Modern medicines and Health Issues

Modern medicines serve a purpose and very often can provide relief for minor problems. In themselves, they are generally safe as long as the dosage recommendations on the package are not exceeded. It's important to keep in mind, however, that such medications, as any others, may produce undesirable effects in relatively small numbers of people who happen to be particularly sensitive to them.

So if you notice any such side effects as rash, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances, or others, which seem to follow use of a particular medication, you may well have sensitivity to that particular medication, and no matter how popular it is with other people, it is not for you. If in doubt, you should check with your physician. Absolutely vital when you prescribe for yourself is the need to keep in mind that you may be making a mistake in diagnosis, treating the wrong illness, or masking minor and superficial symptoms while an underlying serious problem gets worse.

For example, a "simple" head cold may really not be simple when there is fever, sharp pain in the chest, sputum discoloration, rapid breathing, or nausea; it may, in fact, be a serious bronchial infection or pneumonia. If you do treat yourself, never continue to do so for more than a day or two unless you are certain there is steady improvement-and if your symptoms get worse or change, don't wait even that long before consulting your physician. 

Persistent Cough may mean Infection, Obstruction, accumulation of fluid, or in lungs

Coughing may indicate only a minor temporary throat irritation. But a persistent cough may mean infection, obstruction, or accumulation of fluid in the air passages or lungs, and so it deserves medical attention.  

 The Promise and Nature of Preventive Medicine 50 does a cough that developed during a respiratory infection but then persists long afterward. 

Urinary changes: We have already noted that blood in the urine re- quires investigation. Frequent urination may be the result of infection or, in some cases, nervous irritability of the bladder. Frequent and voluminous urination may be an indication of a relatively rare type of diabetes, diabetes insipidus. In older men, the need to get up several times a night for urination may indicate an enlarging prostate.

Difficulty in starting urination may indicate sufficient prostate enlargement to require treatment to prevent backup of urine and impairment of kidney function. Actually, any marked change in the urine-in its volume, color, or number of times it must be passed-calls for medical study. 

Nausea may stem, of course, from a gastrointestinal disturbance, but it may also arise from an infection almost anywhere in the body or from disturbance of the balance mechanism in the ear. If the nausea is mild, you can delay a little before consulting a physician, for it may disappear in a short time and not return. But severe and persistent nausea, or nausea that keeps recurring, calls for medical attention.

Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin, may be due to a viralinfection and is especially likely to be seen in younger people. It may signal gallstones, and this is especially likely to be the case for middle-aged women. In older people, it sometimes is due to cancer of the pancreas or to cancer that has spread into the liver from elsewhere. The safe rule is always to regard jaundice as a signal calling for immediate medical attention. In some people with sallow complexion, jaundice may not be readily discernible on the basis of the appearance of the skin; in such cases, look at the whites of the eyes-if they are distinctly yellow, jaundice is present.