Why Are People Scared of Pills?

I was recently looking at the news online and came across an article that talked about pills that have a positive effect on cancer prevention and/or treatment and why people don't use them.

I don't know about you but I've been taking multivitamins for years now and I'm all for taking medications that help prevent diseases as well. With such tremendous breakthroughs in technology over the past several years I personally have a lot of faith in most medications that the FDA approves and that companies market to help prevent diseases. I think the reason I'm so confident in these medications is because they have gone through rigorous testing prior to being approved. If a doctor suggested that I take a pill in order to prevent a disease I would do my own research before saying yes but most likely I would take the pill.

According to an article I was reading it appears that most people who are at high risk of certain cancers would rather not take a pill because they are afraid of side effects. And this is even after their doctor has explained that the benefits far outweigh the risks. This just doesn't make any sense to me since the only other alternative might be a painful and agonizing death brought on by the disease. I must say the human psyche is very interesting in this regard. This is known as Omission Bias which means people tend to worry more about a low risk of harm from something they do than about a higher risk of harm from doing nothing.

I must say I'm truly amazed by this finding. I can't say I have this bias since I have too much faith in technology nowadays. I think the media plays a big role in why people are so scared of side effects to be honest with you. I have to admit that I don't watch the news very much because 99% of it is just negative. A common theme I see on the news is people dying from taking medications that were supposed to help them. Of course they usually fail to explain that of the 100,000 people taking a drug that only 5 have died from it. I do realize there are side effects to taking these kinds of medications but in all reality your risk of developing serious side effects are very low. I would rather take a pill knowing that there is a 95% chance I will benefit from it than a 5% chance I will have serious side effects from it. I think these are better odds than doing nothing and having a 99% chance that I will die from a particular disease because I was too worried about possible side effects.

Pharmaceuticals Biggest Breakthrough to Date - Erectile and Social Dysfunction?

Most people believe that we need to spend more money in research and development to cure all the diseases, viruses, and health problems of our population. This is an interesting belief however I'd like to point out a little bit of the hypocrisy that goes on when it comes to pharmaceutical research. First, do you know what to the very largest selling drugs ever produced by the pharmaceutical companies have been? Viagra and Prozac. So I ask you, what's really wrong with America and our pharmaceutical technological advances?

Is it really important that we give drugs to people who have ADHD, so they can sit in a classroom, without misbehaving? Do we really need to create a drug to help us with this? And is America's biggest problem really the fact that some men can't get it up? I mean that's ridiculous when you think about it, in fact, if they would just do a little bit of exercise, perhaps go to the gym and work out a little bit, their blood would be flowing and they would never have this problem.

Nevertheless, they can solve all of their impotence issues by taking a little pill. What a major breakthrough in science? It's utterly ridiculous if you ask me.

Some would say that this is an unfair assessment of the pharmaceutical companies and their incredible research, because they have produced lots of drugs which have actually allowed people to live with diseases, ailments, and issues which might have killed them. Nevertheless most of the drugs created do not cure anybody, they wouldn't want to do that, they only help treat them.

Indeed, I hope someday we get real serious, and start curing some of these diseases, and overcoming things like old age which kills everybody, who doesn't die of something else someday. Please consider all this.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes in good health.