An interesting fact about prescription medications: Many work by chemically interfering with body functions.
These drugs are designed to be similar to a chemical messenger in the body, which causes a step in some process, say, inflammation, or the contraction of a muscle, or the production of energy or proteins. However, they are different enough that they don’t allow the next step to go forward. The medications are like a key that fits into a lock but doesn’t allow the door to open; they are made to gum up the works.
The problem is, most drugs are not very precise. While they do stop one process, they also interfere with several others — this is the source of side effects.
A good example is statins, such as Lipitor or Crestor, which lower cholesterol levels in the blood by blocking cholesterol production by the liver. But when statins stop cholesterol production, they also stop the formation of other important products, including CoQ10. This chemical is vital to normal muscle function. Statins lower the blood concentration of CoQ10 by 40 percent. This is the likely reason that a common side effect of statins is muscle pain, often worst in the legs. Rarely, this effect can be fatal. The muscles, deprived of this necessary nutrient, literally die off.
It’s a similar situation with beta blockers, a class of drugs used to lower blood pressure. These drugs block the connection between the nerves and the muscles around the blood vessels they affect, preventing these muscles from contracting. This forces them to stay in a relaxed, open state, which has the effect of lowering blood pressure.
Of course, these drugs can affect blood flow in other areas; they are associated with sexual dysfunction in men, preventing an erection. But that’s OK, we have a drug for that! Viagra blocks a different step in the process that regulates blood flow, allowing an erection to take place. But again, the effects of the drug are more widespread. It also causes facial flushing, headaches (from dilated blood vessels in the brain), and nasal congestion. (It isn’t known why it produces the side effect of the inability to differentiate between the colors green and blue; that remains a mystery.)
Another very common class of drugs that “gum up the works” is anti-inflammatory medications, often called NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs). These are drugs including aspirin, ibuprofen (sold as Motrin and Advil), Aleve and Celebrex. As their name implies, they stop inflammation, which also relieves pain and may allow the person to be more active. But at the same time, they interfere with all kinds of other important functions; they cause stomach and upper gastrointestinal ulcers, kidney damage, heart damage and other problems.
Largely because of our unhealthy lifestyles, we are prone to chronic inflammation, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. We can take drugs to block these imbalances from being expressed, but the medications are not very precise, stopping all kinds of other functions and producing many side effects. With this approach, the underlying problem is never addressed.
As a wellness provider, I prefer to use treatments that actually help the body work more like it was designed to, rather than messing with its internal chemistry. I see so many patients who are taking so many drugs to suppress their body’s functions, it amazes me that they are able to function at all. Is this really what we want for a health care system?
Dr. Michael Noonan practices chiropractic, chiropractic acupuncture and other wellness therapies in Old Town. He can be reached at noonanchiropractic@gmail.com.