REALITY CHECK:
- Most of the time, taking a drug to get healthy is like taking out a loan to get rich.
- The FDA is not a watchdog agency – its leadership, research and approval process is biased and highly influenced by pharmaceutical industry money.
- All drugs have side effects – the question is, ‘Do the benefits outweigh the risks?’
Rather than trying to sort through this latest drug recall (this one for high blood pressure drug irbesartan; which ironically isn’t about the clinical efficacy or ‘normal side effects’, but about ingredients known to cause cancer), step back and ask yourself ‘Do drugs produce health, or do they manipulate physiology to appear as health?’
Let’s take high blood pressure medication as an illustration:
We know what causes high blood pressure (hypertension):
Sedentary lifestyle
Chronic stress
Poor dietary choices
Aging
So …
- Does the drug make you more active, engage in regular exercise?
- Does the drug reduce your stress, get more sleep?
- Does the drug encourage you to eat healthier?
- Does the drug reverse a (natural) protective mechanism as we age?
Obviously the drug does none of those things. Those are all lifestyle choices (no, they’re not genetic ‘traits’ you’ve inherited. ‘But it runs in my family’. No, no one runs in your family).
As a matter of fact, with regard to stroke prevention, hypertension drugs can actually increase risk and shorten life:
‘… a study showing anti-hypertension medicines can increase stroke risk by 248 percent, according to new research. Untreated high blood pressure, or hypertension, wreaks havoc on the body, leading to heart disease and stroke.’[1]
Or, to illustrate how the body, due to its innate intelligence, adapts in a positive manner to nearly everything, including aging, high blood pressure in elderly appears to decrease the risk of developing dementia:
‘The researchers found that those who developed high blood pressure after age 80 were 42 percent less likely to develop dementia in their 90s compared to those with normal blood pressure.’[2]
References
[1] Howard G et al. Is Blood Pressure Control for Stroke Prevention the Correct Goal? Stroke. 2015;46:1595–1600 [https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.009128]
[2] Corrada M, et al, Age of Onset of Hypertension and Risk of Dementia in the Oldest-Old: The 90+ Study; Alzheimers Dement. 2017 Feb; 13(2):103–110. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5318224/]
