You’re Right to Be Skeptical of Those Prescription Drug Ads on T.V., And Here’s Why

When you are suffering, it’s hard to turn down something that promises to give you relief. But is it worth it for that long list of sketchy side effects that appear at the end of every prescription drug commercial?

It can be hard – but it’s important to remain cautious. In fact, there are some studies out that show we all should be pretty wary when one of those advertisements sneaks its way around the fast-forward button.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The ads have only been allowed by the FDA since 1997, and as recently as 2015, a report published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine by Yale University researchers found that none of the 97 included ads offered objective information about potential risks. Instead, they chose to focus on the relative improvement of patients’ quality of life. Since most of the ads targeted people with arthritis, diabetes, and other continuous ailments, that seemed to be a purposeful point of focus.

Another recent study, this one published in the Annals of Family Medicine, looked at how the ads depict people enjoying lavish, healthy lifestyles. Basically, instead of spending time discussing risk factors and other pertinent information, drug companies choose images that, again, promote the idea of an improved quality of life – almost 69% of the studied ads suggested the advertised drugs could lead to a more active and healthy lifestyle.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Even though the FDA is technically responsible for policing the ads and ensuring that consumers are getting accurate information, most critics agree they’re not doing enough. The ads aren’t reviewed in advance, and once they’re out there, the damage could already be done, as internist Andy Lazris, M.D. explained to Health News Review:

“Everyone on the ads appears healthy, happy, dancing, and they get better. So people are led to believe a) the drug will be effective (which is often not the case), and b) that they should replace their old therapy with the newer one because it’s better (again, which is often not the case).”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

He continues, speaking about the numbers often rattled off in the television spots:

“And if they give you any numbers at all, they’re almost always the deceptive relative numbers that look really good, not the more realistic absolute numbers. So the benefits are over-exaggerated, the harms are downplayed or missed, and that’s how patients can get hurt.”

We’ve become a visual society, so often people latch onto those happy, smiling faces and ignore what’s being said about potential side effects. They do all encourage you to speak to your doctor, though, so that’s something.

Though, like the phrase “I was searching WebMD,” I would guess that most doctors heave a huge inner sigh at a conversation that begins, “I saw an ad on t.v.”

Regardless, your doctor is there to advise you on your health, so go ahead and ask about any and all potential medications that could improve your life. Just don’t be surprised if what they have to say about a certain drug is a far cry from what those happily parasailing people on television claim.

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These 20 Tumblr Posts Are Sure to Make You Laugh out Loud

Tumblr can really bring the laughs when it wants to, huh?

You know it can, and that’s why I’m here to give you 20 sidesplitting Tumblr posts.

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IT Workers Dish on the Worst Mistakes They’ve Made While on the Job

Everyone has messed up at their job at one time or another. Most of the time, it’s not a huge deal…but sometimes? Well, let’s just say you hope your boss isn’t around to see it.

If you work in the IT field, you better have your head on straight. If you don’t, you could make some seriously huge mistakes that might lead to enormous headaches.

Here, AskReddit users share their own IT horror stories.

1. Ooops…

“I was trying to determine where some cables were going and had to open the cable management for that. I accidentally cut through the fiber connecting the two data centers of that company.

I was called Edward Scissorhands after that.”

2. Gone

“I deleted 50-70% of the photos on the site/project I’ve been working on. (Not mine, customer photos) =).”

3. Time to make amends

“I do test automation for an insurance company. Once, I accidentally pointed tests at the production environment and bound a bunch of policies. It took several people a couple hours to clean up the data before it got migrated to accounting. This was all after 4:00 on a Friday afternoon.

The next week, I spent $250 on a pizza party for the team to make amends.”

4. Don’t turn your back

“I was tasked with mounting a switch in a network closet alone. Those things are a bit heavy and difficult, even moreso that I was alone. So, I barely got two screws in and I released it and it stayed. I turned to get my other two screws and the switch fell 5 feet and broke the mounting bracket.

Not me but someone on site also delete an entire database and backed it up. So, basically, all data was lost.”

5. Sorry, Doc

“Lost a doctor’s spreadsheet she’d put ten years worth of work into.”

6. Panic

“Deleted my entire hard-drive just from moving too fast.

i was trying to delete some files, but i didnt realize i had the entire root directory highlighted instead of the one directory i needed. deleting took no time, and then i went to clear the recycling bin which happened to be in OSX – and i got curious as to why there was a progress bar that projected like 6 minutes to clear the bin. i was like oh well, just a system hiccup.

it was systematically scrubbing all thirty thousand files from my entire computer.

and i was the entire video editing wing of an advertising agency. i am not an emotional guy, but this had me running around in a panic, almost in tears in front of coworkers.”

7. Journals

“It wasn’t technically work but I was helping my sister with her computer and accidentally deleted her journal entries from like two years. Told her her hard drive had gotten corrupted and she may have lost files, but now that I defragged it it should be fine. She gave me a hug and surprised me with ice cream for helping her; I’ve never felt more guilty in my life. If you ever see this Cate…. sorry.”

