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Question of the Day – Aging and Drugs
By JLP | May 17, 2007
Several years ago I helped enroll Senior Citizens into a Medicare supplement insurance plan. I was amazed at how much these people were spending each month on prescriptions. Some were spending $400 – $600 (or more) per month on drugs! Can you imagine? Anyway, the experience led me to think of an interesting topic for today’s Question(s) of the Day:
should they allow nature to take its course?
I understand that this topic quite controversial. However, as the Baby Boomers age, this topic is only going to become more and more important. How will people be able to afford all these prescriptions?
Here’s my personal opinion:
I think people should do as much naturally for themselves as possible. I think they should ignore the drug companies’ pleas for taking this drug or that drug. I wonder how many people would actually have a better quality of life if they weren’t drugged up. I just hope I have the wisdom when I am faced with this situation to be able to say when enough is enough.
Topics: Question of the Day | 13 Comments »
May 17th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Agree, I am trying to only take drugs when I HAVE TO, but if there are any way to avoid it i do..
not always working in case of headache though
May 17th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Being a pharmacist, I can tell you that the reason most people will have improved quality of life when older is their ability to dodge seriously debilitating and deadly conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer which cannot be remedied through natural means except exercise and diet before the condition occurs.
Most people don’t realize that presciption drugs do alot of good and it is the not the ones you see on TV but simple inexpensive generics. I think in general drugs are villified and drug companies viewed as evil but the reality is that most people will blow money on a car but wince at a 30 dollar copay that would help them live a long life with a high standard of health. A perfect example is blood pressure medicine. Would you take a pill every day or risk being the survivor of a stroke or heart attack that leaves you partially paralyzed and immobile the rest of your life. The problem is all we see are ads for hair loss and other fluff that we shouldn’t be wasting time or money on.
I will agree with you on certain anxiety and psych medicines because there are a group of people who feel entitled to not feel anything or think that happiness comes from a bottle but we can’t deny the same medicine that a seriosly depressed person would actually need.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Being a pharmacist, I can tell you that the reason most people will have improved quality of life when older is their ability to dodge seriously debilitating and deadly conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer which cannot be remedied through natural means except exercise and diet before the condition occurs.
Most people don’t realize that presciption drugs do alot of good and it is the not the ones you see on TV but simple inexpensive generics. I think in general drugs are villified and drug companies viewed as evil but the reality is that most people will blow money on a car but wince at a 30 dollar copay that would help them live a long life with a high standard of health. A perfect example is blood pressure medicine. Would you take a pill every day or risk being the survivor of a stroke or heart attack that leaves you partially paralyzed and immobile the rest of your life. The problem is all we see are ads for hair loss and other fluff that we shouldn’t be wasting time or money on.
I will agree with you on certain anxiety and psych medicines because there are a group of people who feel entitled to not feel anything or think that happiness comes from a bottle but we can’t deny the same medicine that a seriously depressed person would actually need.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Pat, you can say that again. (And you did!)
There are so many maybes (on one hand, on the other hand . . .)to your question that I think it defies a definitive answer). You can always find an example of an elderly person kept alive by advanced technology and drugs that you think might be better off just letting go. On the other hand, I know several 80 to 90 year old people that are active, happy, and productive – and who wouldn’t be here today without the drugs and technology that saved their lives and help preserve them.
I guess my answer is that I want to make that decision for myself when the time comes. I want the choice to say yes, or no, to the medication and technology. On one hand, I don’t want some overzealous doctor keeping me alive long after Elvis has left the building, so to speak. On the other hand, I don’t want to check out sooner than I want to because some bean counter or government bureaucrat has decided that my life is no longer cost-efficient. I know I have a home in Heaven, but that doesn’t mean I’m homesick.
May 17th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I’m saving money now so that when the time comes I have the resources to spend on whatever it takes! What else is an emergency/retirement fund for, if not keeping yourself alive?
I’m definitely not going refuse prescriptions just because they’re not “natural”. Antibiotics have probably saved my life twice over already (pneumonia), and here’s hoping they do it again!
May 18th, 2007 at 11:31 am
I am 44 years old and presently take a shot three times a week, and three pills per day. I am VERY fortunate that these medications are available to me–and that I have VERY good health insurance to pay for them. That being said…it is very easy to judge others, when it is not YOU or YOUR loved one, who may not be able to walk, see, or have other conditions.
My 17 year old daughter, was dx with type 1 diabetes at the age of TWO. She has to take insulin to surivive. She also has beginning stages of kidney disease. She takes two pills a day, to control her blood pressure, and help her kidneys.
Worth every dime.
While I understand that to some people not being “perfect” health would be not worth living.
Some of us enjoy our lives, and play the cards we have been dealt.
May you never need the medicine.
But my family does, and I am very happy it is available to use.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:43 am
MSMomsmoney,
I’m not judging. I’m just questioning.
May 18th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I firmly believer in modern medicine (now Im not talking about popping Vicodins here)….
And am very thankful the choice is out there.
I think some “healthy” people think that it happens to the other guy, or when the other person is very old, etc.
In fact, before I was dx, I never took any meds other than birth control.
It doesn’t just happen to the other guy.
Anyone one can wake up tomorrow with a chronic debiltating illness.
Then you have to educate yourself and make an informed decision.
By taking medicine, that is quite possibly life saving, or one that can dramatically alter the progression of an illness, IMO, is not being “drugged up”. It’s responsibly managing a chronic illness.
When it’s you, your loved one, your child–well you may feel quite differently.
I hope you never have to face it.
Quality of life is all relative.
May 18th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
To be coldly rational about it, we’d have to decide if the economic contribution of those on the meds (or those willing to pay) outweigh the costs of the meds themselves.
However, I know people who are alive because they are taking or have taken expensive medication. Think cancer. Or think of what would happen if you don’t respond to Levoxal. Or what would happen if you don’t respond to those generic blood pressure meds and need an expensive non-generic.
May 19th, 2007 at 12:29 am
“How far should people go to try to stay alive in advanced age?” Such hubris…
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of fear and loathing that “baby boomers” elicit. It is quite possible that as the boomers move through the next phase of life, that the system may change and that change may be for the better.
May 19th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
… the necessity & efficacy of all these drugs is very questionable.
The most prescribed U.S. drugs are anti-depressants.
The medical science behind other heavily prescribed/expensive drugs… like cholesterol & blood-pressure medications — is very weak.
The average American in the year 1900 died of infectious disease before age 50.
Expensive modern drugs are not the cause of our dramatic life span increases — it has been much simpler things like cleaner water & food, social control of infectious diseases, simple antibiotic drugs andless tobacco & alchohol use.
Past American generations did not live long enough to develop cancer or heart disease… or need anti-depressant, mind-altering chemicals — to ease their elder years.
The American prescription-drug-culture is more social ritual than medical need.
May 20th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Preach on Larson! Whatever drug that comes along the cure even cancer or heart disease, another disease will take its place to kill us. Death is inevitable, and the more we keep trying to fend it off, the longer and more painful it will be. Back in the 1900′s people were killed off by infections – sure, it was quite tragic to die at such a young age, but at least it was relatively quick. Nowadays, people just slowly deteriorate, experiencing years of physical and mental decline before succumbing. I think it’s a trade-off either way, there’s not perfect solution.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
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