The Most Medicated Ever? Maybe…
Last week The Women’s Bioethics Project Blog made mention of a book which contends that:
‘baby boomers and their offspring have become the most medicated generation ever, devoted consumers from cradle to grave of every manner of pharmaceutical imaginable - pills that not only cure real diseases, but that also promise…’ to ‘do everything from guarding us against our excesses of drink, food and tobacco, to increasing our children’s performance at school, to jump-starting our own productivity at work, to extending our very time on this mortal coil.’
I probably wouldn’t have thought anything of this claim, had I not also somewhat recently attended one of my grandmother’s historical monologue performances as Lydia Pinkham, a very successful 19th-century herbal home-remedy entrepeneur.
If you’ve ever seen old turn-of-the-century(-before-this) magazine ads, you’ll remember that they’re often populated with Snake Oil medicines making claims that are every bit as broad (nay, broader!) as those cited for today’s pharmaceuticals.
On the other hand, one could argue that today’s dubious and/or excessive medical treatments are more potent, and therefore perhaps more dangerous. And it is true that our limited understanding of the neurochemical pathways that drugs for depression, etc. work on render our modern treatments the equivalent of using a sledgehammer to pound in a nail.
Then again… surgical removal of ovaries, the 19th-century medical establishment’s cure-all for a variety of “female ailments”, sounds a tad blunt as well… what with the 40% mortality rate, and all…
It would be interesting to know, then, whether a comparison has been done between percentages of the population taking regular medication in various time periods (and cultures).
And likewise, on percentage of income spent on medicinal remedies (we may just have a lock on that one)…
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In defense of your probably-nascent impression of Lydia Pinkham, I should point out that despite partaking of the broad advertising language of the day, she wasn’t just another snake-oil peddler. First, her elixirs were packaged as an alternative to aforementioned brutal surgery. Second, it turns out that one of her ingredients– black cohash– has proved to be effective in treating the symptoms of menopause, so is actually still widely marketed today.
