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Beware of 'great deals' and false promises
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The barrage of television commercials offering all types of products from skin care to magic towels that soak up gallons of water at at time, is almost unfathomable these days. If you want it, you can find it by just turning on the T.V. I almost cringe when one of those weight loss pill commercials comes on, offering to help overweight people shed pounds with hardly any effort at all. Don't you think that if there were such an easy remedy to obesity that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would have approved it for use by doctors? Often there is fine print that flashes at the bottom of the screen before the commercial ends, that challenges the best speed readers with better than 20/20 vision. I wonder what that print says. I've often thought of recording one of those commercials, just so I could pause it and read what it says. I have caught glimpses, and they are usually disclaimers about possible side effects or state that a regiment of exercise is recommended for greater success with the product. Something else that gripes me about the self-help "health" products you see advertised is when it is being presented by someone in a white lab coat, giving the impression that they are some type of medical professional. Just because you put on a white lab coat doesn't mean you are a doctor. I can buy and wear one of those just as well as anyone else and I'm a far cry from being any type of medical professional. There are actually some medications that are legitimate which are advertised on television. You can tell the difference at or near the end of the commercial when the narrator suggests asking your doctor about the drug being advertised. This I do not have a problem with. But, it does concern me when the possible side effects of some of these drugs are listed. Often the side effects are worse than what you are trying to relieve. The other night there was actually one that said a possible side effect could be death! I'm sure that would relieve your symptoms, permanently! I believe the best bet for most of us is not to rely on the television when searching for a solution to a medical problem of any kind. It is best to seek treatment from a real physician. You wouldn't go to a butcher to have your appendix removed would you? Then why would you trust someone who wears a lab coat on television just to make you think he or she is a doctor?
The best advice I can give is to trust common sense and ignore those advertisements, unless you just want a good chuckle.
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