Phobe: indicating a person or thing that fears or hates the subject
of the precedent root word. If the root word has anything to do with
pharmaceuticals, then, yep, that's me. I'm a pharmaphobe. Without a
doubt I am pharmapobic!
I know there are many absolutely wonderful discoveries in the war on
sickness and disease, and many drugs are indispensable in our daily
lives, but I also know I'm being bombarded with an unending marketing
assault that dominates television and print media for drugs that have
side effects that scare the daylights out of me. I know about chronic
conditions that mandate a life-long demand for pharmaceuticals: I am
hypertensive.
Why the massive ad campaigns for pharmaceuticals? Profit, of course.
It isn't philanthropy, believe me. The big pharma companies wouldn't
give away drugs for humanities sake, unless they knew it would create
a never-ending demand from the drug, sort of a mandated addiction.
Return On Investment, so to speak. Drugs prescribed by your doctor
for chronic conditions like high blood pressure or high cholesterol
create a cash flow, like an annuity, as long as the consumer, er,
patient, stays alive. What a great business model!
What really worries me is a hypertensive doctor friend of ours won't
take drugs other than ones for hypertension. She avoids other drugs
as much as possible. Most of the people we know in the medical or
peripheral businesses avoid flu shots like the plague. If that
doesn't send up a red flag, I don't know what will. What bothers me
most though, is the massive marketing attack on the average consumer.
Seriously, I'm worried about the pharmaceuticals being sold on
television today as if they were candy. “Tell your doctor you want
this drug!”
Wow! If I have asthma, I can now go fishing with my grandson --
obviously I couldn't go fishing with him before – all I have to do
is take a specific drug that I won't mention here. [My lawyer would
be impotent against these guys.] If the side effects of this asthma
drug don't kill me first, that is. The popular asthma drug lists
thirteen symptoms as common side effects and two of them really
caught my attention. This constantly advertised drug lists uncommon
symptoms that runs another page and a half on their information
sheet, and the overdose symptoms listed are outright scary, but side
effects number 4, “difficulty with breathing” and number 11,
“shortness of breath or troubled breathing” really are eye
opening. If I have asthma, why am I taking this drug? Because the
advertising said so! Look how happy they all are! Doing things they
normally wouldn't do.
Really? I'm supposed to go to my doctor and tell her I want to take
a certain drug because I think I may have a certain illness and I am
now convinced I have a solution she may not be aware of? Isn't my
doctor supposed to know what to prescribe for me when I have a
medical condition that warrants that pharmaceutical concoction to be
administered to me? Apparently doctors now respond to their patients
demands and prescribe whatever feel-good drug now has the biggest
marketing and advertising budget.
Listen to the possible side effects that accompany each Hollywood
style production shown at exactly the time of day when old fogies
like me are most likely to be watching the tube, er, flat screen I
mean, and see if chills don't run down your spine.
Don't misunderstand what I'm writing here. Without penicillin, I
wouldn't be alive today. Other new generation antibiotics
administered when I blew out my appendix recently kept my septic
condition from spoiling my life, much less my vacation. But the drugs
weren't advertised on TV as imperative, life enhancing products I
need to add to my daily regimen just to feel better. Take notes the
next time you watch the evening news [only old people watch the
evening news!] and see what I mean. I defy you to write down the side
effects of any of the many drugs you will see advertised. Some of
them even have the side effect of possible death! Wow, I can hardly wait to
take some of those!
I have alleviated my reliance on blood pressure medicines by a
simple action, weight loss. By losing twenty five pounds I have been
able to reduce the drugs I take to keep my blood pressure “normal.'”
Diet and physical activities are helping reduce my reliance on the
remainder, all I have to do now is quit drinking alcohol. [Now,
there's a rub!] With a little self control, I should be able to drop
off or drastically reduce the regimen of the other prescription
drugs. The first one I dropped off recently had a side effect that
wasn't listed in the information sheet: bad breath! I realize many
conditions aren't that easily remedied, but, many are.
Why did I pick the asthma drug as my example of pharma mass-marketing? Because they pander to unconscious consumers who think every fisherman has to wear a silly hat and a two hundred dollar fishing vest, carry a state of the art fly rod, then use a 79 cent red and white plastic bobber probably with a worm on the end of a hook! If this multi-million dollar corporation doesn't know anything about fishing, what do they know about anything else? Obviously they know how to market to American television viewers.
How about the million dollar marketing shtick that has two naked
people sitting in the middle of field somewhere in old-fashioned
cast-iron bathtubs? Aah, nothing like a dose of ridiculous fantasy to
make the consumer feel like popping a pill is the answer to life's
problems. Marketing chemicals in such a way that the gullible public
demands the required prescribers give them what they want is
downright scary. They'll probably drive up the market in old-fashioned
cast iron bathtubs as well.
Want more information?
Go to the FDA website at:
