This will be a short and to the point diary.
First of all, thanks to all once again for the elevation to the holiest-of-holies, the Community Spotlight! It was completely and totally unexpected, and I am both grateful and humbled that my simple diary was so well thought of.
Second of all, as I've stated before, thanks SO much for the many and well thought out comments to the diary. I truly do live for the opportunity to hear and respond to what my Kossack brethren think about my temper tantrums. And that brings us to the subject of this diary and follow up.
A kind and gracious Kossack by the name of Decorina posted the following comment;
I stopped taking a drug that my PCP gave me. (0+ / 0-)
It was soooooooooooo expensive and made my high blood pressure difficult to manage. It was $400 for 30 pills and it replaced a drug that was $5 for 30 pills.
Thank YOU Decorina! This is exactly the point that I was trying to make in my flailing, sarcastic way, that this shit is freakin'
DANGEROUS!!!
Let's take a charitable view here, and take for granted that the doctor in question was not in the pocket of an agent of Big Pharma, that he was sincerely and honestly trying to do his job. The form and nature of diseases are almost infinite. By logical progression, drugs to treat these conditions are equally as complicated and intricate as the problems they seek to treat. In treating more than one infirmity at a time, it can be incredibly difficult to find a drug that successfully treats the condition without causing a detrimental and possibly even fatal interaction with a component of another drug treating another condition. And this is for a man or woman who has spent 8-10 years of their lives and a couple of hundred thousand easy specifically to learn how to do just that!!!
And now here comes Big Pharma, peddling their handful of happy horseshit. With attractive actors and actresses, with cute and cuddly bees and butterflies, with pastel cartoons they have the solution to allllllll of our ills! Take my word for it, NObody pays jack shit attention to the quickly mumbled side effects, only to the promise of a solution to their malady.
To repeat my previous statement from a couple of paragraphs ago, this is freakin' DANGEROUS!!! If it can take a highly trained, sincere professional physician several attempts in order to find a drug that cures or treats a condition without a negative reaction to a component of a drug that is being used to treat another condition, what possible hope do a bunch of people who can hardly remember basic algebra from high school have of being able to determine what's right for them?
This has the potential for becoming a legitimate health threat in the United States. In most of Europe it is illegal for drug companies to advertise their products to the public. It is time for the FDA and the FCC to put their Big Boy pants on, and create regulations that prohibit DTC (Direct To Consumer) advertising for any drugs. It's dangerous, and it has the potential to harm the very people the drugs are supposed to be helping!
Thanks as always for reading, and shalom!