It is quite obvious that one should be wary of taking medications. All medications have side effects.
In the office, I often have conversations about the risks of meds. We can’t know how they are specifically going to affect specific individuals. And sure, Big Pharma has proven they are not always reliable.
However! Weigh the risks of the meds vs the risks of not taking them. Lets talk about statins. Statins can cause side effects, but if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, and if you have high inflammation, which can be from Complex PTSD, high anxiety, high impact pain, or autoimmune diseases, your risks are higher for having inflammation in your blood vessels and inflammation in your brain. This puts you at higher risk for kidney disease, heart disease, stroke, and therefore dementia.
Not everyone who takes the medications benefit. Some of us, including myself, will be taking it and maybe not even not even benefit. But I have high anxiety and a brother who died young from the results of complex PTSD. I won’t take the risk. If I don’t take meds, maybe nothing will happen, but maybe 10 or 20 years down the line, I have a heart attack and wish I’d taken it.
Talk to your physician or healthcare provider. The internet is great. (Especially my pain program – LOL) but let me explain how hard these matters are. For me to know everything I should know as a family doctor, I would need to read 170 000 journal a year. Impossible! This is why I refer to specialists when I am unsure.
If I were to take care of the size panel of patients I have according to recommendations, I would have to work 14 hours a day 6 days a week. This is why I use the internet to help my patients.
Beware of well meaning individuals who have been led by other well meaning individuals and many unscrupulous ‘experts’. Often these experts are just peddling ‘natural medicine’. Anyway, beware of blog, and other posts. Research from known reputable sources. Today, about 40% of medical journals can’t be trusted due to self publishing.
It’s a minefield. No wonder we don’t know how to tell our patients why they should be taking meds. The more anxiety you have, the more unsafe you feel. It feels unsafe taking medication – that is a instinctive response – but consider not taking medication can be a much more unsafe choice. The more anxiety you have, the more control you want. This really stands in the way of good communication. Learning to be at peace with uncertainty and learning to trust someone with your help can be the most valuable step.
Take care.
Judy
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