EasternPriest
July 15th, 2001, 04:45 AM
Even though this article speaks about the allopathic industry, it applies to the herbal industry as well:
A Pill for Every ill
Maybe it was the handful of vitamins I was expected to swallow every day when I was a kid. Or maybe it was the significant amount of vegetables I consumed. Or perhaps I inherited good genes. Whatever the reason, I am fortunate to be able to count only on one hand the number of times I have been ill in my 30-some years of life--even in an incredibly germ-filled world.
On the few occasions when I am forced to visit a drugstore, I stand dazed in front of shelves overflowing with little boxes promising to relieve my symptoms. I am amazed by the proliferation of over-the-counter drugs available and I am greatly disturbed by the barrage of prescription drug commercials on television these days. While we smile at pictures of attractive people running through fields of daisies, the narrator issues light-hearted warnings about the drug's side effects, including dry mouth, headache, or death--but no worries, at least your nasal allergies, arthritic pains, or depression will be gone.
I am concerned about how these commercials blatantly reinforce Americans' need for a quick fix and a solution scribbled on a physician's prescription pad. We are a drugged nation, rushing to pop a pill before we ask ourselves whether or not we need it--and why. Pfizer, Lilly, Merck and Parke-Davis are household names, and I overhear conversations riddled with the names of today's drugs: Lipitor, Prilosec, Claritin, Zoloft, Paxil, Zocor, Celebrex, Pravachol, Zyrtec, Allegra, Singulair... there's not enough room in the medicine cabinet to hold all of them. Drug companies are getting rich from our desire to medicate, medicate, medicate. It's a culture of sickness that I do not understand. And for ICPs, there's growing concern that in our hurry to dispense medication, we are losing ground to the superbugs that merely laugh in the face of antibiotics. What is required is diligence in how we prescribe and why we ingest everything from antibiotics to the latest designer prescription drugs.
I have always wondered why some individuals get sick more frequently than others, and I ask the old nature vs. nurture question. Are some people's immune systems stronger than others? Does it all come down to observing universal precautions? A recent editorial in JAMA raised this precise question: Why do some individuals have more infections than others? The author, Jerry Winkelstein, MD, cited variations in the human immune system and described a sort of "immunologic fingerprint" that marks each individual as a unique host. He wrote that many physicians report that some patients in their practice seem to have more infections than others, and that one doctor described the phenomenon as, "Ten percent of my patients seem to have 90% of the infections."
One study cited in the JAMA editorial examined children who had been separated from their biological parents soon after birth. If their parents died of infection, the children then had a fivefold risk of dying of infection even though they had not shared their parents' environment--clearly suggesting a genetic basis for the susceptibility to infection. Yet another reason to be happy about having good genes if you can get them, but I still say there's a lot that can be done to promote an attitude of well-being, not illness. As ICPs, you play a critical role in this ongoing fight against disease.
Until next month, bust those bugs!
Kelly M. Pyrek, Editor in Chief
kpyrek@vpico.com
Be sure to visit us at www.infectioncontroltoday.com
A Pill for Every ill
Maybe it was the handful of vitamins I was expected to swallow every day when I was a kid. Or maybe it was the significant amount of vegetables I consumed. Or perhaps I inherited good genes. Whatever the reason, I am fortunate to be able to count only on one hand the number of times I have been ill in my 30-some years of life--even in an incredibly germ-filled world.
On the few occasions when I am forced to visit a drugstore, I stand dazed in front of shelves overflowing with little boxes promising to relieve my symptoms. I am amazed by the proliferation of over-the-counter drugs available and I am greatly disturbed by the barrage of prescription drug commercials on television these days. While we smile at pictures of attractive people running through fields of daisies, the narrator issues light-hearted warnings about the drug's side effects, including dry mouth, headache, or death--but no worries, at least your nasal allergies, arthritic pains, or depression will be gone.
I am concerned about how these commercials blatantly reinforce Americans' need for a quick fix and a solution scribbled on a physician's prescription pad. We are a drugged nation, rushing to pop a pill before we ask ourselves whether or not we need it--and why. Pfizer, Lilly, Merck and Parke-Davis are household names, and I overhear conversations riddled with the names of today's drugs: Lipitor, Prilosec, Claritin, Zoloft, Paxil, Zocor, Celebrex, Pravachol, Zyrtec, Allegra, Singulair... there's not enough room in the medicine cabinet to hold all of them. Drug companies are getting rich from our desire to medicate, medicate, medicate. It's a culture of sickness that I do not understand. And for ICPs, there's growing concern that in our hurry to dispense medication, we are losing ground to the superbugs that merely laugh in the face of antibiotics. What is required is diligence in how we prescribe and why we ingest everything from antibiotics to the latest designer prescription drugs.
I have always wondered why some individuals get sick more frequently than others, and I ask the old nature vs. nurture question. Are some people's immune systems stronger than others? Does it all come down to observing universal precautions? A recent editorial in JAMA raised this precise question: Why do some individuals have more infections than others? The author, Jerry Winkelstein, MD, cited variations in the human immune system and described a sort of "immunologic fingerprint" that marks each individual as a unique host. He wrote that many physicians report that some patients in their practice seem to have more infections than others, and that one doctor described the phenomenon as, "Ten percent of my patients seem to have 90% of the infections."
One study cited in the JAMA editorial examined children who had been separated from their biological parents soon after birth. If their parents died of infection, the children then had a fivefold risk of dying of infection even though they had not shared their parents' environment--clearly suggesting a genetic basis for the susceptibility to infection. Yet another reason to be happy about having good genes if you can get them, but I still say there's a lot that can be done to promote an attitude of well-being, not illness. As ICPs, you play a critical role in this ongoing fight against disease.
Until next month, bust those bugs!
Kelly M. Pyrek, Editor in Chief
kpyrek@vpico.com
Be sure to visit us at www.infectioncontroltoday.com