Pill-poppin’ Philippines

(This article was first published in the Mindanao Cross on 29 November 2005)

There was a time in my life when I was a walking pharmacy.  Literally.  I had tablets for headache (at least four brands), muscle/abdominal pain, colds, antibiotics, and arrythmia or abnormal beating of the heart.  I had vitamins in all shapes and sizes, too.  I also felt it was my duty to hand headache pills to anybody who was in pain.

The children were healthy, or so we thought; but almost every month we had to see a doctor because someone in the family was sick; not to mention easy access to hospitals.  Jun and I came to a point where we asked, “Is this all there is to life?  Work hard, earn a little, and spend most of the money on medicine and hospitalization?”

To make the long story short, it has been five years now that not one medicine tablet can be found in the house; nor has any member of the family taken one.  The bulk of the family budget is now spent on the basics: tuition, utilities and food; and happily in that order.

How we got rid of medicines in our lives is another story, but for now let me focus on an email I received lately: it concerns about Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), a chemical component of most medication for colds.  The email tells the story of a woman who died of hemorrhagic stroke, later determined to be caused by the said drug.  Hemorrhagic stroke in street language means the brain is bleeding.

Oh dear.  I immediately recall when, as a young mother twenty years ago, I gave drops to Raschid my firstborn, because of a stuffy nose.  He was normally like a spinning top, exploring the world.  This time just sat on his crib, with his robust chest and cloth diaper, very quiet.  Well, he didn’t have stuffy nose anymore, but his breaths were long and deep.  Sensing something was not right, I picked him up and danced him into motion, asking every now and then, “Naunsa man ka, Nak? (What’s wrong, son?)” Deep in my heart I knew it was the colds medication whose brand name I can still remember.

For as long as I have been using the internet, this warning on PPA was already circulating.  But many people have no access to the internet.  And sadly too, pharmaceutical companies do not carry giant billboards that they are pulling out the products containing this chemical in contrast to their hard-sell come-ons to take their products at the first sign of discomfort.  How’s that for a pain-avoiding culture?

(If you want to find out more which products contain PPA, click this url: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/ppa/)

Isn’t it also funny that advertisements only shout how cheap their medicines are?  Their selling point is mostly “it’s affordable.”  Well, maybe they’re also being true to themselves, they cannot shout their products can cure because indeed they rarely cure.  They just mask the pain while another disease builds up somewhere.  If they say it can cure, where’s the explanation how?  The empowered consumer can see this. 

If there is anybody talking about the side effects of these poisons disguised as cures, only a few comprehend.  For cancer patients, it is said “If the cancer won’t get you, the chemo will.”  My own mother died of breast cancer, er, now I can say she died of poisoning due to the only approach medical practitioners and we knew then.  Parallel to that, more and more people are also becoming unwilling victims to the saying, “If the high-blood pressure won’t get you, the maintenance will.”  Change high-blood pressure to diabetes and the meaning won’t change.

A pathetic news item was aired on the radio lately: teenagers are already using Viagra. For whatever purpose is anybody’s guess.  Teachers, with their meager salaries, have to scrounge for means to buy their prescribed cardiovascular medication.  Retirees hire personal nurses to count which pills to take at what time of the day.  And look, people even compare notes as to who spends the most on these synthetic drugs and it has become a status symbol.  Indeed, we have becoming a nation of drug dependents even without shabu. 

Is it any wonder the government’s health programs are not going anywhere?  Even if they argue among themselves which imported generics are the cheapest, they are still importing poison.  Commissions are passed anywhere along the line for products that were never meant to cure anyway.  Where’s empowerment there?  There must be a way out.

Yes, many die, and usually the causes are kept hush-hush.  And even if the causes are discussed, people still go into denial saying it is not at all drug-related.  Somewhere along the decades-long life of one person who died of sickness is drug use.  In relation to this, what then, is the lesson for those of us who are still alive?

NEVER TAKE ANYTHING MAN-MADE. 

Another question: why can't pharmaceutical industries find a cure for the common cold?

Answer: Because colds were never meant to be cured in the first place!

Colds are the body's way of expelling waste materials from the body.  Pharmaceutical products are made from synthetic materials, and/or natural materials that are synthesized into separate components. 

Remember, no factory/factory product can ever duplicate the chemical processes that occur in substances in their natural form.

In layman's terms, when one takes something man-made to stop the colds, the colds (or catarrh and other waste) settle on your weak tissues all around your body, dries up and stays there, invites bacteria and rot.  Conventional medical approaches usually treat infection, and not necessarily removing the cause of the infection.  I could see many doctors and medreps pouncing on me right after reading this but relax: I am just translating scientific findings into terms understandable to the ordinary person.  Remember I was a patient many times in my life.  I (as a matter of fact my whole family) was once the end-user of this high-profile but subdued structural violence called pharmaceutical industries.  It’s high time to explore the most sustainable (read: peaceful) health approach: natural.  I did not make up all that I wrote here.  It is backed up by research.  I do not expect you to believe what I wrote here, that is why as consumers, we need to do our own research to prove/disprove our doubts.  Isn’t empowerment everybody’s wish?      

So much research has already been done on the bad effects of synthetic medicine.  In contrast, all research done on the good effects of natural approaches would not do any help if we still continue listening to and following the relentless advertising campaigns of big pharmaceutical industries that sippin' syrups & poppin' pills equals good health.

*****

(It's been almost seven years since I wrote this article. And even with so-called modern technology and breakthroughs in health care, it seems that our nation's drug dependence has become worse.  Patient empowerment is still an uphill climb with government acting as the main promoter of synthetic medical intervention for health issues. -aag)