I am frequently asked about these questions in clinic...
Yes the stigma is there ans sticks strong...
Once you start taking hypertension pill or diabetes pill, you will not able to stop taking it for the rest of your life!
Better delay taking medicine because you will depend on it forever!
Medicine will kill you by its side effects if you start them very early in your life!
These statements is very common, especially when friends or relatives get together to start discussing of their health. Furthermore, our eastern culture does have some ill feeling about modern medicine nowadays and thinks that they can rely completely with herbs and traditional medicine alone for every type of illness.
Do you want me to answer these questions for you...?
of course I will...
First
Most of us do not understand or not being informed that most of the disease that requires long term therapy are chronic disease.
What chronic means?...It means something that happens within long period of time...the starting of the chronic disease is slow maybe left unnoticed by us. In addition, it progress over a long period of time. They can be completely cured or occasonally having ups and downs. They can worsens over time and leads to severe complication if left untreated or poorly controlled. These means hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, chronic hepatitis (liver disease) and joints disease, for examples, are included as chronic disease.
Chronic disease needs long term management plans and follow up.
Second point,
When we are on long term medicine like hypertension pills or diabetes medication, we always thinks that we are already fully protected....So we tend to forget that we need to maintain and practise healthy lifestyle like eating healthily, exercise regularly, try to have enough rest and clears ourselves from high tension surroundings or situations. Stop smoking or excessive alcohol consumption will help definitely.
I have come across many times that losing weight healthily will improve a lot of things...
Again...some of us will think that....oh i am on medication...strong and expensive one...why worry?
Then in that case you will definitely never improve your health and please accepts that you need the medicine forever now to somehow counter or balance the ill effects of all the unhealthy lifestyle that you involves in. Do you think this is a good idea?
Yes some client tell me that they have followed all the healthy lifestyle tips and rules, but still there is no end to their medicine.
To explain this...i am very sorry to say that..somehow after we reach a certain age, the bad genetics from our family tree will have more influences. But never give up please my friends...you never know God will answer our prayers and make things easier for us mentally or physically to go about this life. I keep reminding myself, every pain that we endure in this life hopefully is part of returns that we get for our wrong doings in the past so that our afterlife will hopefully be a lighter journey....(just a personal opinion)
Third points,
Why delay your medication if your body is already taking all the ill effects of the disease.
Yes it is now very common that young people already have hypertension and heart disease.
Of course, please support your friends when you know that they have to take medicine for chronic disease at young age. Do not discourage them because delay of receiving treatment can be too late at times.
Yes maybe we are too worried of side effects.
But my friends...some doctors will tell you this
If you try to balance between the mild tolerable expected side effects that we can observe and intervene when necessary WITH the complications that may arise from delaying to receive medication....the result is very obvious. For example; HEART ATTACK and STROKE as compared to leg swelling, bodyache, thinning of blood, dizziness....what will be your answer.Of course your doctor will be aware of the side effects and will folow you up for that reason and intervenes when necessary. But do not underestimate the serious major complications especially if you have family history of the deadly complications. Mind you, some of the complications is irreversible or not able to be treated if we present late for treatment, for example heart failure where your heart swells and loss its normal funtion to pump blood effectively through out your body. Or Kidney Failure follows after uncontrolled diabetes or long standing hypertension in which if no organ donors available, we will have to sit on the dialysis chair for 4 hours receiving needle and tube on our arm and letting the machine purify your blood on every alternate days.
The pics above is from http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0S0202JU4xJUSQALzejzbkF/SIG=130gqrq34/EXP=1234019593/**http%3A//wellergize.naturalhealthcare.ca/why_workplace_wellness_programs.phtml
I am not to scare you my friends but please discuss these further with your doctors okay.
Again point no 4,
All medicines have side effects, even taking Panadol, if your body is allergic to it, you will easily land in ICU bed for a week.
Again not my intention to frightened you...talk with your doctors about side effects of the medicine you are taking. Your doctor will guide you of what to observe for and discuss of ways and means to modify the treatment.
Beware....do not think that medical medicine are the only one that have side effects. Nowadays we start to discover that even herbs and supplements are having similar problem.
Last time scientist do not bother to do research on herbs and supplements so we assume that everything is safe. And instead, medicine that undergo extensive scientific reserch worldwide are obliged to report of any side effects to the public. As for herbs and supplements, due to lack of research we are not adequately informed of possible side effects or if we overdose the amount what will happens to us.
Just imagine one afternoon you go to pick up roots in the jungle to prepare for health remedy soups for your friends...but DO you know how much amount of them you suppose to use...will you overdosing your ill friends...Are there any side effects of them that you are not aware of.....Just something to think about...I will elaborate further in my next writings then.
Okay...so much things for tired minds..huh...
Take home the message if there is anything related to you
Feel free to ask any question as well....
By the way...take care.
