A Grumpy Senior's Take on Drugs and advice to other Seniors.

I am a senior citizen.

What that means is that I've reached a certain age where I am considered to be "over the hill," over dependent, under productive and affectionately superfluous. 

It has nothing to do with my physical or mental health.

I “retired” long after the average retirement age and miss the hundred plus mile daily round trip commute to my office. Retirement, is, after all, what most of us long for most of our working lives, equating it with what is euphemistically known as “the golden years.”  But to me Retirement is a bore.

So I write.  Blogs, novels, essays and even -- occasionally a poem. I watch TV. 

When my husband and I sit down to watch a TV show at a certain time in the evening we are bombarded with commercials from pharmaceutical companies directed primarily at seniors. These ads are insidious attempts at keeping customers sick rather than trying to cure them, and often contribute to Alzheimer’s Disease, heart disease, and others. They are supported by federal agencies with major conflicts of interest.

I know.  That’s quite a statement.  But politics and greed have wormed their way into the medical/pharma communities allowing decisions by the FDA, AHA and other federal oversite agencies to help major pharmaceuticals make lots of money.      

I am not a physician, attorney, or scientist and will leave the legal and scientific findings to others as there are many well researched sites which corroborate the accuracy of this information.  I will list them and hope that individual seniors begin to listen to their bodies instead of Big Pharma and research the efficacy of the drugs they are being prescribed and sold.

 

Instead of “ask your doctor about. . .” why not do the research yourself.  You’re retired now.  You have the time. And there’s abundant information.  It is essential for you if you really want to enjoy your senior years. 

See these sites and look for more:   

https://healthimpactnews.com/2018/the-drugging-of-american-seniors-big-pharma-profits-depend-on-sick-seniors/

http://www.bemedwise.org/medication-safety/medication-therapy-management-for-seniors

https://www.cracked.com/article_24999_6-evil-af-supervillain-schemes-pulled-by-big-pharma.html

The Biology of Belief - By Bruce Lipton, PhD - A Review

This book confirms everything that I believe but says it far more succinctly and elegantly than I ever could.

We learn that the quantum theory proponents may finally be gaining a foothold in the traditionally entrenched scientific community and their stubborn adherence to a material concept of physics (Newtonian). Dr. Lipton sees us as part of a whole (the metaphorical drops of water in the great cosmic ocean); we are a universal melting pot, (ie, the planet, the stars, the earth and all living creatures dependent upon it, are all made up of energy AND matter), and that this knowledge may ultimately save our planet and our species from extinction as we begin to move toward a more spiritual understanding of our place in the universal order.     

In his discussion of Western medicine vs. Eastern energy healing, he rightly suggests that Western society has ignored the benefits of Eastern healing techniques to our detriment for centuries:  “For thousands of years,” he writes, “. . . Asians have honored energy as the principal force contributing to health and well- being.” (Lipton 108)  

He talks about the dangerous and adverse effects of drugs and how belief can heal or harm, how fear and anxiety can kill. Most informative in this section is the discussion of parenting—how important parenting is -- even before birth.

Our universe and everything in it, Lipton says, is made up of energy – a fact that Einstein recognized but the medical profession has ignored until recently. Thus, in the quantum universe, knowledge flows holistically   rather than linearly, as in the Newtonian paradigm.   It is therefore incumbent upon us to learn to live in harmony with the “natural order” rather than to impose dominion over all living things.

We are in the midst of a mass extinction says Dr. Lipton, the last in a series of six and created by greed for natural resources and material things as well as an early abandonment of “spirit” in our evolutionary history.  This loss of “connectedness” to spirit was caused, he says, by a desire of the scientific community to create distance between itself and the controlling factions of the early church.  If human kind acts to reverse our trend towards the earth’s destruction, we may avoid another planetary catastrophe.   

The book was an engaging and enlightening glimpse into the changing views in the scientific community.