I had a professor, who was originally from France, make the distinction that Americans are into improving themselves, while the French think they’re just fine the way they are.
I found this very interesting, but I’ve never been to France and can’t attest much to the French attitude–only that I’ve heard shaving isn’t popular among its women. In America, the saturation of self-help books, low-fat foods, hair dye, Gold’s Gyms and shrinks indicate that a lot of Americans are bent on improving themselves, or at least attempting to.
Some American habits are reasonable and effective, some take it to the extreme and some habits are dangerous–even if we are told they are safe.
One form of self-improvement that is vastly popular is drugs. There are pills for just about anything that could be amiss in the body, not only for problems, but to enhance our lives–or so they say.
What’s scary is that a lot of unsafe drugs are being distributed to the masses.
Recalls have been implemented for weight-loss drugs, anti-depressants, hormone replacement therapy, cholesterol-lowering drugs–and the list goes on. How much longer are we going to have to endure 15-second splices of attorney Keith Barton standing in front of a picture of a poured-out bottle of pills and laying out the hard facts of drug companies’ mistakes?
The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for the regulation of these drugs. Its mission statement from fda.gov states that “the FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.”
While this is a noble goal, knowing that a drug is FDA approved is as assuring to me as the Associated Students of the University of Utah’s four-year graduation guarantee. It just isn’t reliable.
To its credit, the FDA has implemented a new drug-safety initiative, but it’s geared toward making drug-safety information more easily accessible to its patients and putting the responsibility to make an informed decision back on the consumer.
The issue of making drugs safe is a complicated one, and performing adequate studies to determine long-term effects of drugs are either not being done sufficiently, or just not being done at all. Many of us are selective in the things we take into our body–reading food labels from top to bottom checking for preservatives, unhealthy amounts of fats and sugars, and anything else we don’t deem fit to eat.
For those who aren’t doing that with their prescriptions or any other medications, it’s time to start.
With some drugs classified as FDA approved and later confirmed to cause cancer, heart problems, birth defects and even death in an alarming number of patients–certainly enough for attorneys to pay for expensive advertising and to make a healthy profit from settlement fees–it seems wise to avoid medication if at all possible.
Granted, there are many diseases and other health complications that demand prescriptions, but restless leg syndrome, losing five pounds by next week, sleeping aids or pills that are just supposed to boost our energy because we are tired all the time don’t seem worth the risk.
Many minor problems, and even major ones, can be improved by eating right and exercising. Even our own thinking patterns have proven to have a direct correlation to our physical wellbeing. The placebo effect, where patients who are given sugar pills that they believe to be actual drugs are cured of their symptoms, indicates that the mind has the power to cure the body.
My last resort to any illness is taking a pill, and before you think you’re safe with your bottles of pills nestled in your medicine cabinet that haven’t made it to the recall list, just beware–it can take a while before Keith Barton can dig up enough evidence to prove otherwise.
