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Originally Posted by ladyjane  Yes, I did get that part...about the elderly and also the average. The elderly have always been an issue. So many different meds and sometimes doctors. In an ideal world they would have one doctor and one pharmacy .. but even then you would find some drug to drug issues.
I just think that to make a statement like Gemy did is frightening to people who may already be afraid of meds. I don't know that she meant that but it did come off that way to me... that it could lead to people being afraid. There are so many factors that come into play and it is not like all of these are life threatening side effects and/or anaphylactic reactions. To say there should be a public outcry is a bit of a stretch in my way of thinking. We should ALL be informed consumers and certainly be aware of what we are taking in terms of meds. The bottom line though is that many of these numbers are from people who may have used insulin and not eaten or who took warfarin and didn't recognize bleeding symptoms OR who failed to get their blood work done .. doctors cannot monitor if people are non compliant. There is abuse of rx drugs on the streets, but they say the number is not huge. It is just that there are, as I said, too many variables imo to lump them together as something out of control and scary. |
Different people cope differently with all of the information that is out there. I'm taking several medications myself, one of which is necessary for my survival. That one drug has many interactions with other drugs that make treatment for other conditions much more difficult. I basically have to triage what illnesses I can be treated for, and whether the side effects are worth it. I have high cholesterol that can't be controlled by diet, and even though my main drug does not have any known interactions with the statin drugs, I can't tolerate Crestor or Lipitor. My doctor has started me on a third, less effective statin in one last Hail Mary to see if I can be treated for my high cholesterol. If I can't, I'll just have to live with high cholesterol. It's very interesting to me that my main drug/cholesterol drug interactions have never been documented--it could be that those combinations were not tested before these drugs were released, but hey, I'm willing to live with high cholesterol, and I don't feel any animosity towards the drug companies, because my life span will be much longer than it would have been 20 or 30 years ago, thanks to the drugs that I CAN tolerate.
From my point of view, some drugs are essential for the treatment of certain conditions--if you don't take them, you will die a premature death. But when you are prescribed a drug, you need to inform yourself thoroughly about the risks and benefits, and when you add another drug to your regime to treat another condition, you need to proceed very cautiously, starting out with a low dose, just to make sure something unusual and never-before-seen happens. This happens often enough to me that my doctor understands my situation thoroughly. I wish all doctors were as cautious. But, I don't blame the FDA or drug companies--it's impossible to test every combination of drugs under ever circumstance in animals or humans before a drug is released, and ultimately, even if they did, some individuals have their own unique interactions with medications. I have reached the stage of acceptance and caution.