Big Pharmas - again

I mentioned a while back about two page ads for drugs in my local paper which can read or re-read by clicking here.

One page is all about the drug - usually with a great picture of healthy looking MODELS...the 2nd page - often on the reverse is all about the studies and contraindications - in small print and with no models....it's like reading the teeny tiny print that comes with all medications....

Well today most papers are carrying a story about those TV ads for drugs. Here's the one from the Washington Post.

1.19 BILLION dollars spend on those ads in 2005...can't wait to see what they spent in 2006....and what are they all about? All about healthy looking MODELS who have active lives after taking all those meds....[my choice of words]. I personally love the one where a man and woman are running home to have sex but are instead greeted by friends throwing a surprise party....oops - no problem - my meds allow me to wait for the right time for my ED meds to work....but after I laugh I do listen tot he rapid fire words that the lawyers said need to be there - they are like the teeny tiny print - all the side effects and problems - but unless you have Superman's ability to hear at fast speeds - you can't catch all the words..

According to the report, 95% of the ads use emotional appeal - along the lines of "take me and you will ... " fill in the blank [have a better social life, more sex, nicer cars, anything you want...] - the ads don't say this outright - they infer it - the pharmas hire ad consultants and psychologists - they know they need to appeal to something other than an illness - ill doesn't sell I bet..

So again ... beware of what the pharmas are trying to sell you - they care about one thing - their own bottom line - which is HUGE these days ... but I'll save that one for my lynnsrants blog :- )

Vitamins

For those who have been regular readers of this blog, you know I prefer "real" food to products with unpronounceable names in them....It's why I have been taking a daily vitamin that is food based - and not one "made" in a lab with who-knows-what in it.

I was alerted to an article about vitamins - which you can read by clicking here

In short it's an article about food-based vitamins v. synthetic ones and contained information I was not aware of concerning the synthetics and the idea of talking in terms of milligrams.

It's worth a read if you take vitamins.

Here we go again - again

Another of those "beware what you put in your body " warnings..

Now we learn from a Canadian study that antidepressants double the risk of bone fracture...in whom? people over 50!

I can't find all the statistics but every older person I know was put on an antidepressant for some reason. I'm thinking back to when my own mother broke her hip and in the rehab center the aide kept trying to get her to take her "happy pills." My mom, not being stupid, asked if it was an antidepressant and was told it was..so why call it a happy pill? It was not making my mother happy that they tricked her into it as "one of the meds she was supposed to take."

She refused to take that pill...now I wonder how many older people with broken body parts are regularly given antidepressants? and what is it doing to the healing of the recently broken bones and what future jeopardy are these already vulnerable seniors exposed to?

When will the medical profession, the hospitals, the rehab centers, and nursing homes learn to respect older people and stop medicating them for what seems to be the benefit of the staff - not the patient..

So beware of who is asking yo to take what meds these days...Ask what the long term consequences are and exactly why a certain drug is being prescribed.

Women without spouses

A recent analysis of census data shows that 51% of American women live without a spouse. You can read the New York Times article here.

When I taught child psychology or child development classes, I usually included some cross-cultural and historical information on families. Here in the USA, we like to think the mythological household of mom, dad and the kids is "ideal." But we were in a minority of about 30% of family situations. The rest of the world tended to, and still does, live in different family constellations and we are now a part of that "rest" of the world.

What does it mean? It means women are not marrying, women are being widowed, and women are being independent. And why not? Some of the women have children, some have partners and some live alone. That it made for pretty big news is more surprising to me than the facts.. I live alone, my friends tend to live alone and none of us are unhappy or see our lives as much different from those of our friends who are married...

Your thoughts?

Weather

It think it was Mark Twain who said about weather "wait a minute and it will change."

Anyway - here's to that minute - no matter where you live....

This winter is odd - not having been in Portland for many winters, I am finding that cold when you live in a floating home is COLD COLD COLD...Not only do we not have basements, we have a river running under our floors..and heat rises - so you can guess what the floors feel like. I bought tent booties for this current arctic flow - figured if a booty as made for walking around a tent and campground, it would work for a floating home....Ahhhh my feet are finally happy.....

Not sure if my feeling cold is due to age, house or what - but I felt coder this past week than when it was 25 below back East...and that was before taking wind chill into effect. But being one to deny the age factor - I am sure it's the floor : - )

And in other parts of the USA/ and other countries, the weather has been worse than it is here - so let's hurry that minute up so we get back to "normal" - whatever that is in these days of climate change...