Medicines are truly a wonderful invention that has saved billions of lives around the world, as they can treat most of the diseases known to man and can help alleviate a huge variety of diverse symptoms. Some medications can be purchased without a prescription, but others require a prescription. The latter are not a problem since we cannot access them easily, but the ones that are sold without a prescription can make you fall into one of the most dangerous traps for your health: that of self-medicating .
Even if you know what you are taking, you may not know that medications do not always have the same effect on people since they can react with other substances, medicines and even with food and can also be harmful for people with pre-existing conditions that you do not even know that you suffer. Therefore, in this article we explain the reasons why you should not self-medicate without medical supervision.
The main reasons why you should not self-medicate
Self-medication refers to the use of medications by a person to treat symptoms and conditions without consulting a doctor. Although it may offer some advantages, such as immediate relief of symptoms, it is not a safe practice and may cause more harm than good to health . Therefore, it is best to always have the opinion of a professional, such as those who are part of the Adeslas medical staff, for the reasons that we are going to explain below.
Diagnostic errors can mask a more serious disease
One of the main problems of self-medicating without going through a medical consultation is that you can misdiagnose what is happening to you and delay the chances of effectively fighting more serious diseases . For example, it may happen that a person who has bleeding in the stool, believing that he has hemorrhoids, decides to buy the necessary pills and ointments to relieve symptoms without going to the doctor, without taking into account that this bleeding may be a sign of other conditions. serious – such as colon cancer – that need to be diagnosed and treated quickly.
Not taking the medicine properly can lead to ineffectiveness
When you self-medicate, there is also the possibility that pills will not work because you take them the wrong way (usually taking the wrong route , such as when taking pills that need to be placed under the tongue). Self-medication can also lead us to take incorrect doses , making us sin both by excess -which can negatively affect our liver- and by default -which can cause the symptoms to be prolonged unnecessarily-, especially when the dose of the drug must be based on the weight of the individual.
In addition, there is also the possibility of not taking the drug properly, suspending treatment prematurely or abusing it, which can generate resistance on the part of our body to the effects of it, as occurs with antibiotics.
Medicines can react with other substances and cause side effects
Some drugs react negatively when taken together and counteract the effect of certain drugs , such as doxycycline and penicillin. They can also react with other substances causing side effects , as in the case of aspirin and alcohol, the combination of which increases the risk of stomach bleeding.
Self-medication can lead to addiction
Physical dependence on medications is probably one of the most serious health implications of self-medication, especially in relation to mental illness. This occurs because some medications such as antidepressants, stimulants and analgesics can produce the same effect as drugs , especially if they are taken regularly and in large doses.
