Then how come homeopathic products exist? It’s more accurate to say “…if the people who fund advertising didn’t believe it works.”
It probably DOES work…but the fact that people spend money on it does nothing to prove that. People spend money on all kinds of irrational stuff.
I love those representations: finishing benches, watching sunsets … you’re doing it wrong!
As to some of these drugs, the company is getting the word out that what’s wrong with you is a recognized and treatable ailment. Otherwise, many people simply might not think to mention to their doctor that their legs twitch at night to the point of keeping them awake, or that they have to pee quite often.
I love the cycle of these ads:
First, you get saturation of the product. Ask your doctor if “Whiz-bang” is right for you. (Caution: May cause the condition known as “sausage fingers”.)
Then about two years later you get the constant bombardment of lawyer ads: “Did you get sausage fingers from using Whiz-bang? Call us to get the money YOU DESERVE!”
I swear it’s just one big company - just different ways to get revenue from the same product.
Notice that for most ads of this nature, there is nothing specific to the product in the imagery used. The fun activities could be used for anything. It’s like they have clip-art commercials already made up, and you just add your voice over for your specific product.
Next time you see one, imagine the same commercial with different voice overs for ED products, over-active bladder, blood thinners, toenail fungus, retirement investing or reverse mortgages, and I bet it would work for any of them.
I was told by a cardiologist that the risks associated with xaralto in these legal ads were essentially the same as for aspirin. Xaralto just has deeper pockets.
There is one teeny difference between Xarelto and warfarin that might make a significant difference.
If you start hemorrhaging while on Xarelto there’s not much they can do - maybe transfuse you and hope it helps to stop it.
If you start hemorrhaging on warfarin they can given you vitamin K, which counteracts the warfarin. And that’s why you need regular blood tests while on warfarin and there are dietary restrictions. You need to tailor the dose to the amount of vitamin K in your diet and then keep the amount consistent.
Gotta tell you, that Xarelto is dangerous stuff. My cardiologist started me on it, primarily because I’m really old. Well it seems that I also m the proud possessor of several tiny kidney stones, with whom I’ve been living with quite peacefully for who knows how many years.
Well, they got hit by that Xeralto, and started some major bleeding. And I’m here to tell you that bleeding from the kidneys is quite a spectacular event, guaranteed to get your instant attention, along with thoughts of dying.
I ASAP got hold of the doctor about this, and he stopped the Xarelto, after which the problem cleared up within 24 hours.
You have been warned.
Come to think of it, this could be a pretty good test for budding kidney stones. They could name it the Daylate test.
Condoms. They’re all condom ads.
I saw an ad about a drug that will thicken my eyebrows with only a slight risk of death. Yeah, seems well worth it.
I think a part of ‘for profit’ medicine is the ‘pay to purchase’ attitude that quickly develops. Some time back there was an US celebrity bitching because, while in Canada, he’d gone to a hospital and demanded an MRI (I think it was!). He was appalled when he was denied!
If your hospital is for profit, and a guy, with the means to pay, wants an MRI, why not? Everybody wins. Soon that mentality naturally leaks into prescription drugs. So you get big pharma advertising direct to the ‘consumer’, as the natural result.
If you’re a Dr, and your patient arrives with a burning desire for a particular med for their issue, if you have a choice among many to make, why wouldn’t you just give them what they already believe will work for them? ( assuming, of course, they have the required medical condition!)
My favorite is the radio commercial for “Shift Work Disorder”, where you can’t sleep after coming home at 7 or 8am. One of the listed side effects is trouble sleeping. WTF??? You want me to pay money to take a pill to have the same condition if I don’t spend money & take a pill? Oh yeah, marketing, nevermind. :rolleyes:
Take two of these, but don’t call me in the morning. 
Just saw a commercial on TV several hours ago (one of the few I’ve watched). It featured a lawyer asking anyone who had had excess bleeding while using Xarelto to call his law firm and they’d get tons of money.
Should have called them, but I hate lawyers.
That’s not what my regular doc (and his backup) told me. I ended up with blood clots in my leg after a very long flight a few months ago, and my regular doc suggested aspirin (clots were below the knee, and I am youngish and generally healthy). But he was going out of town that night, and when his backup got the Doppler report, he called and suggested I might want to consider something more hardcore (one of the clots was close to a major blood vessel, just barely below the knee). Xarelto was one of the alternate drugs he named.
After looking them up, I asked why he suggested that when my regular doc said aspirin was fine, especially given the cost (upward of $700/month for at least 3 months, although he said he could probably cough up some samples) and the severity of possible side effects. He acknowledged that these were reasonable questions and that there was not a real consensus about the appropriate course of action in a situation like mine - even polled the office for me. My response was “I’ll stick to aspirin, thanks.” The clots are gone now.
They have a pill for that. pillmaycausedeath