I cannot count the number of times someone has walked into our office in the past couple of months asking questions about the drugs they have been prescribed by their doctors. People are reeling over the warnings that have come down from the FDA about many of the medications they have been taking regularly at the advice of their physicians. Chiropractors have always been advocates of avoiding drugs and surgeries if at all possible, so we are often questioned about alternatives to them. I must admit when I hear a drug warning I think to myself and probably sometimes aloud a great big “DUH” because there is no magic pill that will alter the chemistry of the body to solve a problem without creating another problem. Period. All drugs have side-effects and there is no getting around that fact. Some drugs have life-saving properties. This fact is undeniable and one for which we all should be grateful; however, there is always risk involved in putting a chemical into your body. Whether or not the benefit to you outweighs the risk is the issue at hand. Here are a few examples of the latest warnings and what they have meant to people who were taking these FDA approved medications.
In September 2004 Vioxx, an arthritis drug, was taken off the market after a significant clinical trial indicated that it “doubles a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke.” People had been taking Vioxx since its approval by the FDA in May, 1999. In October 2004 the FDA issued a public health advisory to include a “black box” warning on the labels of the entire class of antidepressant medications including Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone, Remeron, and others. The warning was to alert healthcare providers that children being treated with these medications had exhibited increased suicidal thoughts and behaviors. (Wait a minute – isn’t that what antidepressants are supposed to treat?) In the December 23, 2004 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, a letter to doctors stated that since the problem arose for Vioxx, physicians should “stop prescribing” Bextra, another medication that works like Vioxx. On December 20, 2004 two FDA warnings were posted. One of them was that Celebrex use “may be associated with an increase of adverse cardiovascular events, including cardiovascular death, acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke.” Celebrex is a COX-2 inhibitor and works like Vioxx and Bextra. The other December 20, 2004 warning was “of the risk of hepatotoxicity” (liver toxicity) associated with the use of Strattera, a drug prescribed for the treatment of ADHD. On December 21, 2004 the FDA warned patients who take Aleve to do so for no more than 10 days without consulting a physician. This warning came on the heels of the halting of a National Institutes of Health study because patients taking Aleve were found to have “50% more heart attacks and strokes.” And the list goes on.
So what are people who have been depending on these drugs for their borrowed “health” to do? What drugs are safe? The short answer is that we must all remain active to some degree as long as we want to keep our health. Some people have become dependent on drugs to keep their pain away when the body really needs to be in motion to keep from hurting. Covering up symptoms with medications simply delays the healing process and never gets to the root of the problem. Treat the cause of the problem and not the symptom for a long-lasting correction and not simply a mask for the pain. There is no easy way to do this. It requires hands-on interaction and commitment from you and your healthcare providers.
Chiropractors have taken on the responsibility to alert the public about true correction to their problems without drugs and surgery for over a hundred years. There are some basics that the public needs to know about drug usage and the FDA is finally becoming aware of this. There are no truly one hundred percent safe drugs. They all have side-effects and often they are severe. Look up the possible side-effects of every drug you are taking, including the over-the-counter ones and educate yourself about the possible risks. Drug combinations multiply your risks. You not only have the risks of the individual drugs but you have the chemical interactions of the drugs combined for a potentially volatile situation. Make sure you tell your doctors about all of the medications you take and ask about potential dangers of the combined effects of your prescriptions. If you are taking a new drug you need to be aware that it hasn’t been on the market long enough for people to experience all of the potential problems with it. We encourage patients to ask their doctors for medications that have been on the market for at least five years if possible. Look at the problems with Vioxx, for example. People thought it was the miracle they had been waiting for to ease the pain associated with arthritis. It had been on the market for just over five years when it was pulled for doubling a patient’s risk of heart attack and stroke.
There are plenty of alternatives available. Consider lifestyle changes such as getting good nutritional advice, starting an appropriate exercise program, and becoming informed about what your body is going through. Consult a chiropractor to find out how wellness can be manifested by your own body. Wellness is not a byproduct of adding chemicals to your system. Health is not merely the absence of symptoms. It is corrected function which brings back the burning desire to be all that you have the potential to be. Treat your body well.