Before you, Google or search “Glamor Drugs”, the following is my definition for its use here. Glamor Drug: beautiful ads for drugs we see online, on television, and in print. Wow, I would not mind getting some of them; most are very enticing which makes for good ad copy. I guess the drug companies need to recruit all of us medical laypersons to lobby our doctors for that which we seek (or uninformed about)!
I grow up as a healthy child. At least I thought I was healthy, and still feel that way. The medicine cabinet in our home consist of 1 bottle of aspirin, 1 bottle of iodine (for me, the only boy; burned like heck), 1 bottle of mercurochrome (for my three sisters; did not burn), 1 jar of Vicks, and a box of band-aids. I ate three meals a day, drank milk and water and, if I was lucky, indulged in one bottle of soda every two weeks. During the school year my schedule controlled school, ball practice, dinner, chores, 1hr personal time, then bed.
Before the second grade, I frequented the emergency rooms of hospitals more frequently than “Tim the Tool man Taylor”, so I was told. I could not stay out of stuff. However, beginning with the second grade, I knew how sharp razor blades, glass, and knives were. I learned the dangers of fire, how metal fans worked, and that bicycle spokes do not just disappear when you are peddling the bike when the bike is in the upside down position (that one cost me a portion of a finger). I also learned about depth perception when it came to jumping off a barn into a six-inch swimming pool! Hey, I thread my Beagle in first and she did not limp the next day. Further, I learned not to eat the chocolate bar in the blue & white box that was occasionally in our refrigerator or drink a lot from the non-refrigerated grape juice bottle on the top shelf of the kitchen cabinet next to dads cough medicine. Oh yes, beginning in the second grade, on the rare occasion I went to the doctor, the professional opinion was usually “growing pains”. That’s it, until the seventh & twelfth grade when some attention had to be given to my legs (I abused them in sports, actually, Jeff B. abused one of them in the twelfth grade).
Today, if you have diarrhea, you probably take something to stop it, then after you are stopped up, you take something else to “clear the way” usually ending back to diarrhea. Glamor drugs are available for ANYTHING today. There are even glamor drugs that take care of the side effects of glamour drugs.
When my grandparents were 70+ years old (early 1980’s), they had one, maybe two prescriptions that they were taking. When my mother-in-law passed a few years ago, she had a Monday-Sunday pillbox for Morning, Noon, & Evening. Fifteen to twenty pills a day and many doctor office visits to “keep the dosage right”! She lived 6 years longer than my grandparents and two years longer than her mother.
Quit complaining about the drugs and be thankful you’re healthy!
Yes, I hear you. However, I am concerned that glamor drugs are replacing proper rest, exercise & diet. I will reduce the final part of this blog to one pill, Viagra.
To start with, I’ve never had Viagra or any of the Viagra want-to-be’s. Lucky me ?! However, a deaf and blind man will turn his head and pay attention to an advertised disclaimer stating, “in the event, your erection lasts more than FOUR HOURS …”. What, I want to run to the store and get some of that! Are you kidding me? I’d be “King of the hill, A number 1, King Kong”! Awoooooo!
Ok, that was close; I almost had to Google some. Seriously, my circle of male buddies and or acquaints is quite small; let us say 150 to 200 guys (included all acquaintances). During the past two years, 6 have died, all between 46 and 53, all that would want to be “King of the Hill”. Found dead in bed, the bathroom and one while getting up to get the remote for the television. Heart failure.
If the government (FDA) is NOT for prolonging life but rather sustaining life to the extent of the current status quo, then, is our health not a ping-pong ball in a small wooden box rapidly ricocheting off the walls of pharmaceutical companies? What if we learn 10-20 years from now that the glamor drugs, that use to be advertised on TV (you’re kidding granddaddy, advertised?), Actually lowered life expectancy? Perhaps that would stretch out entitlements a few more years?
Featured Image: Voluntary Benefits Magazine