Warning: Tai Chi May Have Beneficial Side Effects
as we watch, attractive, smiling people have fun with loved ones and friends in bucolic settings, always carefree and casual (and the weather’s always perfect); all the while a pleasant voice drones on in the background about the wonder drug these folks have taken to treat the debilitating illness they had been suffering (colitis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, psoriasis, depression, etc., etc.)—the drug that has given them back a normal life. If we listen to the spoken words carefully, though, we will invariably hear a list of the medicine’s potential side effects, some of which sound a lot worse than the disease this product is meant to treat. There are legal reasons behind describing these possible side
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effects. After all, there is supposed to be truth in advertising. If a pharmaceutical company wants you to buy their medicine, it must reveal every possible result of using that medicine. The biggest takeaway from this type of advertising, however, is that virtually all drugs have potential side effects and many of those side effects are extremely negative. To be sure, medicines can also have positive side effects. The
first drug used to inhibit male baldness was actually intended to lower high blood pressure. One of the new, heavily advertised diabetes medicines also promotes weight loss. There are any number of drugs physicians prescribe “off label,” that is, the effect the doctor is trying to achieve with the medicine is not the medicine’s primary use. The ever-present possibility of potent, negative side-effects
is a reality medical providers and their patients must deal with constantly. Every prescription written for us must take into ac- count our own unique physical issues: perhaps we have another health concern that precludes the use of a certain medicine. The prescriber must consider the way a drug may interact with other drugs we are taking. Other potential health impacts are also part
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here is a certain type of commercial we see a dozen times a day on television: medicine ads. Regardless of the drug they are advertising, the theme is pretty much the same:
of the mix: some medicines inhibit other normal activities, such as going into direct sunlight, eating certain foods or drinking alcohol. These realities expose the manner in which our society has come to depend to a great extent on chemicals for our health, and that the potential side effects of drugs are an unavoidable
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