
So many of us are now on some kind of prescriptive
medication or taking over-the-counter drugs.
In western society we 'pop' pills like they're Tic Tacs,
often with no thought to what the medications are really for, what prolonged
use of them can mean or whether they're actually solving the problem.
I'm not trying to scare-monger, nor am I advocating
ditching medications. Far from it. Many conditions require the use of drugs to
control or lessen symptoms. There's no disputing that. I myself have, over the
years, needed a cocktail of drugs to manage symptoms and try to 'cure' my ill
health.
However, there's also no disputing the fact that a lot of
the time we may not fully grasp the impact that taking prescription or
over-the-counter (OTC) medications has on our psyches and our bodies.
All I'm aiming to do with this short post is to highlight
the need for us all to be a little more selective and careful when adopting new drugs or
medication regimes.
Ask your doctor or pharmacist if there is anything you can
do that will compliment or support your health, without the sole help of
medication or even before you try taking medication.
Would a more holistic approach to well-being not reduce
the amount of unnecessary antibiotics, antidepressants, sleeping pills etc. that are prescribed?
An holistic approach could involve looking at the
underlying cause for repeated infections, insomnia, low mood etc. I believe
that the stresses and strains of modern life can make us more susceptible to
becoming run-down.
Some doctors fail to grasp the need to ask questions of
their patients, to be more sensitive to their needs and to have empathy with
their ills and ailments. Those few extra minutes of concern and care may
alleviate the patient's worries and address their concerns. This could help set
about a positive chain of results, rather than ending up with the patient
clutching a sheaf of prescriptions for unnecessary drugs, which may end up
masking the main problem.
It's not necessarily a simple solution as it would
involve a rather radical re-think in mainstream medicine. However, I believe
it's an achievable and important solution to an endemic problem.
Let's start seeing, hearing and treating people as a
whole.
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