Saturday, October 9, 2010

Beware of modern medicine

At the dentist recently, I was prescribed clindamycin, an antibiotic, to see if it would clear up a minor oral issue. Since penicillin is not for me, this was the stuff to do it. I had the prescription filled, and noticed on the label some of the side effects. They included diarrhea and vomiting. Holy Cow! I thought, that's worse than what it's going to help. This is supposed to make me better, not make my inner fluids pour forth from both ends.

So I went online, and in less than five minutes, got the rundown on this drug. I found personal stories from dozens and dozens of people of how this drug had screwed up their health, causing many severe and long-term issues. People had been in the emergency room, the ICU, or just went through misery and thousands of dollars in medical bills stemming from the prescribed use of this drug.

There are those who dismiss it when you bring up something like this, and say that every drug will cause a reaction in somebody. This drug, however, messed people up badly. A lot of people. Frequently. The more I read, the more I wondered how this dangerous drug got approved and on the market, and gets so blithely prescribed so often and for such minor issues, when so often it causes major harm.

I became convinced that it did more harm than good, and refused to take it. I'm glad I found out the information before I started, because I'm sure it would have adversely affected me, and I'm a healthy person with a strong constitution. I think I'm not the only one to have dodged a bullet here, because had my health been so compromised, I'd have been suing these bastards for poisoning me.

The kicker was, when I called the dentist to voice my concern, the receptionist at the medical practice heard my story and confessed that she had suffered bad side effects from this very drug! Good grief! And yet my concerns were pretty much brushed aside by the dentist prescribing. Didn't want to hear about it. Modern medical practitioners do not accept critiques from somebody without medical training. They've got their desk reference and their training, and the drug companies say that not too many suffered in the limited clinical trials, so they're good to go.

Folks, we've got NO ONE looking out for our health. The Food and Drug Administration, which is supposed to be a watchdog agency looking out for our interests, is in the pocket of the big pharmaceutical drug companies. The FDA represents the industry, not the people. And because of that, dangerous shit like this goes out and hurts people. And the ones who are hurt think it's just their tough luck, when it's a big company pushing dangerous chemicals on us so they can make a profit. But doctors take their word as gospel, and do no checking on their own.

Kind of scary when you think about it. There are thousands of people dying in this country every year from reactions to their prescription medicines. But very little is changing. People simply don't matter to companies as much as money.

So do your own research before taking ANY drug, even from the kindly doc who you've seen for years. Because they make dangerous assumptions. Those assumptions can cause you a great deal of harm.

No comments:

Post a Comment