Expert: Ask Suz - 4/27/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I am a sixth grader from Lawson Middle School. May I interview you for a project that requires me to do a research on medicine.

ANSWER: Hi Timothy,
Sorry I'm so late getting back to you. I don't know more than most about medicine. I am interested in alternatives and herbal treatments.
If you would like me to answer questions for your project , please send me the questions for me to look over first so I can see if it's something that's doable. Thanks, Suz

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Okay. First of all, do you know anything about side affects because, my I-Search (name of project) topic is "Why does medicine have side affects"? I got this website throughout my teacher's recommendations. So reply ASAP if you know anything about side affects. I have to ask you 10 questions. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Timothy,
I don't "know" about side effects of most medications because I rarely take medications so I don't research them.  To find out a side effect of a particular one, all you have to do is input ".......'s side effects" in www.google.com. If you want to know the reason for various side effects it depends on the chemical composition of the formula. One could ask , why does rat poison kill? Because death is the desired side effect. The chemicals contained in rat poison destroy the body's organs leading to death. Many medications harm the liver. How do they do that? You would have to do a search on each medication to determine exactly what is in it that hurts the liver. Excessive use of Tylenol, (acetaminophen)for instance, over the years can destroy the liver. So you can readily see that it takes a lot of research to determine what is in each medication that harms the body. There is not one specific answer.
Clinical trials are done before each new medication is put on the market. People are paid money (usually the poor)to be guinea pigs to test out the new drug. They are given blood tests before and after the trial to determine if the medicine has done it's job or made them sick. The most controversial aspect of these trials is that some experts believe that the pharmaceutical companies "scew" or change the actual results of the tests to make the FDA declare the substance safe in order to line the pockets of the drug companies.  This happened recently in the case of Merck and these activities were actually published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association).
There is, I believe, a lot of corruption in the entire system which only helps more people turn to natural methods of healing.
I hope this helps. Suz