I was reading the paper with breakfast today and it struck me how many ads there are there, and on the idiot box, for medications to control ‘conditions’, especially lifestyle related ones.

I  searched on drugs.com by condition and even sticking to mostly diet & weight related conditions turned up startling results:

  • Plain old treatment of Pain with 511 medications available is a standout.
  • Constipation is a class winner with 165 choices.
  • Osteoarthritis – often weight related – 200.
  • Heartburn – Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)  113.
  • Type 2 diabetes – 104.
  • Diarrhoea – 49.
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease (incl Crohn’s disease) – 48
  • Obesity –  42.
  • High Cholesterol (please note IMHO this should not be a condition at all!) – 32

Why are we such an overmedicated society?

Why do we let doctors drug us into submission, endure side effects, spend large amounts of our income on medications, when in many cases the problems can be more effectively treated with diet and lifestyle changes?

Why don’t doctors insist?  Why doesn’t the government take a more pro-active stance and rather than fund drugs for lifestyle/obesity related conditions instead fund lifestyle education to help people make the necessary changes? Are we so blind to reason we cannot see the daylight for the fields of waving wheat?

Why are we so reluctant to make changes for the better in our lives if they involve giving up temporary and fleeting oral/taste pleasures for lasting health improvements?

Do we actually want to die early?

I know since giving up all grains I never need any medications – even the paracetamol & ibuprofen tablets in the kitchen drawer hardly ever see the light of day. They’ll pass their use by date before they are taken at this rate!  Another of the wonderful benefits of eating right.