Side Effects: Are they worth the risk?

Posted by: Kasey McCorriston




"Dr. Dan!" I hear one of the patients say from the waiting room, "besides the work we are doing here, I think I might have found another piece to the puzzle."

As I am sitting at the front desk I turn my ears on, hoping to hear what the puzzle piece was. "Well I was watching TV the other day and I saw the commercial for the cholesterol medicine I was taking. I see this commercial all the time, but this time I actually stopped and listened to the list of side effects that the medicine has. I realized that all of the side effects were things that I was experiencing."

I stop what I am doing, now fully engaged.

"So what did you do?" Dr. Dan said.

The patient replied with, "I stopped taking it, and I feel a lot better."

Walking down the hallway I heard him tell the doctor how sensitized he was from the commercials, how he had seen them so many times and never listened to the 30 second long list of side effects. Thinking about this, I realized that's just the purpose of these commercials. How they are set up is literally a sales tactic. I know that prescription drugs can be effective for symptoms, and also are necessary for some situations. I just hope that people research drugs before they consider using them. I hope that people actually listen to the commercials, side effects and all. I hope people consider safer and more effective ways of treating the problem, versus the symptoms. I hope we can all take a minute to stop and think about the things we are putting into our bodies and evaluate effectiveness and alternatives. As always, our office is here as a resource and springboard.