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Are You Caught in the Drug Trap? Find Out How to be Set Free From a Drug-Controlled Life
- 4-21-2004
- Categorized in: Over-the-Counter Drugs
Do you keep Tylenol in your desk drawer at work or Advil in your glove compartment? Is your bathroom closet full of over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold remedies and various prescription medications? Do you take a pill at the first sign of a headache, allergies or a bloated stomach?
If this sounds familiar to you, and I’m sure it does for many Americans, then you are caught in the drug trap that is so pervasive in this country.
What is the drug trap? It is precisely what I described above--the utter reliance on pills and medicated syrups to make our pain and symptoms go away. The problem with this mindset--the mindset that if you have a headache, heartburn or any other pain, you need to get a pill to fix it--is that it ignores the fact that these symptoms are warning signs that something is not right in your body, and of course, the drugs often bring with them their own set of side effects.
Just How Pervasive is Drug Use in America?
Two-thirds of doctor visits resulted in a drug being prescribed.
This is one of the main reasons why spending for prescription drugs is the fastest-growing category of health care expenditures.
It is also one of the major contributing factors why doctors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, as they have an over reliance on using drugs as Band-Aids, rather than seeking the cause of the problem.
Plus, each year Americans buy about 5 billion OTC drugs in the hopes of treating routine medical problems.
Americans have become so accustomed to taking medications for any and every ailment that it is quickly becoming a part of our culture, and, as described in a quite interesting New York Times essay that is surely a sign of the times, this is "a social change on the same order as the advent of computers, but one that is taking place inside the human body. More people shift to the pill-taking life every year, to the delight of pharmaceutical manufacturers. Indeed, drug sales suggest how willing people are to pursue better living through chemistry."
Break Free From the Drug Trap
The first step to breaking free from the drug trap is to realize that your symptoms are trying to tell you something. This concept is easily portrayed by looking at fever. Fever is not an illness to be gotten ridden of by popping a pill, but instead is one of the body's basic defense mechanisms as it tries to fight off an infection. For this reason, anti-fever drugs may actually prolong the flu (there are some instances when fevers should be suppressed though).
Likewise, your headache or heatburn is not an illness in itself to be "cured" by a pill. It is a sign that something you are doing, being exposed to, eating, neglecting or so on is causing a problem in your body.
As I am fond of saying, pain is a wonderful guide that is given to us as feedback so we can take action to correct the problem before it gives us further, more serious, problems.
To mask pain with OTC or other drugs makes about as much sense as driving down the road and having the oil light come up on your car’s dashboard and choosing to put some duct tape over the dashboard so the annoying red light is removed.
The light is there for a reason, to warn you of the damage that is imminent unless you take some immediate proactive action.
What Action Should I Take?
Once and for all, commit to adopting a diet that is truly healthy for you, and to optimizing your emotional health. These two factors--the foods you put into your body and your emotional well-being--have absolutely everything to do with building your immune system so you can prevent disease and premature aging and optimize your weight so you can avoid unnecessary pharmaceuticals.
This is no "quick fix," but rather is a lifestyle change that will be well worth the effort. Here is a list of resources to get you started.
© Copyright 2008 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
If this sounds familiar to you, and I’m sure it does for many Americans, then you are caught in the drug trap that is so pervasive in this country.
What is the drug trap? It is precisely what I described above--the utter reliance on pills and medicated syrups to make our pain and symptoms go away. The problem with this mindset--the mindset that if you have a headache, heartburn or any other pain, you need to get a pill to fix it--is that it ignores the fact that these symptoms are warning signs that something is not right in your body, and of course, the drugs often bring with them their own set of side effects.
Just How Pervasive is Drug Use in America?
Two-thirds of doctor visits resulted in a drug being prescribed.
This is one of the main reasons why spending for prescription drugs is the fastest-growing category of health care expenditures.
It is also one of the major contributing factors why doctors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, as they have an over reliance on using drugs as Band-Aids, rather than seeking the cause of the problem.
Plus, each year Americans buy about 5 billion OTC drugs in the hopes of treating routine medical problems.
Americans have become so accustomed to taking medications for any and every ailment that it is quickly becoming a part of our culture, and, as described in a quite interesting New York Times essay that is surely a sign of the times, this is "a social change on the same order as the advent of computers, but one that is taking place inside the human body. More people shift to the pill-taking life every year, to the delight of pharmaceutical manufacturers. Indeed, drug sales suggest how willing people are to pursue better living through chemistry."
Break Free From the Drug Trap
The first step to breaking free from the drug trap is to realize that your symptoms are trying to tell you something. This concept is easily portrayed by looking at fever. Fever is not an illness to be gotten ridden of by popping a pill, but instead is one of the body's basic defense mechanisms as it tries to fight off an infection. For this reason, anti-fever drugs may actually prolong the flu (there are some instances when fevers should be suppressed though).
Likewise, your headache or heatburn is not an illness in itself to be "cured" by a pill. It is a sign that something you are doing, being exposed to, eating, neglecting or so on is causing a problem in your body.
As I am fond of saying, pain is a wonderful guide that is given to us as feedback so we can take action to correct the problem before it gives us further, more serious, problems.
To mask pain with OTC or other drugs makes about as much sense as driving down the road and having the oil light come up on your car’s dashboard and choosing to put some duct tape over the dashboard so the annoying red light is removed.
The light is there for a reason, to warn you of the damage that is imminent unless you take some immediate proactive action.
What Action Should I Take?
Once and for all, commit to adopting a diet that is truly healthy for you, and to optimizing your emotional health. These two factors--the foods you put into your body and your emotional well-being--have absolutely everything to do with building your immune system so you can prevent disease and premature aging and optimize your weight so you can avoid unnecessary pharmaceuticals.
This is no "quick fix," but rather is a lifestyle change that will be well worth the effort. Here is a list of resources to get you started.
- Follow a Nutrition Plan to Optimize Your Health Physically
- Use EFT to Improve Your Emotional Health
- Get Plenty of High-Quality Sleep
- Stick to a Regular Exercise Program
- Get More Omega-3
- Learn the Drug Companies’ Role
© Copyright 2008 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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The Aim of Public Education is Not to Spread Enligtenment at All; It is Simply to Reduce as Many Individuals as Possible to the Same Safe Level, to Breed a Standard Citizenry, to Put Down Dissent and Originality. ~ HL Mencken |
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The Cure for Health Care and Indigenous Power is to Remove the AMA and FDA, and Unleash the Power and Creativity of the Free Market. Many People Have Been Brainwashed into Thinking the State Protects Them. The Truth is the Exact Opposite. ~ Morris Fishbein |
|
You may find links that lead to
interesting information, or there
may be links to undesirable sites.
If you find any of these undesirables,
PLEASE let us know the URLs so
we can block them from our campaign. |