Medications have two main purposes.

• One is to increase your QUALITY of life. They relieve or control the symptoms that make it hard to do our daily tasks. Quality of life is your ability to enjoy and engage in your life. It is your ability to do the things you want to do during the day.
• The other is to increase your QUANTITY of life. They help control medical conditions so you can live longer.

ALL medications have potential side effects. Some of these side effects are a minor nuisance that goes away. Some of these side effects are so severe you are changed to a different medicine. Then there are some times when another medicine is started to treat the side effects of the first medicine. In most situations I highly discourage this practice. There are a few select exceptions.

Medications and Quality of Life

This blog is about the medications that are prescribed to help you live better. Using them is intended to improve your quality of life. But, they have side effects that keep you from functioning normally. Those side effects actually decrease your quality of life. Here are a few examples:

• Pain medication for back pain makes you so sleepy you just lay around.
• Blood pressure medicine makes your blood pressure so low you don’t have the energy to do regular daily tasks or you get really dizzy when you stand up or turn quickly.
• Anxiety medicine keeps you so groggy you can’t function.
• Sleep medicine keeps you sleepy all through the next morning.
• Diabetes medicine makes your blood sugar so low you are weak, shaky, and dizzy.
• Parkinson’s Disease medicine makes you so dizzy you can’t go out.
• Incontinence medicines makes you so constipated you are miserable.

It doesn’t make sense for a medicine intended to help to actually cause just as many problems as the thing it was prescribed to treat. Talk to you doctor! Your doctor might not know unless you talk about it. Your relationship with your doctor should include conversations about your goals. Let your doctor know what daily events and tasks are important to you. Then, work together to reach those goals through medication, physical therapy, counseling, diet, or other means.

We are here to help, too! At Meds MASH we will carefully review all of your medicines to be sure you are getting the maximum benefit with the least side effects. Often a dose change or an alternate medication can make a huge difference. We work closely with your doctor to optimize your medicines. You don’t need to live with side effects that hold you down. Contact us at www.medsmash.com.

BIBLICAL APPLICATION

What is your purpose for being? I had a chance to ‘people watch’ for a while this week. It got me thinking about what drives people. We know that EVERYONE has insecurities. Everyone has struggles. God has a purpose for everyone. Society gives a lot of messages that don’t align with the Bible. A lot of people have never even heard about the God who loves them. People have so many reasons for the actions they take. As a whole, people are so confused.

Here are a few reasons for decisions that come to mind:

• Some people elevate themselves by suppressing others.
• Others spend all of their time growing their sphere of influence.
• Some live to serve and please others (sometimes at risk to themselves).
• Several spend their time protecting themselves.
• And then some hide from other people and insulate themselves.

Our selfish actions can have unwanted side effects, just like the medications discussed above.

Are we to spend this life racking up points? No! That is exactly why Christ died and rose. He took the ‘rules’ and replaced them with grace and redemption. You don’t have to ‘earn’ your way to Him.

John 3:16-18 The Message

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

I’m hoping this makes you rethink your purpose for being the way it makes me rethink mine. As I make decisions each and every day, what is my underlying motivation?

I am called to believe, trust, and follow in faith. If I am walking closely with God, He will help me make decisions that make sense. He has this perspective that is so far beyond anything I could imagine.

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

James 1:5 ESV

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

So contrary to what society tells you and where your own flawed thinking might take you, your priority can be God’s plan for you. Staying focused on this can help you avoid decisions that hurt other people. It can help you take the focus off of yourself. It won’t rid you of problems, but it can increase your confidence that you’re not alone.

Just say ‘no’ to the side effects of selfish thinking!

Blessings,

Michelle