Are we overmedicated?

From prescription to over-the counter, there’s no shortage of medication, but is it too much of a good thing?

- SHANNON MANUEL

You have a headache. Should you drink fluids and rest, or you reach for painkillers? Most of us would probably choose the latter. With our increasingly busy lifestyles, we tend to opt for a quick fix to our ailments, which often involves popping a pill. ‘A pill for each ill’ is how the saying goes.

Today, there’s medication for almost everything. If we don’t have a medicine to treat the problem, we take something to treat its symptoms instead.

Almost half of the population takes at least one prescription drug, while millions more self-medicate using over-the-counter (OTC) meds. Self-medication is considered OK by many of us. We do it because it’s instant and, of course, there’s no doctor’s expense. And with so many medications available to us, it’d seem unreasonable not to use them. Medicines such as pain relief drugs, cough syrups, laxatives, antibiotics, anti-allergy medicines, vitamins, and antacids are all easy to acquire at our local pharmacy.