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    Categories: Opinion

Drugged up….the overuse of medication in society

Is today’s society becoming too dependent on medication? We’re using medications as a crutch to not address and tackle the issues to dealing with health concerns. It seems it is because every other commericial or print ad that you see it’s for some kind of medication. We’re so used to fixing everything with a pill we don’t even stop and look at addressing the issues to why we’re popping a pill to fix something that could just simply be a lifestyle change. This is pretty prevalent that we’re relying on a pill to solve a problem and it will all go away.
 
We are not taking care of ourselves as well as we should be doing since there’s an even bigger percentage of sickness and illnesses that weren’t even around 30 years ago to the point that it’s at now. There’s more obesity and other diseases that were totally unheard of 25 years ago that are now coming back with a vengeance and are now in mutated strands that are resistant to the current line of medications that are out here. Plus you have people that are not sticking to their medical treatments as instructed by their doctors or specialists. We don’t want to address issues with health especially African-Americans, this came from watching the Bravo network series Work Out when personal trainer to the stars Jackie Warner was talking to a client of hers in a private consultation session while reviewing her progress at the gym and  telling her how she was gaining weight and wasn’t following her routine and the client was making a lot of excuses about how other priorities and school was more important instead of taking accountability for her lifestyle choices, but Warner’s comment was along the lines of a lot of blaming, excuses, and not being accountable for one’s actions. It’s shocking to hear that from a personal trainer to say this to someone who clearly wasn’t concerned with her health and lifestyle.
 
This is where the understanding of the persona of a personal trainer is that people have to want to meet them half way. They seek out personal trainers to get help in getting in shape, but it’s amazing how people still think the problem can be fixed in a miracle pill.It was a reality shock on how African-Americans don’t even pay much attention to their health and how this girl was totally made me even more aware of my health as a black woman. It’s even more important that blacks need to rely less on medication to fix problems and address the issues with a change in diet and lifestyle choices since we indulge a lot with smoking and drinking and not eating healthy diets. We’re on medications for a lot of common diseases and illnesses, but we haven’t really gotten to the point where we can start to function without popping a pill for something. Black men have no clue that diabetes and hypertension-which strikes a great number of African-Americans can cause errectile dysfunction disorder and that’s when Levitra and other medications are given to treat this.
 
 We depend on a pill to be the miracle quick fix, when that’s a gateway to something else and it’s hard to get away from reliance on medication because we’ve become accustomed to fixing it with medicine instead of addressing the issues of the problem(s). Every ad you see online at least 1 out of 5 banners are for prescription medications. Below are a list of current medications that are all advertised on tv, print ads, and online banners and when you see how many drugs are on this list you’ll wonder that society is turning into one giant drug store. This is a fairly detailed list below of currently commercially advertised prescription medication in television, print ads and online banners-separated by medical condition that each drug treats:
 
Nasal allergies/sinus
Astelin
Nasonex
Singulair
Zyrtec
Claritin
Claritin D
Alavert
Zycam
Xolair
 
Asthma
Advair
Spiriva
 
 
Eye drops
Restasis
 
Insomnia and sleeping disorders
Lunesta
Rozerem
Ambien CR
Ambien
 
Anti-depressants/psychotics
Zoloft
Paxil
Prozac
 
Osteoporosis
Actonel
Fosomax
Boniva
 
 
Rhuematoid Arthritis
Celebrex
Humira
Orencia
 
Anti-smoking
Zyban-(the first prescription medication that had a print ad, online banner and tv spot)
Chantix
 
Antacid/acid reflux disease
Nexium
Previcid
Prilosec
 
 
Cholesterol
Vytorin
Lipitor
Crestor
 
Diet and weight loss
Xenical
Meridia
 
Alzheimers/dementia
Aricept
 
Blood thinners
Plavix
 
Immune system booster
Neulasta
 
 
Birth Control and Contraceptives
Yaz
Ortho tri-cyclen lo(also noted to treat moderate and mild acne)
Levonorgestrel (intrauterine device)
Yasmin
 
Cardiovascular
Coreg
 
 
Bladder control
Detrol LA
Vesicare
Oxytrol
Ditropan XL
Enablex
 
 
Anti-aging serum
Botox
Juvederm
 
Cervical cancer
Gardisil
 
Herpes suprresion 
Valtrex

This is a lot of medication and you’re wondering if people aren’t having a lot of complications due to the side effects these drugs have. This is why people should consider alternative therapies and medications since their bodies are being weakened to the point that it can get difficult to get over infections and diseases.

This is where people need to get a general understanding of how serious some side effects are since some are life threatening if they’re not educated on responsible usage and consulting the doctor if they feel any changes and are having a difficult time with adjustment if dosages were changed or strengths of the drug was increased or decreased to meet the progress of the problem, but in all reality society is too reliant on prescription medication to fix the problem when it’s all in the lifestyle choices of people today.

Nafeesah Abdullah:
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