Advertising is a powerful tool. It makes us crazy for cars, clothes, vacations, homes, and food. Companies spend millions of dollars on making sure the consumer is enticed by their product. The pharmaceutical industry is no different than the big name food chain. They spend a lot of money to get you to take your existing medication and replace it with the new flashy medication. Certainly you do not want to be hasty in your decision to go with a medication or not but what you do want to do is to make sure that you think about everything before you waltz into your doctor’s office and demand that he give you the new medication.

You have to keep in mind that if something isn’t broke then there is no reason to fix it. If your doctor puts you on a heart medication and it seems to be working there is a danger in taking you off that heart medication and going with something else. Changing for the sake of changing doesn’t do anyone any good. Your doctor knows that so don’t be surprised if you ask and he flat out tells you he will not make the change.

You also need to ask yourself why you think you need to change medications. For instance if you are on a heart medicine and a blood pressure medicine but then you see a combination drug on tv, does that mean that you need to be on that combination drug? Are the two medications that you are taking not working for you? Would this combo drug work better? You might find that going to a combo drug will help with the one drug that wasn’t working well but then hurt you by not taking the drug that was working well in the first place. It might be better not to rock the apple cart.

If you really believe a medication can be helpful you should bring it up to your doctor at your next visit but don’t be fooled by the advertising, not everything makes sense for you.