Medication

Medication is such a controversial issue. Some parents over medicate their kids, giving them every vaccine known to man, Tylenol, vitamins, any time their even remotely sick their given something, antibacterial disinfectant every time the touch something. Then you've got the parents who believe in not medicating their kids hardly at all. No vaccines, no doctors unless horribly sick. And I'm not just picking on parents here. They're just really easy to generalize. The elderly often over medicate now too. Aspirin a day, vitamins, minerals, fish oil pills, lipitor, blood pressure medicine, creams, liquids, etc. It's ridiculous.

Most people want to blame the doctors. We're suppose to trust them. They're suppose to be looking out for us and what is best for us. So when people are taking so much stuff for so many things they blame the doctor for prescribing it or telling them they should be taking it. But the fact is, it's the individual who is responsible for the medication they take. You are the one who ultimately decides what you should take and what you shouldn't. It is up to YOU! Doctors are giving you advice. Their professional opinion. Read that again "professional OPINION" You don't have to do what they say. Look into medicine before you take it. I do believe that a lot of doctors do truly care about your health and what to do what is right for you but there are also a lot who aren't. You have to be an advocate for yourself. Find out what medication is right for you and what isn't. Also don't always take what a doctor or pharmacist says about the duration of that medication. You should look into the side effects for yourself, because often time the side effects are worse than the condition or they can cause the same symptoms as the condition in which case do you really want to take it.

My experience: My stomach was hurting a lot, all the time, when I was hungry, when I ate, after I ate. Just all the time. Then started the heartburn. Horrible heartburn practically all day. Worse at night. Then came the reflux. I won't even get into that cause people think it's gross when you tell them you couldn't swallow a pill because your esophagus pushed it back up. Yea it was bad. Well went to the doctor. They gave me some medicine (Prevacid) to relieve me of it temporarily until I had an endoscopy done. They thought I had a stomach ulcer (at the age of 20). Well the medicine actually started working pretty well. I had the endoscopy done and guess what no ulcer. Surprise surprise. They determined that I had GERD (acid reflux disease). They told me to keep taking the medicine they prescribed me until I took a 24hr PH test. I asked what it was and what it would tell us. They explained the test which I quickly told them I wasn't doing lol. My mom asked them if I took the test what would it do for me. They said it would just tell them more accurately how bad my reflux is so they can adjust the medicine. So here's what I heard, even though the medicine is working great now and I feel almost completely better we want you to take this awful test so that we can tell you to continue to take that medicine. Obviously I didn't do it lol. I took the medicine for several months and was doing great. I had changed my diet and how I ate which helped a lot. But after a while I started feeling sick again. I looked up information on the medicine and found that if you take it for an extended period of time it causes an upset stomach. So essentially the medicine that I'm suppose to take for my chronic problem I'm not suppose to take for more than a couple of weeks. Well that's just great. Now I hardly ever take it. I've got it relatively under control with eating habits and the occasional tums. But sometimes it just get too much and I start taking the medicine again. Only for a few weeks though to get things back in balance.

That's what medication is about. Balance. Sometimes your body does things it isn't suppose to. Sometimes it doesn't work right. If you can sort it out in a more natural way great but sometimes you have to take some medicine. Just know what your taking. Know the side effects and what can happen if you take to much or take it for a long time. Be an informed consumer and an advocate for your own health. Don't take someone else word for something no matter who they are.