8. Wrong word

“I once worked in IT support, biggest mistake I made was emailing whilst frustrated.

We needed everyone to turn their PCs off so we could roll out an update over the weekend, it saved us time to not have to go around turning them all off manually, not to mention if someone left a PC running with some work on it they’d lose it, which is never good. We also had lots of VMs running at any given time too and they can be a bit of a ball ache to turn off as I recall.

So. I sent an email out to the whole company asking people to turn off their PCs this time using a tone that was obviously slightly irritated, I signed off with my regards and sent it.

Only to be called in by the boss 5 minutes later so he could point out that I wrote ‘Retards’ instead of ‘Regards’, and the tone of my email made it look intentional.

Thankfully he was a good boss and just laughed it off.”

9. Rickrolled

“We were testing out our new phone system and it appeared to let you set different hold music per site. So we loaded up Rick Astley for our hold music. A day or so later we’re talking to several people on speaker phone at another site when they mute one of the phones they were using and suddenly…. never gonna give you up…

The MD in the room got all snide about the stupid 80’s hold music, the assistants are confused, and we are on mute laughing our a–es off.

So yeah, I rickrolled the hold music on our whole phone system. Might have to turn it into a yearly April tradition.”

10. That’s a lot of gift cards

“Oh man. This takes me back to my early days. Many years ago I did essentially the same thing to a database of currently active gift cards for a very large company. It’s our responsibility to load in new gift cards every now and then, and I did a batch but forgot to set the credit amount when loading. The update I wrote had a WHERE clause but the logic was bad and it updated every single gift card to essentially brand new.

Over 100 thousand currently active gift cards, all instantly refreshed to 100$. Fortunately it happened in the early morning and a peer and I were able to pull the right amounts out of the data warehouse and correct the issue within about 30 minutes without anyone being able to use any credit they weren’t entitled to, but man… What a harrowing learning experience. I was literally dripping sweat. I have taken the “write all deletes/updates as selects first” approach since.”

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These 5+ Examples of Photoshop Are True Masterpieces

If you know how to photoshop images, then you see the world in a different way. Instead of seeing regular photos, you see untapped potential. So, it only makes sense that you would bring your visions to life using photoshop. Enjoy these masterpieces!

1. This is Azuki, the most popular hedgehog on Instagram.

Photo Credit: Reddit: Mal3ficent

Photo Credit: Imgur: PennyHop

2. Rushing through a storm with an ice cream cone. The possibilities are endless.

Photo Credit: Reddit: Darkbobman1

Photo Credit: Imgur: tiberius_magnus

3. This picture is great enough as is, but it can always be improved.

Photo Credit: Reddit: suri09

Photo Credit: Imgur: artunitinc

4. This cat looked like it was breakdancing, so…

Photo Credit: Imgur: doitforjohnny

Photo Credit: Imgur: twohubs

5. This intern fell asleep at work.

Photo Credit: Imgur: wavesatdogs

Photo Credit: Imgur: wavesatdogs

6. This one is pretty normal. What could you do with it?

Photo Credit: Reddit: YaBoyLantony

Photo Credit: Imgur: RexLeou

7. This contemplative eagle looks like it could use a friend.

Photo Credit: Reddit: MScrapienza

Photo Credit: Imgur: drewskey

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Here Are 10 Sweet Tweets to Boost Your Faith in Humanity for a Little While

These days, our faith in humanity seems to be at an all-time low. So, we completely understand if you think the title of this list is a big promise. That said, these 10 tweets are so wholesome and pure, you can’t help but be reminded of the good in people and our innate desire to be kind, despite all the crappy stuff out there.

#10. Bond over blood #tears

Image Credit: Twitter

#9. Hey, dogs can pull their weight around the house!

Image Credit: Twitter

#8. I don’t know what’s better, the grandma twins or the person so charmed by them.

Image Credit: Twitter

#7. For any girl who loves their grandad…there’s probably something in your eye, too.

Image Credit: Twitter

#6. Don’t stop looking until you find a partner who will do this…

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#5. Internet friends are the best friends. Fact.

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#4. The proof is in the two-hour silly task.

Image Credit: Twitter

#3. Every beautiful life is worth saving.

Image Credit: Twitter

#2. There are no people like dog people.

Image Credit: Twitter

#1. May we all have friends like these.

Image Credit: Twitter

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This New App Claims to Help Break Your Smartphone Habit

It’s a well-known fact that our smartphones were designed to be addictive, and phone companies’ success at achieving that has many people calling smartphone addiction a growing threat to public health. Even if you don’t want to admit it, you probably know this from your own usage. Perhaps you have even tried to limit how often you use your phone, but it’s always tougher than it sounds.

If so, you’re not alone. As a result, you, like so many others, likely experience the unpleasant side effects of too much phone time: distraction, depression, anxiety, and neck pain – just to name a few.

