When’s the last time you saw a commercial on TV promoting a medication that would lower your A1C, ease your arthritic pain, enhance your sex life, or minimize your allergies? No sooner have they identified the name and purpose of the drug, when the speed of the narration increases exponentially for the final fifty-five seconds of a sixty-second ad while all the potential side-effects are listed. Including finally, potential death.
You have to wonder how one result of taking that drug is extoled as its reason for being, while all the others are brushed off into the trash can labeled ‘side-effects.’
In truth, there is no such thing as a side-effect, only effects of a drug. Every symptom mentioned in that ad, or listed on the receipt from the drugstore for that prescription, is a full-fledged effect of that drug. They all deserve equal attention. So what is the distinction? One is the desired effect, and all the others are undesirable effects, or unintended consequences. One is the symptom that the compound was tested to treat, and all the rest were either unnoticed or ignored during the testing process.
There can be arguments made that sometimes the benefits of a medication outweigh the risks, and it is worth taking it to control dangerous health threats. But it is also important to question if benefits ALWAYS outweigh the risks, and when it might be important to consider other options besides pharmaceutical preparations in our approach to health and healing.
At Naturopathic Athlete, just as all symptoms and issues presented by a patient are carefully evaluated, any and all treatments are considered for their efficacy in addressing his/her complaints in a whole-istic way. Supplements, protocols and exercises are chosen for the total impact they may have on the improvement and sustained well-being of each patient. And as health returns, these methods are constantly assessed to determine if they need to be altered, substituted or discontinued. Our intended consequences of treatments guide our process, and side-effects are not accepted as irrelevant annoyances to be disregarded.