I think we are used to having a higher level of drug safety than we have now. It seems like a lot of drugs are fast tracked. I can see that if they are essential to saving lives and the patient has nothing to lose. (In many of those cases you see the release of the drug delayed.) I do not know what the hurry is on some of these other drugs, such as new SSRIs.

You can see this is all market driven...Quick develop a drug for baby boomers!

I have been lucky I guess, that so many drugs make me sick so fast. I haven't been on much for long. I know I had a horrible time with the 4 months of IV methlypred, bad enough that I do not want to ever be on steroids again. Methypred is one of the safest, least destructive ones. I do wonder if I recovered. Then again, some people have no option but to be on steroids.

I try not to worry about spending the rest of my life in pain with loss of function, but what can you do? I guess we all need to weigh the risk versus benefit, really think about what is best in our situation and realize that often drugs get recalled or at least that many drugs have side effects. Pharmaceutical science is after all about putting a foreign substance into a body. It is a bit like the global climate system. You can irrigate land from a river in one place....but it is draining some other place. There is much we do not know.

Thanks for the article. It was enlightening. I was surprised that walking doesn't help that much. I have cycled over 20,000 miles in my adult life...maybe that will help in the long run. I hope I can get on my bike again! It looks rather bleak right now....but ya never know. Walking has been difficult enough. My plans were to keel over on my mountain bike in my 80s....I am a bit ahead of schedule, LOL, and not on my bike!