If you want to make my blood boil, the quickest method is to show me a pharmaceutical commercial of some kind. We all laugh at the absurdity of them. Saturday Night Live parodies them. You know what I’m talking about. Take Lunesta, for example, which is a drug used to help people sleep better. They tell you right there on the commercial that the drug may cause you to do an activity which you do not remember doing, have abnormal thoughts and behaviors such as hallucinations or suicidal thoughts, experience memory loss and anxiety. BUT… you should still take it because they have cool neon butterflies flying around a person who looks awfully cozy in her bed.
That’s just one example. There are many! Commercial after commercial we are told that our ears may fall off, we’ll be impotent, and may want to kill ourselves or someone else, yet we should still take the drug because there are beautiful, happy people on the commercial with butterflies and unicorns.
Talk about insulting our intelligence! Are we really stupid enough to take that drug just because the visual aspect of the commercial is appealing? Come on! No way! We are way too smart for that…or are we?
Sometimes drugs are necessary, but for many they are not. So why are we on so many unnecessary drugs? Is it because we blindly trust our doctors due to their status and education? Maybe. Is it because we think that we’re invincible to the serious side effects of that drug, convincing ourselves that we won’t be the 10% who get those suicidal thoughts? Maybe. Are we brainwashed and fooled by the pretty people on the commercial? Maybe. Is it that we’re lazy and want a quick fix pill? Maybe. All of these reasons probably play a role, but there’s a much better explanation…
I think that we are uneducated and don’t know we have other options. No one is telling us the inside scoop. I mentioned Lunesta earlier. People take it because they can’t sleep. Sleep is important. We all want to sleep. We all need to sleep. I understand why people take a pill when they can’t sleep. What that commercial and your doctor don’t tell you though is why you can’t sleep.
Xifaxan is another example. It’s used to treat IBS symptoms. One of the biggest causes of IBS is an overuse of antibiotics through life because antibiotics create an imbalance of gut microbiota, and guess what? Xifaxan is an antibiotic!! It treats the symptoms but actually makes the problem worse so that you need to be on it repeatedly.
There are hundreds of examples of drugs which treat symptoms (not fix the problem) that are unnecessary and even harmful. Think you don’t have hypertension anymore because your blood pressure has been normal ever since you started your medication? Try going off it. What happens? Oh, really? Hypertension is back? That’s because it never went away. It was only being covered up.
Does anyone ever try to figure out what the root cause of the problem is? Believe it or not, there are actual things going on in a person’s body that are messing with their sleep cycle. There are actual reasons why you are having IBS. It isn’t some genetic disease that’s beyond your control. It isn’t a result of normal aging. It isn’t a deficiency of Xifaxan. There are actual things going on inside your body that are causing you to experience a symptom you can feel… and those things can usually be corrected…permanently…without medication…through natural means such as diet change, lifestyle habits, exercise, etc.
WHAT!?! Why didn’t my doctor tell me this? Why didn’t the commercial tell me what was causing my sleep disturbance or my IBS? Why would they just give me a pill that makes me think the problem is fixed when really I would still have the problem if I stopped taking the medication? You mean to tell me that I could completely get rid of my IBS or my sleep disturbance or my whatever else for good?
YES!!!
Why didn’t the commercial tell you? Because you wouldn’t make their business profitable if they told you. These commercials always tell you just enough but not the whole story. For instance, I heard a commercial the other day saying that sleep problems are caused by an issue with your circadian rhythms. Absolutely right! But, they didn’t tell you what causes issues with circadian rhythms and that they can be corrected naturally. They just told you that it’s a problem with your circadian rhythms and that the answer is their drug (their product that they want to sell you). They offered a problem you can relate to along with an easy solution you can access. Ah, the art of sales copywriting!
Let’s stop being so shallow. Let’s realize that they are a business that is trying to profit. Do you fall for every infomercial that you watch on TV? Probably not. That’s what these ads are. They are infomercials, designed to make you spend money on something you probably don’t need.
And do not trust your doctor to give you the answers either. You’re unlikely to get them there, unfortunately. For the most part, I don’t think doctors are evil. I think they are as blind as we are. The pharmaceutical companies sit on the boards and fund the medical schools so that they can control the curriculum being taught to these young docs. Don’t believe me? Look it up. But I digress…
Bottom line: There are answers out there for most issues, and those answers don’t usually involve prescription meds. Better yet, they involve real answers, real cures, and true freedom from the symptoms you are having. Maybe if you knew that, you wouldn’t have chosen the drug with the pretty butterflies on the commercial. Do your research. Find the root cause. Consult Google, naturopathic doctors, or even people like me who can help you find the answers and the options you need.
Why did you opt for prescription meds? Did you think there was no other option? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Please comment below and please share this post with your loved ones so that they know about the other answer.
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