On those information pamphlets you always receive from the pharmacy with any new medication, it always states:
"You have been prescribed this medication because your doctor believes that the benefits outweigh the risks associated with this medication."
This can sometimes be a hard pill to swallow. (See what I did there?)
Despite doctor's orders, you as a patient also need to make the decision of whether or not a medication is worth the risk for the relief. Some are, some aren't.
Doctors cannot predict someone's response to any medication, unless there have already been established allergies or intolerances. Doctors cannot even predict their own body's response... so why do people expect their doctor to automatically know how they will respond?
Once you have fully read through ALL of a medication's listed possible adverse effects, you may quickly become disillusioned with the health industry.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that I have read through the entirety of every medication's information and warnings that I have ever been prescribed. I believe that it is in my own best interest to be as informed as possible.
So how do you read through all of that and still decide to take something?
Pain.
Pain and nausea and vomiting and migraines and burning aching stabbing throbbing cramping debilitating pain.
Medication pamphlets scare the hell out of me... and if a medication does not work, I don't continue taking it. (That sounds simple, doesn't it). But do you know what scares me even more? Taking a substance or a supplement or a 'natural remedy' that doesn't even COME with an information pamphlet.
Every single thing we breathe in, ingest, come into contact with, has a list of potential side effects. Everything. Reading about all sorts of potential negative reactions can be sobering, but taking a pill or an injection or an infusion or anything else that is labeled as a treatment, medication, remedy, supplement, or the like, without being able to look through the information is terrifying.
Imagine all of the ingredients on all food products disappearing. Imagine going to a sushi restaurant half way across the world and ordering random items in a language you cannot understand - food items that could be intensely dangerous to your health. Imagine signing a contract without having any idea what it is actually for, what will happen, or how it will affect you. Imagine all warning labels, nutritional information, and even product descriptions being removed from complex products.
I mean, some products would be straightforward. You wouldn't necessarily require reading material for a hunk of beef. But think of a simple pill. Would you just toss back a pill without having any information apart from the title??
Would you eat a random piece of raw food in a country whose language you cannot understand? What if you found out later that it was chicken sashimi (which is now a thing by the way).
I am grateful that medications come with as much information as we can pack into that information pamphlet.
The unregulated realm of homeopathy and even some naturopathy - to me - is more dangerous than many modern medicines just because of the fact that modern medicine has to jump through so many hoops in order for it to be approved at all. And modern medicines require that ANY reported adverse effect - proven or unproven - must be listed on the warning. So if I call Health Canada, and see my doctor, and I have suddenly developed nail fungus a day after starting a new medication, and it is reported as being a 'potential' cause, that now has to be listed as a potential side effect.
The list that says: "side effects, incidence unknown" - those are often self-reported guesses that have not been substantiated. But they still have to list them.
On the other side of the spectrum, other 'remedies' do not have to necessarily report adverse effects.
This is frustrating - because so many people believe that if it does not list adverse effects, then it can not actually create any adverse effects. I mean, it is brilliant, because it works as a marketing tool. It is also, in my mind, dangerous.
This was kind of a random rant - I wanted more to discuss what kinds of adverse effects could have someone questioning whether the benefits really do outweigh the potential risks. Like with biologics... did you know that there have been increased reported cases of cancer correlated to the use of biologics? Using biologics could actually cause cancer...
That means that whatever the patient is suffering from could be deemed worth the risk in order to provide some symptom relief...
Methotrexate has a side effect listed as "sudden death".... but it is so rare that in most cases the benefits are deemed worth the risk.
When you put it into that kind of perspective, perhaps it would help illuminate the level of suffering some chronic patients experience...
Anyways -
This all reminds me of the idiom:
Better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Would you prefer to take a medication that has been thoroughly tested - with results you are privy to, or take your risk with a substance with unknown or untested results/effects??
