How Americans got stuck with endless drug commericals

There are only three countries in the world this madness is allowed. The USA, Brazil and New Zealand. I know the networks are not complaining about the boat loads of advertising dollars flowing in. Personally, I've never watched one of these commercials and thought - "That's exactly what I need!"

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a reply to: TheAmazingYeti

Letting your television be your doctor has to be the most inhumane thing I've ever heard of. It's so insane that more Americans aren't upset about this. I've known about this idiocy for a while now and I agree DTC ads for pharmaceuticals should be 100% illegal.

Meth sells just fine without commercials.
I wonder if these commercials really make a difference?
My guess is that people want a pill to solve their problems instead of working through something.
I'm fat doc, gimme a pill for weight loss!
Have you tried diet and exercise?
.
.crickets...
.
.
Gimme a pill!!!

a reply to: TheAmazingYeti

It's almost comical.

Listening to the "side effects" (they call them this even though these "side" effects are sometimes more powerful/common than the intended results from these medications)..

talking about "Irreversible yellowing of the skin or eyes may occur, heart failure, death, explosive diarrhea, and hair loss have also been reported"
All narrated by some woman with a gentle and sweet voice (flowers in the background, people smiling and playing in fields, peaceful music, etc.)

It's incredible to me..

a reply to: Bluntone22

Meth is a different market than pharmaceuticals though. Sure they are both drugs, but one takes meth to party and get high, while someone takes pharmaceuticals to get better. So one doesn't look to buy these drugs unless they are sick. Yet since illnesses are hard to understand and doctors go through a lot of schooling, the general public has a bad idea of when they are sick. So if a commercial makes it seem simple to explain, then you can bet your ass they'll listen to it.

PS: I have a grandmother who is a hypochondriac. Every time she sees a news report on some new and exciting new disease/illness, the first thing she says is, "Ohhhh I think I got that!" and she immediately drives to the hospital to get it checked out. DTC ads DEFINITELY have an effect on her.

I haven't had cable in 17 years, mostly because I can't stand commercials. I consider commercials to be harassment, especially since they're forced on you. When I used to work for a Best Buy a few years back, we had 2 40" LED tv's in the break room which both had DirectTV on them, so they were always playing something during breaks. It's because of this that I was still bombarded by commercials.

In the years I worked there, I saw many advertising drugs to people. I stopped listening to what these pills would "cure", but instead began to pay attention to the side effects. There's one that really stood out to me. I forget the pill, but the concept behind it was to cure you of social anxiety. The commercial put emphasis on sadness/loneliness, how life is hard with social anxiety, but this pill will cure you and help you get out and meet people!!! Side effects was impotence. I couldn't help but laugh! This pill will help you overcome social anxiety so you can speak with women and gain a relationship, only to help you lose such relationship because your parts don't work.

Another one I remember is "anal leakage". I'm sorry, I don't care what this pill "cures", I don't want anal leakage. lol

a reply to: Necrobile

a reply to: Krazysh0t

As funny as this stuff is, it's this reason right here that I try my best to avoid doctors and almost flat out refuse to take medications. Growing up the adults in my family had to take tons of pills. Pills for this, pills for that, pills for everything. It wasn't until I got older that it dawned on me that maybe the reason they take so many pills is to counter the side effects of them all. Take a pill here to fix this, but then take another pill to correct the side effect. Uh oh, another side effect, better take a pill for that one. Here, this shot will cure that side effect for 6 months, but now you'll need a pill to cure that side effect.

Like Jeff said, I'd rather stick with "itchy, watery eyes". XD

a reply to: TheAmazingYeti

The only thing that I get out of drug commercials is that there are way too many side effects to make taking the vast majority of them worth the risk.

I have found that to be true with many others as well--it's almost like they're paying millions in advertising only to turn people off of their medication (although I'm sure the majority of Americans think that everything is a wonder pill if it's on the TV, so I bet the net ROI is worth it).

Every time I see a drug commercial, it reminds me of the move to get tobacco products off the airwaves. Yeah, cigarettes are bad for me. But not as bad as some of these drugs.

I just don't take medicine normally. A recent heart attack did have me popping some pills though. One of them was a low dose of Metoprolol, a common beta-blocker that was prescribed " to give my bruised heart a chance to heal." I was on one-half of a 25mg pill per day. As time went on, I noticed that the weakness and extreme fatigue I associate with a heart attack wasn't going away...it was getting worse!

