Do You Read the Warnings on Medication?

Well, do you? I never have done that because I think I might develop all of the symptoms listed. When I listen to those warnings for drugs they are advertising on TV, I wonder why anyone would try them. It mystifies me.

I have a friend that is a nurse and she always reads them in great detail. She has had to quit a medication because of a bad reaction.

Because of the fact that I have never had much of a reaction to a prescribed medication, I don't worry. There was that one time when I had a delayed reaction and I did check to see where that problem came from. I made the discovery that it was my medication after reading the warnings. Would I have taken the drug if I had known...probably so. No one mentioned it to me either at the pharmacy of the doctor's office so I didn't know to worry. My assumption would be that if they didn't warn me the reaction would not be life threatening. Is that true? Who knows.

So when I began having a severe reaction to my cholesterol reducing statin drug, I quit the medication and visited my doctor as soon as possible. In my case, no one really believed me. The solution was to change the statin name drug and keep me on it. I fell three times in succession and could barely walk.

When I quit the drug I felt better within a few days.

It is a very long story that began almost 20 years ago. The upshot is I had to do a lot of research to find just the right doctor to help me. No one was referring me so I used a self referral allowed by my insurance. Our local Oregon Health Sciences University turned out to be the only place around that really could deal with my problem.

I have been diagnosed with "Familial" cholesterol which mean that food is not the root cause for high cholesteral.

Now I am beginning to take a drug (Repatha) using an injection every two week. Wish me luck! I am at very high risk for heart problems because of high LDL cholesterol I am told.

The warning on this medication says that the consequences for taking it are far less than the consequences for NOT taking it. The last ditch effort I guess!

The odd thing is people tell me that they have the statin reaction too...a lot of people. Several have said to simply quit that medication. I don't know how big their risk is but it truly is frightening for them.

So, do you read the warnings? Did doing so affect your response to how the drug made you feel?

I am interested.

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The NEW BEST Warning Label? Food!

Even though I don't eat fast food
I still fight the weight problem.
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Is this the true threat to our country and its children?  Think about it!
Remember when we first began campaigning against becoming addicted to tobacco? It was a long up hill battle. Now the accepted opinion is that tobacco causes cancer, increases heart disease and so much more. As a young mother I simply called smoking a "filthy habit" and my grown children remember the lesson even to this day.

I am beginning to wonder if fast food is not the new tobacco for this generation. Could it be that we need to begin the long uphill battle for a "warning label" on fast food? This one would protect our children from obesity, heart disease and so much more? Maybe so.

My husband and I just returned from a vacation in Mexico where we stayed in a resort used by Americans on vacation. The resort had  beautiful pools and everyone, no matter the shape they were in, turned out in swim suits (myself included). It was not a beautiful sight. It is appalling the things we will do to our bodies to satisfy our appetite for food. Why do we overeat?

I have suspected for many years that fast food and junk food is addicting. What do the people that market these products add to their food that leaves us always wanting more? Obese children and their parents stand in line to buy the fries and burgers and load their shopping carts with junk food. Are these people addicted to the fat or the special salt or the calories?

I can foresee a day in the future when there will be warning labels saying that some foods are truly bad for our health. Parents and teachers might be saying "fast/junk food is disgusting" and schools might start programs with pictures of people dying of heart disease directly related to bad eating habits with a picture of junk/fast food inserted.

My husband and I will probably be giving up our "people watching" pastime and take up something else. It is alarming me more and more. The terrorist really don't need to blow us up. We are doing it to ourselves.

Just a thought.

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Related articles

• MDs accused of demonizing fatty, surgery foods after call for graphic junk food warnings(news.nationalpost.com)
• Ontario doctors target junk food with grisly cigarette-like warning labels (rt.com)