Fear of the Pill

The story of how Viagra became a household name has always been interesting to me. The pill was originally being developed to treat hypertension and cardiovascular disease; we all know what it actually does.

While at first glance the objective and the outcome may seem like polar opposites, that's not exactly the case. The reality is that the pill had been developed to treat blood vessels, and that's to some degree what it does... just not necessarily in the expected parts of the body. Now the disturbing thing about it is this - this 'mistake' was not made by high school students mixing chemicals in a lab. It was made by professional scientists, with their product being the result of years of development and research. This time, they just got lucky... or did they?

You find that the older among us have a greater resistance to medication. And who can blame them? How many pills are we taking which have side-effects that don't become apparent until months or decades later? Who knows what else Panadol is actually doing to us? Pills aren't generally tested over a person's lifetime, and as such, they're never physical proof of their lack of long-long-term effects. You just don't know.

Many say the answer is healthy eating and natural treatments (bush plants). And maybe they're right. But here's the thing... Despite all the new risks introduced by medications we take, life expectancy is currently higher than it ever was. Does that mean the risks are ultimately worth the rewards?