Pick Your Poison

Last week a research study was released suggesting that diet soda contributes to heart disease. Yet the latest example of undesirable side effects. Red wine? Good for your heart, but your liver doesn't care for alcohol, does it? The Japanese diet apparently leads to low cholesterol, but many subscribers suffer from hypertension.

No, there's little, if any, out there in our dietetic cornucopia that has no deleterious effect. And if you think that's bad, let's leave the kitchen and wander into our bathroom's medicine cabinet. Here we find limitless examples of potions that, while treating one ailment, often create others.

If you take a statin drug for cholesterol you must also submit to periodic liver tests. That's because statins can raise hell with it. I took a statin for ten years at half dosage to combat what my doctor felt was high cholesterol. I thought the muscle pain I began to experience in my legs when climbing hills was simply old age creeping in, but then recognized it as a possible side effect of the drug. I stopped taking it for a week and, when the leg pain disappeared, the drug disappeared from my shelf. My cholesterol? 223, which is not too bad for a man of my age and a number that I'm willing to accept given the alternative.

I'm one of the lucky ones as I have, so far, escaped the need for other prescription drugs. Many are less fortunate and every drug out there has a side effect which, at the very least, provides the chance for yet another need for another drug. Allergies? Your prescription may cause swelling of the throat and difficulty in breathing. The ones that amaze me the most are those that fall under the "Erectile Dysfunction" category. They may cause nausea and headache. I don't know about you, but when I'm nauseous or a jackhammer is doing a number on my brain, the last thing on my mind is romance!

I'm not here to lecture on the dangers of drugs, but rather to illustrate how we must each become our own best advocate when choosing a given regimen suggested by our doctor (or dietician). Granted, some afflictions are so severe that any risk is acceptable. Others, though, are taken to mitigate minor irritations without so much as a consideration of the possible downside. Take a pill...be happy. Have a diet soda...lose weight.

Whether it be drugs or dining, everything that we ingest has an effect that we'd just as soon do without in addition to the desired benefit that we seek. It's a balancing act, to be sure, but one that demands a greater awareness and participation. Perhaps it can be best summed up by this advice given to me long ago: Moderation in everything (including moderation).