Viraj's Weblog

Well things are somewhat improving here, but it's dangerous to drive. Many major intersections have no traffic lights. Going through these intersections is not fun. With so many trees blown down it looks like a wasteland outside. Power is still out to many areas, and the lines to gas stations are huge. I am only driving minimally, and have about a half tank of gas left. Cabin fever is setting in. I saw 'The Shining' last night, but I am not at the Jack Torrance stage yet. What an amazing movie btw, it's such a masterpiece of filmmaking. It played on A&E and what kinda sucked is it ran from 8 to 11:30pm with commercials!

Speaking of commercials, I am really appalled at the number of prescription medicine commercials on television. It is really getting out of hand. I think I saw at least one for every commercial break on A&E between 8 and 11:30pm. I also see a new tactic in these ads. In the past there were always disclaimers saying you may vomit, get an erection for 8 hours, die, etc. Now they are almost gone, and instead they show some text in the commercial such as 'See our ad in Health magazine.' I am not sure, but it seems to me they are exploiting a loophole to not mention any side effects during the commercial.

Here is an interesting critique by a doctor on the med business. Sorry I think you need a subscription to Discover to read this. A quote:

These ads drive a wedge between doctor and patient. For a while, I was both a family practitioner and a researcher, and I knew as much about the real data behind Vioxx and Celebrex as anybody. I knew they were neither safer nor more effective than the much less expensive alternatives and would tell my patients so. Nonetheless, many still demanded these drugs, which shows the tremendous power of marketing.

If you don't believe your doctor, I feel sorry for you. It's a shame that someone can think themselves more knowledgeable on medicine after watching a 30-second commercial. Is 30 seconds going to outweigh 8+ years of education that a doctor goes through to become a doctor? What's also very sad from that article:

Drug companies are also sponsoring about 70 percent of the continuing education that doctors are required to participate in to keep their licenses to practice.