Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Those Pills
If you have been paying attention, I think you know how I feel about prescription drugs being pushed on to the consumers. The commercials disgust me.
“Have arthritis? Take this pill and cure your arthritis. In the meantime, you’ll suffer nausea, diarrhea, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, shingles, hair loss, abdominal pain, loss of limb, and possibly death...but hey! You won’t have arthritis pain anymore!”
So how many of you have ever heard of Actos? It’s for those who suffer diabetes. Diabetes is no laughing matter and if not treated, can certainly lead to loss of limb and death. Some diabetes can be controlled by diet, (such as the type my male parental unit has), and some people have to take pills or insulin.
The problem here is, Actos is the most taken pill by diabetes sufferers. The reason? Because they were told to switch from Avandia because it increased the possibility of heart attacks. Switch to Actos! No more heart attacks! MILLIONS of people have taken this drug. MILLIONS! So what is the problem? Have you heard of the actos lawsuit?
The lawsuit is there because people were becoming higher risk for a really potentially fatal disease, bladder cancer. In fact, some users of Actos are at a 40% higher risk of developing bladder cancer.
Cancer.
Remember in the old days when it was whispered, “they have the cancer”? We talk about it now. We talk about it openly and everyone knows, cancer is not something you need to be messing with. So now, these people have diabetes AND can get bladder cancer? Seriously, this is unacceptable. In fact, it is so unacceptable that France and Germany have taken if off the market. The US is “still deciding”.
In the US, 70,000 people a year are diagnosed with the disease and 15,000 a year die from it. It CAN be treated but remember, with cancer comes chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, doctor visit after doctor visit. I’ve seen some one dying of cancer. It is not pretty.
As stated, there is a actos class action lawsuit where those who have indeed developed bladder cancer as a result of taking this drug can potentially be rewarded one hefty sum.
Sums are nice and all, but as one who has suffered injury and received compensation, I will tell you, I’d much rather have my health back. Unfortunately, some companies only operate based on dollar amounts. Fine then, hit ‘em where it hurts, right in their pocket book, especially if it is revealed that the drug maker, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, did indeed know very well that this drug could put those people at risk.
If you or someone you know is taking Actos, I’d get on that phone and call the doc because it may be time to find something else.
