Medicalisation of pre-Disease States

Have you heard of talks about preventing a chronic disease by using drugs? It sounds attractive if you could prevent diseases such as diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure) by just taking drugs. It is of course highly attractive for drug makers (pharmaceutical companies) to expand their business to include a lot more people as to increase their already gargantuan profits for shareholders.

UnNatural Ways Only When Needed

Medicalisation of pre-disease states is virtually giving drugs (medicating) to healthy people with the objective of preventing chronic lifestyle diseases. It is not unlike immunising people against preventable diseases such as  diphtheria and measles but in this case the mode of prevention is through the stimulation of antibodies to fight against the disease agents such as viruses and they are not given everyday.

However studies done a few years back did not provide a conclusive evidence that an antidiabetic drug could prevent the disease, in fact modification of lifestyle like proper nutrition, maintenance of ideal weight and exercises, is noted to be just as effective.

Giving drugs to healthy people will make them feel like patients and could affect their quality of life especially if they suffer from adverse side-effects as often seen among patients on medications. At the same time there is the rise in costs to the society in terms of spending more on drugs with questionable outcomes and increasing use of health care (increased economic burden).

If you notice many people are taking vitamins in the belief that they would keep them healthy. The business of vitamins marketing is expansive. Healthy people who would get most of their vitamins through proper nutrition have opted to take the easy way out by ingesting these pills and then telling themselves that they are feeling better and healthier... a self-fulfilling prophesy. This vitamin intake also gives a false sense of security especially when it is unaccompanied by healthy lifestyle practices.

Suffice to say the medical fraternity is generally against prevention of diseases such as diabetes and  hypertension through the use of drugs as current evidence and health economic considerations do not justify their clinical use.