Um, there are directions on any medicine that says how much you should take and so forth. If someone pops 25 asprin in one go, well, yeah, there's a chance they could die. If you have a headache that bad, you've probably had a stroke anyway... If not, well, that's natural selection for you.
What is truly outrageous is the price of prescription drugs and how hard these companies work to push them. I went to a doctor a year ago, and after having blood work, he told me "Your cholesterol is a little high, so I want you to start taking this medicine." That stuff costs about 200 dollars a month!
Six months later I went in and saw another doctor. After getting blood work again, he told me the medicine his collegue had put me on was damaging my liver, and that since my cholesterol was only high by 1 point, I really didn't need the medicine anyway. I later found out that the first doctor had been getting kickbacks from the drug company by putting a bunch of people on it, and he lost his license.
Fortunately, since I've changed the way I eat, my cholesterol is really low, and so is my blood pressure, all without any medication. And, I settled out of court and got my money back. My liver is back to normal too.
My point is that if we change our behavior, all these drugs are useless. People think they need to be medicated for everything, and we buy into it. Now, whenever a doctor says "I want you to start taking this, I tell them 'unless my life is at risk if I don't, forget it'". And if they say it is, I get a second opinion. I'm paying the doctor, they should be working for me, not the drug company.
Larry
04-Mar-2005