Out Running Medications and Their Disclaimers

by Josi Gago

The volume of pharmaceuticals commercials on TV is overwhelming

 

While running on the treadmill going down memory lane enjoying Billy Idol, Akon and Fleetwood Mad, I decided to do something I haven’t done in months…Can you guess it?

I turned on the television!  You see, I recently got myself and my entire family a gym membership and the treadmills have these very cool looking, modern style TV screens attached.  I however, haven’t watched television in about 5 years and only know about major news when friends and family bring me up to speed.

Life is better this way and I learned years ago that I don’t really need to know all of the bad stuff happening around the world anyway. It changes flavors constantly and only helps to create fear and panic while giving us very little ability to do anything about it any way.

So here I am running, sweating and I figure I’ll catch up on some of the political drama I’ve been hearing about lately while burning some calories.

Not bad for a Saturday morning, right?

Well, it really should not have surprised me, but in less then 20 minutes into my job, I counted 8 medical commercials promoting medications ranging from how to lower your blood pressure to how to best cure a nail fungus and everything you can imagine in between!

Jeez! Talk about depressing!

The medical warnings in each commercial were just as threatening and then in between those commercials I noticed a few law firms pop up ready to take your case when you sued the company that provided you with the medication as well as the doctor that prescribed it in the first place!

Yes, I actually counted.  It was 8 commercials in 20 minutes! Not one of them was about how to stay healthy and all of them were about what medications to take after you became ill.

How sad is that?

So here I was, counting commercials and working to strengthen my heart.  I thought, I could be angry or I could be sad.  Instead, I chose to run faster and increase the incline.  I looked around and smiled at those around me, turned off the senseless tv and decided that my “happy bubble” was a much better place to live after all.