I'm resigned to being regarded as a "nut" by huge segments of the public. They are convinced "drugs are lifesaving" and I'm one of those alternative healing, anti-science, fanatics.
So be it.
I read two things lately that have made me even more determined to do my research when it comes to my health care, because it really is dangerous to just do as we are told by our doctor: who, in turn, is probably in some kind of thrall to pharma companies, whether they realize it or not.
The research they rely upon has been compromised, the FDA no longer actually exercises oversight, and worst of all,
the side-effects of modern drugs don't go away once you stop taking them.
In
My Life Has Been Ruined by an Anti-Baldness Drug, the author explains how "I’ve endured depression, anxiety, headaches, memory loss, insomnia, blurred vision, and impotence since I was 19."
Quote:
In 2016, the World Health Organization had recorded that 59 men had killed themselves because of the side effects of finasteride, an anti-baldness drug. The drug doesn’t kill directly, but the profound physical and psychological damage it can cause makes it difficult for people to live a normal life. I know this because I am one of them.
In 2012, when I was 19 years old, I took finasteride in the form of Propecia tablets: one a day for just 21 days. I got them from The Belgravia Centre in London, a hair-loss clinic that advertises its services vociferously across the city’s public transport. I remember feeling uneasy and a little skeptical about relying on a drug, possibly for the rest of my life, for a nonmedical issue. But I thought that I could stop my hair from falling out, perhaps regrow some that I had lost, and have a good head of hair in adulthood.
The symptoms started almost as soon I started taking Propecia. I noticed a dull, persistent headache. I became anxious, depressive, and my sleep was nonexistent. My penis totally changed in character and just wasn’t the same; touching it was like touching my elbow or some other less sensitive body part, and erections weren’t real erections anymore, if they happened at all.
I quit the drug three weeks later when I realized the symptoms weren’t shifting. But even after I stopped taking the pills, I still had the arsenal of debilitating cognitive, mental, physical, and sexual side effects, most of which weren’t on the label and nearly all of which weren’t thought to be permanent—and of all of which were. Needless to say, I hadn’t been taking it long enough to notice any difference in my hair.
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My italics. Because that is the crux of the matter. Methods for spotting and reporting side effects have been deliberately undermined by the pharma companies. In studies, anyone reporting side effects are dropped. They don't have too many people in them. So when they are unleashed in large quantities, worldwide, the results can be devastating: like the unfortunate men who took Propecia and wrecked their lives.
Like statins. There's hints that these drugs can
trigger an "ALS-like condition" but all the studies emphasize it's rare. But if you add up all the side effects these drugs have, side effects like muscle weakness, loss of memory, and shooting pains
are not rare. They are simply dismissed as "growing older" no matter what age the patient might be.
I have been reading about the Fen-Phen disaster in
Dispensing with the Truth: The Victims, the Drug Companies, and the Dramatic Story Behind the Battle over Fen-Phen by Alicia Mundy. The story opens with a young woman, about to be married, taking Fen-Phen for 23 days. Then the side effects such as shortness of breath worried her and she stopped. But she still wound up in the hospital and was given four years to live. She got mere months.
The drug company battled the FDA for calling it a "fatal" side effect. Because it took victims so long to die.
In their quest for a drug that only quells symptoms, and so the patient has to take it the rest of their life, drug companies are tinkering with things they barely understand. Somehow, modern drugs turn off these switches, and then they can wind up in the OFF position, with devastating effects. Fen-Phen acted on serotonin, like SSRIs. It reduced appetite; and destroyed the heart. No one knew serotonin had an effect on heart valves. I see no signs they are actually acting on this information.
I don't want to be the first chapter in a book about medical tragedies.