The Risks of Self-Medicating (a cautionary tale from my friend).

"Prevention is better than cure."
<< Unknown >>

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Image from Steve Buissinne at Pixabay

Venezuela is a country where people have the habit of having many recipes or advice on what things to take to relieve pain.

This is something that has always been very common among all the people here, because always, especially in older adults, it is the case that the pills or medicines that have served them to, for example, cure a pain in the leg are recommended. So it is always helpful.

It is very common to hear a neighbor talking about,"" I took this ibuprofen brand and it removed the pain in my legs and I was able to do all my things daily".

And I hear the conversations of people saying, "how many pills did you take?. Look, I take a 400 milligram pill every four hours".

And then?. and then the neighbor who hears this, obviously goes to the pharmacy and buys the medicine to administer it in the way that is inappropriate and generally this is a big mistake.

Because even though they are medicines that are for free sale in any pharmaceutical establishment. Obviously, if you take it in a quantity that is not adequate, you will suffer the consequences.

I saw how a friend of mine who liked to experiment with different medicines to overcome the pain he had in his legs.

He has not found the medicine. The medicine that worked and cost him a lot for walking. And he was always trying from one medicine to another.

Image from Michal Jarmoluk at Pixabay

And one day he happened to try taking 10 ibuprofen pills of 400 milligrams. And it turns out that he had to be taken by emergency.

It was up to me to take him by emergency to a hospital because he had a very serious stomach pain. And it turned out that this was piercing his stomach.

The excess of this medication was causing him a stomach bleeding.

And they had to immediately be attended in emergency. To do a stomach wash to save his life. And this is due to the fact that he simply self-medicated.

The doctor who saw him told me that if he was crazy, that was what happened to him. That normally the maximum dose of ibuprofen for a human being is one gram. One gram a day.

And he took four grams. That is, he took ten pills.

So probably if he had not arrived in time to do the stomach wash, he would have died.

So it is very important to keep in mind that we should not self-medicate. And that this is a risk that we should always make these decisions. Of the ailments that we have in the hands of doctors and specialists.

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The same happens with other types of drugs that are to calm anxiety.

That here people in Venezuela usually take them on their own initiative.

And this is something that should only be prescribed by a specialist. The person has to do a number of medical exams. To see if there is a missing chemical in his brain or something in his body. A chemical that is not producing his body.

And in that case it is recommended or prescribed the use of this medicine.

But this should only be indicated by a specialist.

I personally tell you that I am someone who prefers to be cured through natural medicine. Plants and everything that is natural food.

I really prefer to heal in this way because I am not a friend of going to the doctor.
Unless it is too necessary.

And please try as much as possible not to self-medicate.

Because it is something that does a lot of damage.

I hope that this anecdote of my friend. that he got intoxicated with this medicine serves you as a teaching.

To keep in mind that self-medication is not healthy.

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