i tend to avoid tv for the most part, but sometimes i’ll find myself bored and flipping through the channels or watching an episode of jeopardy with my gf. during the show last night there was an advertisement for some drugs for some minor annoyance or other. during the commercial the voice over said “ask your prescriber for more information”

the use of the word “prescriber” really bothers me. i feel like they are diminishing the role of a doctor as care giver and advice giver and instead are making them seem like prescription robots. your doctor should be discussing medications with you, and not always with then intention of giving you one. i really feel like this country is drug crazy, to the detriment of humanity on the whole.

it goes along with those new super virii that have been in the news lately. you know, the ones that are drug resistant, stronger, and better at infecting humans and spreading themselves. the ones that have developed because of our overuse of antibiotics and other medications. i was also reading an article the other day talking about the abnormal rise in food allergies amongst young children recently. the authors posited that it might be due to our being “too clean” and the fact that many babies are born by cesarean section now and miss out on a lot of the “messiness” of the birth canal, thereby sending their immune systems into overload when they are growing causing food allergies.

i’m not some crazy nutjob who thinks that all medicine is bad or something. i really do believe in science and medicine and i think it is clearly in our best interest to be able to take care of our bodies and keep ourselves healthy, but it should be done with a large amount of foresight and thought. i realize the public appetite for new medications and treatments is really high, but shouldn’t those people who are the gatekeepers to our health be concerned with the long term effects?