This article presents an interesting perspective for the use of medication to deal with symptoms—we are living in a fortunate time where there are a vast amount of options to lead a pain-free life style. However, this brings into question how knowledgeable are we about the products we are using and the possible side effects. The mentality of this article also causes the reader to consider, why are these headaches occurring, why my nose is running and why am I suffering from gastric distress. This comments on who we are as consumers, and the risks we are willing to take to avoid preplanning and taking the time to take initiative into caring for ourselves. While these are over the counter medications the side effects often don’t seem severe as prescriptions, like have a stroke from birth control or blood thinners. There are obvious effects like liver damage or more subtle results like drowsiness. Just as the article explained, why use Sudafed when you could take non-name-brand pill that is weaker and does not have this effect. Because as consumers, we see a name brand and assume it works better and we feel that we are more knowledgeable about the medication. Which we aren’t. There is also the fact that we are feeling under the weather for specific reasons—if we keep covering up out body’s communications, what good are we doing? If you have a headache you should take into consideration if you are drinking enough water, smoking too many cigarettes or are you not sleeping enough. If your stomach is upset, what did you eat—this is your body explaining that you need to not eat at the same restaurant, you need more fiber or you cannot process lactose. If you feel muscle pain, are you exercising enough, or even too much? Many of these ailments are caused by lifestyle choices that need to be remedied in order to be healthy. There are natural ways to stop these conditions—not huffing lavender oil, but simply making better choices. As life can be stressful and is often moving faster than we are these medications are a god save, but it seems flippant to not take into consideration what caused the discomfort and attempt to fix it.
Oct 172016