KATHMANDU, May 15: Whenever we feel a bit under the weather it feels quite natural to go to our local chemist and ask for the required medicines. We might have done this quite a number of times for ourselves as well as for our family members.
The question now is how aware are you of the side-effects of over-the-counter medication? While it may be easy to just buy the medicines conveniently, it might be worthwhile to know the side effects caused by them in the long run.
Praveen Bhusal from Butwal states, “We rely on various medicines in our daily life. It may be for headache, stomachache, sprains, inflammation or any other pain in the body. The overuse of those drugs on the contrary to the physician’s prescription can cause severe health hazards.
Most of them are chronic and show their effects after a long duration. Some side effects could be liver damage, cancers, ulcers, heart diseases, weak immunity system, dizziness, elevated blood pressure, kidney problems, and a lot more. So I prefer to and also suggest my relatives to rely on appropriate amount of doses and intake of any medicine only after the prescription of a doctor.”
While awareness on the topic does exist, it is very inadequate and vague. It is easier to pop by the chemist’s and buy the medicine than to go to a hospital, book an appointment and wait for the doctor.
Pawitra Limbu, 24, a student of PBBN (Post-Basic in Bachelor Nurse) at Bir Hospital says, “As a health personnel, I’m aware of the side effects but public awareness is still very unclear on this issue. Personally, I only buy painkillers and that too very rarely – perhaps once or twice in a year.”
However, Aashish Koirala might be speaking for most of us when he says, “I buy anti-allergic, anti-vomiting, sleep-inducing drugs freely without prescriptions. I feel no need to go to a hospital for checkups and unnecessary tests which are costly. But I worry about long-term side effects.”
Well, it is time we stopped being careless about our health.
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