I asked about it on my first follow-up and was told it was probably the Metaprolol. I obviously wanted off it, and the doc agreed, as long as I first cut the dosage to 1/4 pill per day. It still kept getting worse, just more slowly. I did some research and found out that what it did was block the effectiveness of epinephrine. The body uses epinephrine to get sudden energy from the muscles. But Metoprolol doesn't stop epinephrine production... and epinephrine does something else: it stops production of nitric oxide, which is the primary chemical used to signal muscular action.

In other words, it stopped my reserve energy while allowing blockage of normal energy channels. I was turning into a zombie, weak, fatigued, and no emotion or ambition.

I stopped it after less than a week of the even-lower dosage. My blood pressure jumped 20 points at first, but it's dropping back down. I'm slowly getting back to being me. But the really scary part is that when I was looking up side effects, I also had been showing symptoms considered dangerous... flashing colors in my vision, difficulty concentrating, light-headedness. I spoke with my pharmacist yesterday about what I had read and he said it was probably a good thing I had stopped when I did.

Those symptoms can indicate a growing probability of brain damage.

That's a common blood pressure pill, at a low dosage. What can some of the newer, high-octane drugs do? And we advertise them to the general public en masse, with happy images and soothing music while the fact that it can kill you is printed in small print at the bottom of the screen.

And people like to warn me about smoking... sheesh!

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

All of the side effects you describe that you had with Metaprolol, I had the exact some problems and side effects with Propranolol (another common beta-blocker). I was on that drug for several years (very low dosage) in an attempt to control arrhythmias and palpations that I've been dealing with since I was a teenager (birth heart defect).

I made the decision a while back to slowly wean myself off of it over a period of 4-5 months... and I've been completely off of the drug now for about 6 months and am only now just slowing starting to get back to feeling like myself again (energy reserves are finally starting to go back up and the brain fog is dissipating).

I'd much rather deal with the odd palpation every once in a while than spend the rest of my life walking around like a ragdoll braindead zombie. Thank you very much.



Every time I turn on an American tv network, I scratch my head at how many crazy pharma commercials you guys have... for every five commercials, there's at least one or two of them that are ads for bloody drugs ! After my experiences with Propranolol, the thought of taking any kind of pharmaceutical for anything scares the living bejeezus out of me.

It really makes me wonder just how many Americans actually get sucked into these commercials and go running to their doctors to get some drug or other for every silly little symptom they think they might have ?!

It's crazy.

a reply to: CranialSponge

I'm pretty sure any beta-blocker will have similar effects.

I do use supplements quite often, after researching them thoroughly and trying to understand the systems they operate on. My philosophy is, if I can't find it in food, it's something I should be real suspicious of.

I'm still taking Effient (anti-platelet for the stint) and Lipitor for the high cholesterol, but neither of them have given me any serious side effects (Effient just makes me feel hotter). And I have made it clear to the doctors that I consider both temporary.

The human body was designed to heal; that's just what it does, and it does it very well if allowed to. Medicines can be required sometimes, but not at the rate we as a society are eating them.

Glad to hear you got off the poison.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: TheAmazingYeti

Letting your television be your doctor has to be the most inhumane thing I've ever heard of. It's so insane that more Americans aren't upset about this. I've known about this idiocy for a while now and I agree DTC ads for pharmaceuticals should be 100% illegal.

It used to be illegal.

I remember when that was changed.

It says something when the populace isn't smart enough to say no to the TV. These are the same bunch that are persuaded by political ads.

From what I hear, patients are asking their doctors about these meds and want to try them. That is unwise when patients start asking for specific medications. It can put the doctor in a spot and the doctor may prescribe a medicine without thinking it through.

Who pushed to make this legal? I think that media was involved, it is extra income for them.

a reply to: TheAmazingYeti

Oily discharge may occur!

Because it's easy. Easy solution-nothing needs to be done. Just take a pill and keep eating McDonlds instead of going to the farmer market and cooking some fresh orgatic salad. Just take a pill and keep your ass ona couch instead of going for a walk or to the gym. Easy nation. No wonder for the high rate of heart and cancer deseases.