The drug sides are worse than the disease!

[TZ]

I am so fucking sick of this false logic. I can't believe people don't understand that a drug maker has to legally list all the possible side effects that have been found and the likely hood of having any of the ones particularly the severe ones let alone multiple ones are totally unlikely!
Here's what pissed me off- some longtime smoker posted that he'd rather take his chance with getting fucking lung cancer than deal with Chantix after reading all the side effects.
Well 1) Today of all days to read this, my stepfather is having part of his lung removed because its cancerous (prognosis for recovery is good, its confined to a smallish spot on the lung). He's got a very long and painful recovery ahead (its only gonna hurt when he breathes you know).2) He also quit his 2 pack aday 40 yr smoking habit last year thanks to Chantix, with only vivid dreams as a side effect. God knows how much worse his cancer could be if he hadn't quit.
I'm just so sick of fucking morons who have no clue how hideous cancer is, what a horrid painful disease/death it can be. And that they can't wrap their silly little brains around the concept of risk and statistical likely hood. I guess its the same distorted thinking as the anti-vax woos who think that any vaccine that isn't 100% safe should be used.
:rant:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. Part of the problem is that "natural" products aren't bound to list all of the possible side effects

of their use. Therefore, people assume there aren't any. This couldn't be further from the truth as that snake oil is subject to almost no oversight from the FDA. But if it ain't there, it must not exist.

[TZ]

2. I've found some excellent sites that actually do list

the side effects of herbs and such AND how they can interact with drugs. But because its a scientific site and not from "Natural Cures R US" sites, of course its dismissed as corporate bullshit. (I still do not understand the hatred for the CDC thats found here)

[salvorhardin]

3. Hmm... You know that would make for an interesting web site

You could put together a site that shows the real effects and side effects of herbs and other alt-med "cures" and products, but copying the layout and conspiratorial language used by the alt-med sites like Mercola's. You could call it something like "What Big Herb and Big Vitamin Don't Want You To Know!". If you did it right, it'd rank high on google searches when people searched for information on stuff like St. John's Wort or Vitamin D and you might genuinely reach some people that way.

[Deep13]

7. One side effect is that they don't do jack shit. nt

[Warpy]

4. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease

You can trust me on this, I'm both a nurse and a gimp.

[TZ]

5. Sometimes.

But I doubt anything can be worse than cancer, even though chemo and radiation are pretty bad.

[Warpy]

6. Right now, aggressive treatment for pancreatic cancer

is far worse than the disease because it rarely prolongs life and always ruins one's quality of life in the meantime.

I know only one fellow health professional who tried it, mostly because he had kids under 5 at home.

I wouldn't wish what he went through on Cheney. Really.

[trotsky]

8. "they can't wrap their silly little brains around the concept of risk"

That's basically what the whole alt-med/woo movement comes down to. They simply do not understand relative risk. Wait, I take that back. They understand it, they just don't understand how to apply it to all situations. I mean, I'm sure they drive a car, even though the risk of being injured or killed in a car crash is exponentially larger than the risk of virtually any medical treatment.

[salvorhardin]

9. I don't think it's that simple

Yes, I thoroughly agree that a lack of understanding of relative risk, innumeracy and general scientific illiteracy coupled with a naive view of how science works are important reasons why people come to accept alt-med claims. But it's also a feeling of loss of control. Let's face it. You can live your life as healthily as possible, eating right, not smoking, and exercising regularly but in the end it all comes down to luck. Then when you do become sick, you're at the mercy of an often bewildering, inhuman system* that by it's very design is intended to screw you. Alt-med, and dietary woo, offer to return some of that control. That alt-med treatments do precious little else, or can have dangerous side effects and consequences, is what makes the alt-med industry fundamentally immoral.

*There are some wonderful individual doctors, nurses and technicians though.