In 2013 I went to see my doctor for an annual physical. This was my first time seeing Dr. Michaels for a physical and he went through the standard procedures before asking Is there anything else that is bothering you? This is a standard question - one that I have heard at virtually every physical, and I always answer it the same way. Aside from my chronic health issues, nothing. Instead of casting my answer aside, Dr. Michaels dug deeper, which was completely atypical from most of the other doctors I had seen. The result of that deeper investigation led to a number of treatments that I follow to this day - including eliminating dairy from my diet - and one that as well-intentioned as it was caused my health to plummet to new lows. That treatment was for a prescription for Flexeril, a muscle relaxant sometimes prescribed to Fibromyalgia patients.
If a doctor prescribes a drug for a particular ailment, you can be assured that the drug has undergone numerous years of studies to document, among other things, (1) the effectiveness for a particular ailment and (2) the side effects of the drug. The prescribing doctor is not assuring that the drug will cure your ailment; rather he is making a judgement call that the potential benefits of a particular drug outweigh the potential complications.
On the whole, prescription drugs are extraordinarily useful in treating illness. I have taken many prescription drugs where the benefits dramatically outweighed the complications. However, in certain instances for certain ailments, the side effects of drugs may prove more harmful than good. In my case, while Flexeril did help me sleep better and feel more energetic during the day, my days were filled with unending anxiousness, nervousness, nausea, and digestive discomfort that forced me to miss important business meetings, collapse while mountain biking, and to deplane from a flight to a good friend's wedding. On the whole, the side effects of Flexeril added a new dimension to my chronic issues that was worse than anything else I had experienced. And it took seven months to identify that the Flexeril was the cause. I have been Flexeril free and side-effect free since June. And since then, many of the symptoms that I discussed with Dr. Michaels at my physical have been eliminated or minimized through experimentation with alternative therapies.
If you are taking any prescription drugs read the label - understand what the potential side effects are. If you observe any of the side effects or an increase in your current symptoms, make sure to discuss them with your doctor.
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