Snake Oil? By Bill Warnock

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I'm worried by TV. Back in 1949 when we got our first TV things were much simpler, especially when it came to health care. Back then no one worried about going bankrupt if you got sick, and I don't remember that the subject of health insurance even existed. Even at the age of 90, my Mom declared that she didn't need any help paying for her health care--then she became 93.


I remember Uncle Rob's little vial of Carter's Little Liver Pills on the shelf above the kitchen sink and Grandma's jar of Noxema. If we stepped on a nail, we soaked our foot in Lysol. On TV, a time when the news was reported by Jon Cameron Swayze and brought to us by Timex (It takes a licking and keeps on ticking--watches don't tick any more), I remember hearing about Unguentine, Brylcreme, and Pepto Bismal. As I say, not too complicated. But as I creep up on age 90 myself, I'm not sure of myself in thinking I don't need any help understanding health care. Take medicine for example.

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My understanding has been that if medicine is required, your doctor looks in the latest official pharmacopeia for help in determining what to prescribe. Doctors get paid big bucks for that, I suppose, because a full current set can run over $1,000 and besides, it's too dangerous for a patient to 'try this at home.' But now, the message we get on TV from our Big Pharma cartels seems to be, "Ask your doctor" about this stuff we are peddling, as if your doctor is your drug dealer and you just tell him or her what to prescribe.

Taking a lesson from my Mom's experience, I do not want to drift along unprepared. Consequently, I have prepared a list of things I have heard about on TV this week that I should ask my doctor about. I'm pretty sure I am beyond Cialis and Viagra so I have not included them. The rest, I have no idea what they are supposed to cure but believe they must be dangerous and might even kill me. So here is my list: Viberzi, Anoro, Aleve, Lyrica, Tresiba, Prevagin, Otezla, Humira, Embrel, Flonase, Coors Banquet, Miralax, Stelara, Qunol, Victoza, Toujeo, and Kyleena.

I just pray that I have not missed some crucial compound that might be critical for me to take.

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