Pharmaceutical Madness: The Over Reliance of Medication in Today's World

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 commercial 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 show Work Out when personal trainer Jackie Warner was talking to a client of hers while reviewing her progress at the gym and how she was gaining weight and wasn't following her routine and the client was making 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.

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 erectile 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

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

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 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.