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FIXING HEALTH CARE: Beware Legal Drugs |
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Submitted by Fritz Scheffel
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Hello everyone! This article is being sent now instead of the one scheduled for this slot because of the timeliness of a newsworthy drug recall on November 19th, 2010. This is a teachable moment and I want to take advantage of it. NOTE: From experience I know that we are not always told the truth about legal drugs by our government or drug manufacturers. You will always hear the truth here.
The news announcement about this recall made all newscasts and caught my attention because the drug recalled was Darvon and any drug combination with Darvon in the formulation. Early in my pharmacy career this drug was introduced and became an immediate success because it was a potent pain reliever with non-narcotic characteristics. Since it was not considered a narcotic the drug was heavily promoted as “safe”. It was a boon for Lilly Pharmaceuticals because Americans, in huge numbers, have lots of pain in their life. Of course you needed a prescription to purchase it, but doctors were not reluctant to prescribe Darvon, after all “it was safe”. NOTE: It was recalled after decades on the market because “it interfered with heart rhythms” which is a nice way of saying people died after taking this drug over extended periods of time and in excessive doses.
Here is a question for you. Pain comes in many forms, one of which can be headaches and headaches are caused by any one of many contributing factors. Do people look for the cause of a headache and treat it, or just take another pain reliever to relieve the headache? As a pharmacist my job was to fill that prescription the doctor wrote and woe to the pharmacist who questioned the patient who wanted to take the drug or the doctor about what caused the headaches. That would be considered “practicing medicine without a license” for the pharmacist, and after all, the purpose of a pharmacy business is to sell things. It was always the case to emphasize the “benefits” of a drug and “dangers” were simply ignored and “overlooked”. If that same patient kept refilling the prescription for Darvon, with the doctor’s approval, month after month, is this patient addicted to Darvon, or has the taking of Darvon become “habit forming”?
After years of experience gained by studying people who became “addicted to the habit” of taking legal drugs I became a kind of a student of human behavior where drugs were consumed. As I dispensed these prescriptions I tried to keep up with both the customer’s need to take these drugs and the long term effect on their body, health and well-being. I realized that taking any drug for long periods of time could potentially alter the human body’s “chemical balance” so to speak. Did I do lab work, or give psychological tests to my customers? Of course not, but I did study their behavior and personality changes. I became a believer that 70% of all prescriptions need not have been written, but with all the commercials on TV about taking this or that drug and friends bragging about how their doctor put them on this or that drug, people’s guard against the dangers of abuse just kind of disappeared.
Here I owned a pharmacy and am telling people they really did not need to take this or that drug. You see, I really and truly cared about their health. In my book I tell real life stories about my experiences in this area, and just recently my wife visited her doctor over the possible need for blood pressure medication which my wife proved she did not need. Yet the doctor continued to badger her about taking the medications and even had our insurance company call my wife about having her blood pressure checked. They even suggested she take tranquilizers. Let me know your thoughts and questions because they help me help you.
Answers to the above two questions: (1) My real life experience showed me people would rather take the drug than find the cause, probably because they liked the “buzz” they received while taking them. (2) I have a hard time un
Fritz Scheffel provides regular articles about health care and has books on the subject currently available through Amazon, Amazon Kindle and The Health Care Fix website. If you can, please share these newsletters with your friends and relatives. Adding names through the website is FREE and in strict confidence.
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