Cycling UK Forum

I have watched both my parents suffer from the effects of their pills. My dad taught me when I was young never to take anything unless it was really necessary. After he was stuck on a floor unable to move due to agony from his back he started taking Votarol which led to a lot of bad side-effect problems. He still refused to take pills in general.

Looking back at it, it seems to me that the doctor should not have looked to his drugs list as the first step. The treatment should have been through physiotherapy instead. I think that the medical profession and patients themselves are increasingly looking for other ways of dealing with ailments instead of reaching for the prescription pad.

There is the other type of sufferer, who goes to their GP and refuses to listen to advice or take the (same old) steps that are needed to cure their root problem and enter an ever increasing spiral of prescriptions.

There are still prescriptions out there that are saving lives both as one off treatments and for longterm control of chronic conditions. Yet I believe that is probably outnumbered by those issued which are not needed or the ailment would be far better served in some other way.

Hi,
Today we are living longer, where most would of died when they were 60 of a coronary now live to 85.
A neighbour of mine had a heart attack and put on the airs of going for walks and some attempt at losing weight, that was 10 years ago and today there been no change in his appearance, his son is a spitting image.

There are plenty things that will still kill you today with out the intervention of meds, if you are unlucky to develop or catch something.

Its easy to be blase' about things when your fit and healthy, we all do it.
And remember that if you are not subjected to illness in one form or another, then there in time through generations there is no natural protection.

Physio is very good today but nonexistent 30 years ago.

After I ruptured my spleen over 30 years ago I was not given any blood thinning, and developed thrombosis before I left hospital........I had to undergo artery reconstruction. That would not happen today.

I agree that many expect tablets to cure even the common cold.
I took myself off pain killers to go the physio route and haven't looked back.

horizon wrote:Back around 1981 I decided to give up all pharmaceutical products including all antibiotics, pain killers, sun cream, anti- fungal creams, vaccinations, flu remedies, cold remedies, cough mixtures, burn creams, anti-inflammatories, anti malaria tablets, diarrhea medicine, stomach medicines, anti-histamines, aspirin, Lemsip etc etc. I had had all these at some point in my life up to that point. I had never had anti-depressants or such like.

In 1982 someone gave me a glass of orange juice with aspirin in it without my knowledge during a bout of sunstroke (I remember the effect to this day).

I've had local anaesthetic for dental treatment over the last couple of years. I wear reading glasses. I'm 62.

I gave it all up (except the local anaesthetic) in the belief that a medicine (as I understood it) would have an "allopathic" effect on the body i.e. it would work against what the body was doing.

I've had my share of tonsillitis, hay fever, strained ankles, headaches, colds and flu, accidental scalding, bruising from falls, stomach bugs etc etc.

I don't make any claims for this, it's just something I decided in a somewhat experimental way and became habitual. Many of the illnesses mentioned in this thread are serious and I have nothing to say about how people deal with them. I do feel a little incredulous at the stocks of painkillers that people carry around or the search for a cure for the common cold but on the whole it's live and let live (hopefully!).

So in answer to the OP's question, it's a tricky one to answer. I don't have a serious illness (AFAIK!) and I'm not interested in medication so generally the issue doesn't arise. But obviously I'm interested in the topic and what other people do.

What I will say though is that this is a report concerning the last 35 years. I'm making no claims and offering no advice as to the future, my health and well-being or anyone's else's - just answering the OP's question and sharing what the position is for me.

horizon I totally agree with your premise of not taking medicines but as those I am now on seem to be working I will continue to take them. As someone else has said until anything affects yourself you can become really blasé. There's been some great advice since my original post and it has made me realise after reading about what some of our colleagues are suffering that my AR problem is no great shakes. Mind you its also made me realise that I am also not getting any younger.

hondated wrote:horizon I totally agree with your premise of not taking medicines but as those I am now on seem to be working I will continue to take them. As someone else has said until anything affects yourself you can become really blasé.

I'm certainly not blase about it. But for most men it should be possible to go from 16 - 60 without so much as a visit to the doctor unless you have an accident or something pre-existing. So what I did is no great achievement (well, ignoring the blandishments of the paracetamol TV advertising might have been ). After 60 it's different IMV.

Life, health and illness are still great mysteries and I would never tell anyone what they should do, particularly after the age of 60. I just gave my own experience.

I think it's a good thread as it is discussing these things in the context of people who do take exercise and fresh air etc so we can move off from that starting point quite quickly.

Hi,
I have heard stories of people who have never visited the docs in 40 years.
I like to mention that I am not telling people that you should go to the docs often, I wouldn't go unless I was in discomfort which meant no sleep or could not concentrate on basic tasks.
My history stemmed from a ruptured spleen and lots of corrective surgery since.
My partner did not have a day off work in two years and a visit to the HR met with exclamation of no sick history
I to can go for nearly two years with no loss of work days.

But over 40 it goes down hill quick, at 50 you have all the mens problems and lumps that need checking.
I developed high BP over twenty years ago for no reason, apparently 99% of cases can not be pinned to anything.
I did not drink or smoke and exercised well, was not over weight.
Just recently a bad tooth extraction which is similar / worse than an abscess
Problem with a pet and then shingles followed by a back pain through lack of me being mobile.
Some of this is age related and you don't recover as quick as when you were 18, back then like others you were just invincible

A friends father did not see a doc in 40 years and had to be hospitalised for acute pain, it was too late and he died two weeks later.
Lucky it was not in the eighties as I witnessed a cancer sufferer left to die in a hospital bed on my ward fixing my leg.
he just moaned till he went silent.
One of my family started to shrink alarmingly but left it till they were very thin before they were probably too weak to get up to get advise, overactive thyroid, easily fixed but was probably scared it might be cancer so just left it

I have worked with people older than me now, they were never ill and always seemed healthy, probably live to a hundred
In all living things there are strong and weak and in nature only the fit survive, but still die young if a predator, caged and given care they live twice as long.
Humans are breeding weak as well as strong so weaker ones will need care for sure.

If you suffer high BP its a bit of a worry as you cant do much when its high, illness of any type affects my BP and then I feel quite ill.
I have managed to wean myself to just the one BP tablet, and my BP WHILST cycling is perfect.
But it is kept that way when I just do even a minor amount of exercise I have found recently, without cycling or some sort of exercise I would have to go on more meds.

Less meds less side effects for sure, and I also think as I have found that coming into contact with very few individuals also means for me colds are nonexistent.
Things happen, you turn a corner and your life changes, who knows.....................