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Thread: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

    For new years I decided to escape the gloom and coldness of London so a friend and I went off some place warm.

    I've sat next to a homeopathic healer on a long haul flight before, and I kept my mouth mostly shut... Mostly (I consider them to be nothing more than con artists playing on ignorance and desire to health, thou I grant some provide a kind of sympathy n bulldung that some ill people may consider worth paying for, we know categorically from meta analysis they peddle ****, we know scientifically, they peddle ****. Most vendors either have to be really dumb or cruel beyond my imagination).

    But this one, this one was knew. I needed some DEET, having had my bottle nicely leak on the plane over (I always wrap things like that in bags in bags thou, so no damage, just a mess). I pop in to a pharmacy, small queue, girl in front making quite the scene.

    In plenty of parts of SEA, its very common for the Pharmacist to be a GP light, they serve as the general help me get better person. This girl explains her symptoms, coughing up cloudy sometimes bloody mucus, obvious swelling, pharmacist takes her temp, she is running a high fever. Pharmacist says to have some amoxicillin for the chest infection, worried about how long she has had the fever suggests parrotseatthemall, plenty of hot teas and avoid sleeping with AC on, general advice about fluids.

    The girl turns round to say "no, I don't want any big pharama western medicence". The pharmacist informs her politely that she is sick, badly so. She explains she doesn't trust 'drugs' and is quite offensive to the lady who has spent an obvious long time studying for her exams to reach the qualification of pharmacist.

    She walks out of the store in a complete huff.

    Are people so badly educated they don't remember the fact people died of the simplest things only a very few years ago. Yes antibiotics are often over prescribed, people don't finish the corse etc, but still, I think she'll be paying someone to be her nurse very soon as she won't be walking around much longer without treatment. The mind boggles.

    So people of hexus, what is your best experiance of patients following advice?
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Re: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

    Often the psychological effects of the drugs are more important that the effects of the drug itself. Especially true with branded painkillers. £3 quid 'panadol' works better than 15p own brand paracetamol, despite being exactly the same thing.

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    Formerly known as Andehh Andeh13's Avatar
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    Re: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'


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    ALT0153™ Rob_B's Avatar
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    Re: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

    I've watched that video and listened to that poem far too many times

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    Re: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    Are people so badly educated they don't remember the fact people died of the simplest things only a very few years ago?
    Yes. Sadly, some are.

    And my experience, or rather that of a couple of friends that are medical practioners of various types is that a lot of people's ability to follow prescriptions, or medical advice, carefully and fully is, frankly, lamentable.

    Western medicine doesn't, by any stretch of the imagination, have all the answers, or even the only answers/options in all cases. I would certainly not class all 'alternative' forms of treatment as either 'faith' healing, or quackery. Nor, for that matter, are all western doctors necessarily either right, or even competent. So, my view is that anyone with a brain listens to a doctor's diagnosis, prognosis and prescription but ..... does so with an open mind, a challenging mindset and a cautious degree of scepticism.

    Due to several serious direct experiences with, let's say, less than attentive Western doctors in my immediate family, I certainly don't regard doctors as infallible and I emphatically do not buy into the mindset of "doctor knows best". Maybe doctor knows best, and often probably does. But not always, and blind trust can be dangerous .... or fatal.

    For instance, a relative recently had her concerns over chest problems repeatedly dismissed by her GP, only to have another doctor refer her to a hospital, where it turned out she has a split aorta, resulting in major surgery, a month in intensive care, and a comment to me from the cardiac surgeon that he's not sure how she survived with that condition long enough to make it to surgery.

    I have a healthy respect for doctors, but not blind trust and I don't put western medicine on too much of a pedestal, and I sure don't dismiss all alternative options. Some are quackery (IMHO, of course), but I'm far from convinced all are.

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    Re: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

    Quote Originally Posted by abaxas View Post
    Often the psychological effects of the drugs are more important that the effects of the drug itself.
    There is a whole lot to be said for you believing it works, but obviously there are limits to that, and I read something a few years back about happier people get better quicker, and thats just a psychological state of mind.

    Quote Originally Posted by abaxas View Post
    Especially true with branded painkillers. £3 quid 'panadol' works better than 15p own brand paracetamol, despite being exactly the same thing.
    Again possibly psychological, however, it depends what you determine "work" as being, both drugs will have the same effect in the end, however the cheap drugs may take longer to enter your blood stream and be effective.

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    Re: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

    Quote Originally Posted by abaxas View Post
    Often the psychological effects of the drugs are more important that the effects of the drug itself. Especially true with branded painkillers. £3 quid 'panadol' works better than 15p own brand paracetamol, despite being exactly the same thing.
    We're talking about a serious chest infection here, and one that's seemingly progressed for a while. That is not the time for psychological effects, it's time for kill the bloody bacteria with antibiotics as soon as you can or you die.

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    Re: 'No I don't want any big pharma western medicene'

    As I was reading this, I immediately thought of Tim Minchin (but couldn't remember the name of it though). I think Saracen has summed up my opinions very well. I've heard of a few cases where a doctor has misdiagnosed or just failed to recognise symptoms of something more serious, and it's only when someone has gone for a second opinion that their condition had been identified correctly, but considering the complexity of humans and medicine, it's going to happen every now and again.

    Mentioning SEA, I remember seeing a programme about medicine where they showed how bacteria can adapt against stronger and stronger antibiotics. The programme then did a piece about how antibiotics weren't prescribed in certain parts of SEA, but bought from the counter. Not only that, people weren't being educated properly about antibiotics. As such, many people didn't take full treatments, or rather would only have one or two, and in doing so making subsequent infections more resilient.

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