<p>THREE years since post-its.</p>
<p>LOL. What about coffee mugs?</p>
<p>MY DH is in the IT industry. You wouldnt BELIEVE the stuff they give away/hand out/ give as door prizes!! Lots of really high end stuff! Everything form computer bags to ipods, etc. No regulation on that stuff!!!</p>
<p>My last mug was for Zoloft (generic since '06?). I think H got one for a Z pack. Fess up you guys… who got a Z pack sample? Or better yet, who got an Abilify starter pack? PLEASE don’t answer. "THE " real issue might be direct to consumer advertising. If I understand correctly,doesn’t happen in countries with a single payer.</p>
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<p>It’s not the pens and note pads. It’s the conferences, consulting contracts, and research grants. It’s the fact that nearly every research study is designed to generate a sales pitch for a drug or a procedure. </p>
<p>Nobody really cares if the stuff produces a real-world benefit. There’s not a single real-world study ever that show pharmaceutical nicotine increases the odds of success quitting smoking, just carefully designed studies against sugar pills that “prove” that lab subjects are “twice as likely” to not be smoking while they are taking the pharma nicotine.</p>
<p>Straight-to-consumer advertising is a problem, because of the average consumer…</p>
<p>I was on my family medicine rotation, and a little old lady came in and asked for a prescription for viagra. I was pretty poker-faced at that point, and asked her what she needed it for. She said, “My shoulder hurts.”</p>
<p>“Your shoulder hurts?”</p>
<p>“… and I saw in the commercial that it lets you throw a football through a tire real good.”</p>
<p>I had to excuse myself from the room for a minute.</p>
<p>I got a mug – many years ago. Was for maybe Respirdal. It had a purple frowny face on it but when you put the warm coffee in the mug the purple frowny face changed to an orangey smiley face. Gosh I loved that mug. Probably had some carcinogens in the chemicals that made the color/image change, but it was on the outside of the mug. It stopped working after a while (the color/face change, that is )</p>
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<p>Completely agree. H’s parents both died in their mid 60s, mostly due to issues that could have been addressed at younger ages, had they gone to the doctor on a regular basis. He would even ‘joke’ that he’d die before he retired. Once too many times, he said that in front of one of our daughters, and she finally said to him, “Dad, that’s not funny; I want you to be around for my wedding and your grandchildren.” So about a year ago, during his routine physical required at work, he had some blood work come back abnormal. He agreed to follow up with it, and of course it revealed a whole host of problems which were mostly related to a sedentary lifestyle and poor eating choices. He immediately changed his eating habits and joined the gym. By the time he was able to get an appointment with the gastroenterologist who wanted to do a liver biopsy (after having an ultrasound and more blood work that diagnosed probable fatty liver disease), he’d been on the new diet and exercising for a month. His numbers were down so much that they canceled the biopsy. He went back in three months and all the blood chemistries were within normal range, as well as his blood pressure. </p>
<p>He managed to get through this whole scare (who isn’t a bit alarmed when told they need a liver biopsy) without one prescription for anything. Of course, he will need to be followed on an annual basis now to make sure nothing creeps back up, but he made significant changes before he was even 50, which should bode well for those weddings and future grandchildren.</p>
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<p>I can’t count the number of patients I’ve seen in the cardiac ICU who have recently retired. Many of them die. You think to yourself, “this is so unfair-he finally got to a point in his life where he could enjoy the fruits of his labors, and now he’s gone.” Actually, though, in many cases, the deceased had neglected his health for so long that it was merely a coincidence that the &*#@ hit the fan shortly after retirement. Very sad indeed…</p>
<p>I do recognize the validity of an earlier post that said that avoiding the doctor doesn’t necessarily mean the individual is neglecting their health. Still, there are some tests that need to be done at intervals that clearly impact health, vitality, and longevity.</p>
<p>My H tried to list himself as his own doctor during open enrollment, and he got a form letter that said it wasn’t allowed…</p>