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By
Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Rachael Droege
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, and you can find all the details of my full
program that will set you free from the "pill-taking"
life and give you ultimate control of your health in my
new book:
Related Articles:
Seven Common Misconceptions
About Tylenol and Other OTC Drugs
Fever in Children - A Blessing
in Disguise
Dissatisfaction with
Heartburn Drugs Common
Will Cholesterol
Drugs go Over the Counter Soon?
Arthritis Drugs Have New
Warnings, but Will the Doctors Listen???
Do You Use Aspirin or Tylenol
Regularly? Beware as They Are Linked to Kidney Failure
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