Jacksonville, Onslow March 09, 2008
Medical & Pharmaceuticals
(PRLEAP.COM) Lifestyle medications are now
affordable. What does that mean? First, you
need to understand what a lifestyle
medication is. Your insurance company
realizes what a lifestyle drug is because
they will not pay for any of it. A lifestyle
drug is one that is deemed to improve your
way of living, or lifestyle, but is not
necessary to cure or reduce the symptoms of
any life threatening disease or sickness.
Great examples of lifestyle drugs are
Viagra, Levitra, Cialis, Propecia and
Acomplia.
Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are prescribed to
cure erectile dysfunction. These are
definitely lifestyle drugs. They are not
necessary for survival but will most
definitely improve the quality of your life,
sex life that is. Propecia is the most
popular medication used for the treatment of
male pattern baldness. Propecia is also a
lifestyle drug because there is nothing life
threatening about balding, even though some
men would tend to disagree, me included.
Acomplia is the new breakthrough drug highly
praised in European countries for
weight loss. Acomplia, generic name
Rimonabant, reduces your weight by reducing
your appetite. If your brain tells you to
eat less, then you will consume less food
and lose weight. The problem with all these
medications is threefold. First, insurance
companies do not like to pay for them.
Second, they are protected by patents and
are extremely expensive. Third, even though
the need is self diagnosed, they require a
doctor’s prescription to obtain these drugs.
Why are these medications so expensive?
Well, Pfizer would state that Viagra is so
expensive because we, the consumer, need to
pay for the research and development of that
drug. (Even though all research and
development is completed by the time the
drug reaches market.) I find that response
curious. Who pays for the 20 Viagra
commercials that are played during each and
every NFL football game? Who pays for the
Viagra NASCAR sponsorship? Who pays for the
full page Viagra ads in the popular
magazines such as Men’s Health or Sports
Illustrated? Us, the consumers pay for all
the media that Pfizer uses to convince us
that we have a medical condition requiring
their medication.
I previously used to lie in bed at night,
unable to sleep, and blamed it on a
stressful day and would get up and watch
some TV until I was tired enough to sleep.
Now, thanks to modern medication and TV
advertising, I realize that I have insomnia
and need the Lunesta butterfly to lull me to
sleep. Or, could it be those restless legs
that are keeping me awake. They are moving
around a lot. That could mean “restless legs
syndrome”. Restless legs, are you kidding
me? Is this a real diagnosis? Who thinks of
this stuff? Obviously it is because there is
big money to be made in convincing us we
have a medical condition requiring a
particular medication. When a pharmaceutical
company develops a new drug, they usually
receive a 10-13 year patent. This means that
no other drug company can reproduce that
drug, not even in a generic form. To
pharmaceutical companies this means 10-13
years of exclusivity and price gouging.
How do we battle price gouging? We go to the
internet and search for reputable online
pharmacies from other countries that are not
tied down by the USA’s stringent patent
laws. A couple of websites that I have
located are delivering authentic generic
versions of highly popular medications at up
to 90% off retail prices and do not require
existing prescriptions. These sites are
http://www.4rx.net and
http://www.xlpharmacy.net. I have
ordered several medications from both sites
and have always received factory sealed
medications in a timely fashion. I have
always been impressed with the quality of
the medications and the customer service if
I have questions or problems.
How do these sites sell the same medication
so cheap? Well, you will never see a full
page color ad for 4Rx in a major magazine.
You will never see an XL Pharmacy NASCAR
racecar making laps around the track. You
will never see 30 ad spots for online
pharmacies during football games or the
Superbowl. They only produce an honest
product and request an honest dollar in
exchange.
Am I the only one that smelled a rat when
Claritin just recently outlived its patent
and suddenly became available “Over the
counter at the same prescription strength”?
Why was it not “over the counter” the entire
time? Because they can demand a higher price
as a prescription medication and insurance
companies will not pay for over the counter
medications. End result is these giant
pharmaceutical companies are ripping off the
insurance companies, who in turn need to
charge us higher premiums to make a profit.
And we get mad at the insurance companies.
Are we mad at the right people? I should say
NOT! This “rat” returned when Zyrtec
outlived its patent. Yep, you guessed it!
Now available over the counter at a new
reduced price and the same prescription
strength.
Before you vote the next politician into
office that claims Internet pharmacies are
bad and need to be outlawed. Question which
companies were MAJOR supporters in his
political campaign. I would wager a bet that
it is one of the major pharmaceutical
companies. They are actively involved in all
political fundraising events. Fight for your
right to save money. Fight for legitimate
Internet pharmacies such as
www.xlpharmacy.net!