Note: This is a copyrighted excerpt from What's Killing You and What To Do About It! No reprints are allowed unless express permission has been received from the authors.
Chapter 4 - Use of Antibiotics and OTC Medications
We have become a society on drugs. We're not talking about the illegal kind like cocaine or heroin, although they are a serious problem, we're talking about every item sitting in your medicine cabinet or on the shelf in the drug store or Health and Beauty section of any department or grocery store.
In the early part of the 20th century, medicines were taken much more seriously than they are today. Then, about the most powerful thing you could get from your druggist without a prescription, was aspirin. It's almost as though we've forgotten how important it is to look at medications seriously.
Have you watched any TV commercials lately? You can barely go an hour without some drug being advertised that you should "ask your doctor about." Many of these drug advertisements don't even tell you what the drug is for, yet they are telling you to ask your doctor about it! What's even worse is listening to the side effects of these drugs. Usually the 'common' side effects are, diarrhea, nausea, headache, loss of appetite, fatigue, sexual side effects and in rare cases, bleeding without warning.
Now let's be realistic here. After listening to something like this, why would anyone even bother to ask about these drugs, let alone take them? Especially the ones that don't even list the condition they are supposed to treat! From the sound of the side effects, some are worse then the diseases they are supposed to cure!
The worst thing that's happened in recent years is a proliferation of every kind of medicine imaginable. Many of the former prescription drugs have been reduced in strength so they can be bought over the counter without a prescription. When you think about that, it's crazy.
As a society, we've been watching TV and trying to fit our symptoms to some drug on the shelf so we can be cured overnight. As a result, slowly but surely, we've been taking more and more medications for every little thing. Our bodies get so used to having support from these drugs that they don't want to do any work for themselves anymore. Now you might think that isn't such a bad thing. After all, you can just keep taking cold medication, for example, when you're sick and there's no problem with that. But there is a problem...