Writes Dr. Mir Adil Shamim
The inception of mankind was accompanied by the craft of a flawless decisive aptitude – the ability of the mind to chair over the body. Yet this artistry fails to be mastered. The deployment of this skill, though easy; is overlooked by many as the passkey to this doorway lies in the subconscious mind and unless cargoed into vigil, remains undiscovered.
A benchmark instance is that of self-medication.
“Aaah … the pain in my stomach. I need something for it!!”
“Well, don’t worry, I have some XYZ. It helped when I had headache.”
After 30 min………….
“OOHH…..you berk, your self-medication just made it worse!!”
It’s always easy getting carried away by quacks; and surrounded by impostors and charlatans, their job is a piece of cake.
“Wisdom is the knowledge of ignorance”. So being a doctor and bearing the dead weight of this insight, I hereby have penned down the idea for my readers to imbibe. From cold and cough, to headache, to severe pain in the belly, we know that the ground of the matter can be grave anytime, gods forbid. The best countermeasure in such a situation would be playing safe, for the body and psyche. Yet many among would flip sides. The reason for such a dichotomy has to be individualised. But whatever the drive be, a lack of proper knowledge of your body remains the mainspring. Now the question “Who has the best knowledge of the human frame – second to God?”
And yes the crack to this question has hit your minds – a DOCTOR.
Having witnessed the brainteaser of understanding God’s most elite creation, a doctor is breezy and more than pleased to help. The following lines are the medical gospel to the above stated archetype.
One of the most likely diagnosis for epigastria (upper mid abdominal) pain is gastritis and/or peptic ulcers (ulcers in the stomach or the first part of the intestine). Secondly, the most commonly used analgesics (pain killers) used include NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) .When a person having epigastric pain takes NSAIDS, it leads to de-compensation of the stomach’s defence mechanism against acid (which is normally produced in small quantities but may be overproduced in some). So, this medicine may have helped your neighbour for his/her headache, but it is contraindicated in epigastric pain. This forms the rationale behind individualising drug therapy. A pointer for my fellow doctors here:
“It is more important to know what sort of a person has a disease, than to know what sort of a disease a person has.”…….Hippocrates (father of modern medicine).
Similarly, the erroneous use of antibiotics could lead to resistance. Multiple groups of antibiotics stand misused paving way for defiant forms like MRSA (methicillin resistant streptococcus aureus) and the latest VRE (vancomycin resistant enterococcus).Old prescriptions are often obliviously misused by the elderly. The fact that, what was once the best option has now become deleterious stays miscalculated. Such practices could lead to digestive (nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting), neurological (headache, vertigo, dizziness, etc.), dermatological (less dramatic and potentially dangerous skin rashes and allergies), asthma, photosensitivity and many more adverse side effects. Over dosage is another problem which afflicts the liver. Analgesics (pain killers) can cause ringing in the ears, kidney damage , even deafness on prolonged use and could increase the risk of stroke by four times in patients with high blood pressure which carries a lethal risk.
The lack of proper distinction between prescription- medicines and non- prescription-medicines has a negative impact on public health and competitiveness. The Drug Regulatory Authorities should draw a proper line of demarcation between the two, besides ensuring a disciplinarian cross check in the interest of patient care at various levels for which, of course, India has been an exception in planning for betterment of health care delivery services even in the remotest areas of the country.
So, the next time you take an OTC ( over the counter) pain killer for your pain , or else, make sure you have a cast-iron guarantee for its safety and efficacy ; and that you are not putting one of God’s greatest gifts into peril.
The Author is a Doctor at RML Hospital New Delhi.