In the world that we live in, there is so called ‘division‘ on the West and the East world, or side at least. It is not so strange when you look at the differences between China and America for example. These two countries are the perfect example for showing how medicine works. The modern, western medicine says that almost everything can be cured with medicaments, while alternative, eastern medicine claims that the western medicaments cure just consequences and not the real causes of a disease and bad physical conditions, and unless you don’t heal the real cause(s) the disease will return, it one or the other form. There are many examples of complete healing using acupuncture, reiki, ajur-veda, meditation, yoga… Also, the alternative medicine gave a lot of answers that traditional medicine couldn’t. In this article we will try to give you one proof of what we said. Now think about this: If the modern medicine cures diseases completely, why do we have side effects? Here are some of the worst!
8. Hallucinations
I have the honor to inform you that you don’t have to take illegal drugs like LSD or some strong painkillers in order to have hallucinations. Some medications can have a hallucination as a side effect – visual and auditory, so the adventure is complete. A medicine called Lariam was invented by Reed Army Medical Center, to prevent the outbreak of malaria in the US army. Despite of Lariam’s serious side effects, it was until recently given to the army going out of country, and even to some tourists. Both of them had experienced and reported strange and scary hallucinations and very violent behavior due to taking of this medicine. In the beginning of 2000′s, American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insisted on very detailed review of patient’s anamnesis, before the patient could get Lariam as a therapy. So if you have a depression or some kind of psychosis in your record, it will be better for you never to take Lariam.
7. Serious change of behavior
Restless Leg syndrome (RLS) is, unfortunately, a disease many people suffer from. This disease may affect one’s arms and torso too, not just legs. Symptoms are itching and tickling in your legs or arms that won’t stop. Being so frequent disease, there are a lot of medications for it – one of them is Requip. This medication has so called James Bond Casino Royale side effect, and by that I mean a sudden urge to gamble, have sex and become violent. If there are still some of you who haven’t run to the pharmacy to buy this medication, here’s one warning – when you take this medicine, you will very rapidly begin to feel oddly horney and might find yourself doing sexual things without knowing how you got there, if you know what I mean. And in addition to all this, Requip may in some cases cause auditorial and tactile hallucinations. So, imagine yourself having sex or gambling and hallucinating at the same time! Well, if you are still decided to try so, try to escape before the police come.
6. Amnesia
The temporary or permanent memory loss is something that often happens in the movies or soap operas, but it can happen in real life too and it can be caused by many things. A serious accident, a severe head injury and some traumatic experience are just some of the things that can cause amnesia. It can be a side effect of some medicines, for example the Mirapex or Lipitor. The first is used to control the manifestations of the Parkinson disease, but some patients reported that they couldn’t remember where they were and what they did only a day before *a temporary memory loss*. Some medications that are supposed to lower the level of cholesterol can cause amnesia too, by blocking the creation of cholesterol that is needed for good neurological functioning. So, it would be great if you could lower the income of products containing cholesterol to avoid taking medicaments that can seriously damage your memory.
5. Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS)
Here is one true-story example, what only ibuprofen can do to you! Veronica Zekner is a person whose life was completely changed by a couple of Ibuprofen pills. When she was just 13 years old she had a terrible headache – that happens to everybody, so like many times before and like the rest of us, she took two pills of Ibuprofen to get rid of the headache. But that time, something unusual happened – the pills she took caused a strange reaction and Veronica became a victim of the worst side effect, the most of us have probably never heard of, the Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. This is very serious and bad-looking skin disease in which the upper layer of the skin (especially around eyes and lips) divides from the dermis; it can in some cases lead to skin cancer. And that’s still not it – some patients may go blind, in some cases the disease infects even lungs. The worst thing is that in the majority of cases, doctors are not able to tell what triggered the reaction, they only suppose that it can be started by drugs, medications, genetic predispositions and bad immune system… Not some confort to the ill ones.
4. Hirsutism, psychosis
The puberty is a period of life when a lot of body and mind changes happen. Our hairs all over the body grows, the level of hormons radically changes, we may have acne… It can be very traumatic period of growing up. But, thanks to the modern medicine, today we have cremes and other skin care preparations to eliminate the acne. One of medicaments like this is Accutane that can do more than just eliminate your acne, it can cause something worst! How do you feel when you hear those words – hepatitis, rectal bleeding, hirsutism (excessive hair growth in many places), psychosis, general bouts of depression, etc.? Not very good, I guess. So, in case you feel like you cannot live with your acne, just think about one of the previous listed things, that you could get by using anti-acne medicaments, and you will instantly feel better. The mitigating fact is that all those side effects never happened at the same time (otherwise it’ll be catastrophic).
3. Inability to control discharges
Food and Drug Administration (of the USA) is obliged to test every medicament before putting it into the public use. This is especially related to non-prescription medicaments, such as Alli (a weight loss drug). During the testing of Alli, reported side effects were more than disgusting! If you put aside the abdominal pain, and look at the other side effects you will never wish to lose weight in this way. Other side effects are constant fecal urgency and inability to control it, oily stool (oily discharge without a real stool), fecal incontinence, infection of sinus, back pain… Did you have enough? At least I did, so if you want to go slimmer, I suggest that you make some effort and do some exercises, and of course pay attention to what you eat.
2. Suicidal Ideation
Give the warm welcome to Larium, again. Besides causing hallucinations it is to be blamed for several suicides. As we previously said, it was given to the soldiers who went out of country, so it is natural that those are the ones who killed themselves, but one disturbing fact is that the wives of these soldiers killed themselves with the same medicament when they found out what killed their husbands. It is no official side effect of Larium, but who could ever say that its medicament can cause paranoia and suicidal thoughts in your head? ‘Some patients taking Larium think about killing themselves, and there have been rare reports of suicide’ stands in the manufacturer’s statement. Well, it would be great if this was the only medicament that causes suicidal ideation, but another big group of medications like this are antidepressants that are widely used. Being in the state of depression, it is not strange that you might have such thoughts. One of this kind you should avoid is Paxil; it firstly was not recommended for persons uder the age of 18, and later, the year limit was moved up to 30 years. But the most dangerous one is Chantix! More than 40 suicides and 400 attempts are linked to this medicament, and it is the official information!
1. Infertility
Male and female infertility IS known as the white plague of the modern age. More and more couples are unable to have children. There can be many reasons for that, but it is mostly because of medications. Besides the antidepressants, that are bad for everything, the contraception pills, blood pressure medications and anabolic steroids can affect fertility too. The most common side effect of these medications are the loss of libido, erectile dysfunction at men, as well as lowered sperm count, and menstrual irregularities (anovulation) and amenorrhea in women. Here is a special warning for girls who take contraceptive pills to avoid the following – Diane (the most common hormon pills in many countries)! The medicaments you should also avoid are: Cyclophosphamide (an anticancer drug), Methenolone (an synthetic anabolic steroid), St. John’s Wort (antidepressing herb)… And I guess there is no need to mention all the drugs (marijuana, cocaine…) and alcohol abuse, tobaccos, etc.
