By Carlos Bayma
When you're 30, you have a little depression, a kind of persistent sadness: fluoxetine is prescribed.
Fluoxetine makes it difficult to sleep. Then you're prescribed clonazepam, the Rivotril of life. Clonazepam makes him feel a bit silly when he wakes up and reduces his memory. He goes back to the doctor.
He notices that you've gained weight. Then he prescribes sibutramine.
The sibutramine makes him lose a few pounds, but gives him an uncomfortable tachycardia. You go back to the doctor. In addition to the tachycardia, he notices that you also have high blood pressure. He prescribes losartan and atenolol, the latter to reduce your tachycardia.
You're already 35 and taking fluoxetine, clonazepam, sibutramine, losartan and atenolol. And, apparently appropriately, you're prescribed a multivitamin. As the doctor doesn't know anything about vitamins and minerals, he tells you to buy an “A to Z multivitamin”, which is of very little use. But in the media, Luciano Huck said it was great. You believed him and bought it. I'm sorry!
That's R$ 350.00 a month. It can weigh on the budget. The money to be spent on investments and leisure goes down the drain of the pharmaceutical industry. You start to feel nervous, worried and anxious (despite the fluoxetine and clonazepam) because the bills don't add up at the end of the month. You start to feel stomach ache and heartburn. Your intestines get “stuck”. She goes to another doctor. Prescription: omeprazole + domperidone + “natural” laxative.
The symptoms disappear, but only the symptoms, despite the “mess” that your intestinal flora has become. Other complaints appear. Among them, one is particularly disturbing: at just 37, you no longer have any sexual potency. Not only are you “cocksucking” frequently, but you have very little sperm and your libido is underfoot.
For the doctor of disease medicine, that's not a problem. He even tells you to choose your medication: sildenafil, tadalafil, lodenafil or vardenafil - you name it. Your potency improves, but as a result, these drugs give you a tremendous headache, palpitations, redness and runny nose. No problem, the doctor increases the dose of atenolol and gives you some Neosaldine to take before sex. If he needs to, he'll instill a “little medicine” for your runny nose, which puts a strain on your heart.
Just when everything seemed to be solved, at the age of 40, you realize that your teeth are rotting and falling out. (Between you and me, it's the antidepressant.) You have money to spend on the dentist. At the same time, another realization: your memory is failing much more than usual. Once again, for your doctor, this is no problem: ginkgo biloba is prescribed.
In the routine tests, your glucose is 110 and your cholesterol 220. On the back of the prescription sheet, the doctor prescribes metformin + simvastatin. “It's to prevent diabetes and heart attacks,” says your health care provider (?!).
In your 40s, you're already taking: fluoxetine, clonazepam, losartan, atenolol, a multivitamin from A to Z, omeprazole, domperidone, a “natural” laxative, sildenafil, vardenafil, lodenafil or tadalafil, Neosaldina (or “Neusa”, as they call it), ginkgo biloba, metformin and simvastatin. (Let's face it, that's a long way from being healthy!) A thousand reais a month! And no health!
Meanwhile, you're still depressed, tired and gaining weight. The doctor again. You switch from fluoxetine to duloxetine, a “more modern” antidepressant. After two months, you feel better (or a little “less bad”). However, another setback arises: the new antidepressant makes you urinate slowly and weakly. You have to get up twice a night to urinate. So much for his sleep, his much-needed rest for his health. But that's easy for your doctor: he prescribes tamsulosin to help with urination. You do get better. However... you no longer ejaculate. Nothing comes out!
I'll stop here. It's depressing. This isn't medicine. That's not health.
This story ends with an increasingly common situation: the wholesale collapse of your health. You're obese, not in the mood, have a bad erection and poor memory and concentration. Diabetic, hypertensive and with suspected cancer. Teeth: I won't even mention them. Your high weight has blown out your knee (one doctor even considered having a prosthesis fitted). He comes up with the crazy idea of seeing a bariatric surgeon to “reduce his stomach” and a psychotherapist to take care of his deranged judgment.
No money, sad, anxious, depressed, thinking of ending his meager life and... sick, very sick! Despite the “medicines” (or because of them!!).
The pharmaceutical industry? “Fine, thanks!”, even more so with their valuable contribution over the years or decades. And your doctor? “Fine, thank you!”, thanks to your illness (or the illness planted step by step in your life).
By Dr. Carlos Bayma
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