Image Credit: Pixabay

As someone who spends a lot of time in front of her laptop, I can attest to these side effects, which is why I’ve engaged an app that shuts down all my social media sites for allotted amounts of time when I need to focus on writing.

It was eye-opening to discover how hard it was for me at first. I often clicked out of my work and tried to scroll Facebook, only to find it blocked.

According to WIRED, a similar app is coming to your Apple or Android device, and it may be just what you need to get over the hump to a phone-free dinner. It’s called Flipd, and its aim is to reduce the amount of time you spend looking at your phone, which, hopefully, could help break the habit for good.

Image Credit: Flipd

For those of you who can’t fully commit, you can use the app’s “Light Lock” feature, which is displayed on your main screen and runs on a timer. It doesn’t shut off access to any of your apps — it just serves as a subtle reminder that you’re not supposed to be opening them.

If you want/need to turn the timer off, you can, but Flipd makes you click a button that shames you with a “Yup, I’m weak” admission.

If that’s not enough motivation to keep you on task (honestly, it wouldn’t be for me), then you can engage a “Full Lock” mode, which does prevent you from clicking on any downloaded apps for the duration of the set time. However, you can still text and make phone calls, if you’re worried about safety.

Image Credit: Flipd

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Why You Shouldn’t Let Your Baby Sleep in a Car Seat

Most parents are probably guilty of doing this, even though we know that car seat manufacturers and pediatricians warn against it. But when you’re sleep deprived and your little one is snoozing away, it’s hard to justify waking them up.

Well, as easy as it might be to let them keep snoozing, one mom’s story – and a reminder of the official party line on the subject – means we all need to suck it up and get your kid out of the car seat as soon as they’re in the house.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The anecdotal (and heartbreaking) evidence comes from mother Lisa Smith, who lost her 1-year-old daughter, Mia, from positional asphyxia after napping in her car seat at daycare.

“I got a call while I was at work,” Smith told ScaryMommy. “Worst call I’ve ever had in my life. ‘Drop everything. Mia didn’t wake up from her nap.’”

Smith and her husband were aware of the dangers of allowing their daughter to sleep in the car seat, the childcare provider claimed she was not. That lack of awareness cost the Smiths their daughter, and Lisa has made it her mission to educate others.

A 2015 study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found that 47 children (2 and under) had died over a four-year span, all of them in car seats outside of a car, and experts remind us repeatedly of safe sleep recommendations and that car seats don’t meet any of them.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

“There’s nothing about the car seat that’s designed to sleep,” Sharon Evans, a trauma injury prevention coordinator at Cook’s Children Hospital, told WFAA News. “Of course, it the straps aren’t tight, the child can kind of slump down.”

In a safe sleep brochure created by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), they explain that “because babies don’t lie flat in car seats, they can suffocate when their heads (which are very heavy compared to the rest of their bodies) tip forward, blocking their airway. These products are not made for babies to sleep in and are dangerous because babies are not sleeping flat on their backs.”

The official recommendation from the American Association of Pediatrics is that infants sleep on a tight, fitted sheet on their back, in an environment free of other items like blankets, pillows, or toys. They also recommend that infants room in with their parents for six months to a year.

As tempting as it can be to break the rules for our own comfort, parents like Lisa Smith hope we’ll remember their tragedy and think twice.

“She was our first born, our only child, and she didn’t deserve what happened to her. But other families don’t deserve this to happen to them, either.”

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This Online Museum Is Preserving Sounds for Future Generations

Conserve the Sound is not your average museum. It describes itself as “an online museum for vanishing and endangered sound” and it’s exactly what the world could use right now. Daniel Chun and Jan Derksen are the brains behind the operation, and they’re committed to preserving sounds that are vanishing from our everyday lives.

Some examples include a rotary phone, typewriter keys, and the buzzing sound of a vintage intercom.

Remember the vintage viewfinders you used to play with as kids? That sound is cataloged by Conserve the Sound as well.

Be sure to browse through the online museum’s website. I guarantee there’s something on there to make everyone feel like an old timer. What a great idea!

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Top Beer Producer to Eliminate Plastic Rings and Glue Its Six-Packs Together

It’s no secret that the plastic rings that hold our beloved six-packs together are horrible for the environment. They end up in oceans and animals become caught in them and starve to death. I’ve even seen photos of turtles who got stuck in them and the plastic totally changed their shapes. Overall, it’s an environmental disaster. And you know that quite a few people aren’t taking the time to cut up the rings before putting them in the trash.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

But there’s good news from a top beer producer. Carlsberg, based in Denmark, has taken a bold step forward and come up with a glued six-pack design called the Snap Pack. This allows the six-packs to stay together without any extra plastic by using dots of glue.

The glue is strong enough to keep the cans together during transport but can be pulled apart easily.  It took three years to perfect the design. Carlsberg estimates that their new measure will reduce their use of plastic by 75% and will save over 1,300 tons of plastic each year. The Snap Packs will debut in the UK in September 2018 before they spread out to the rest of the world. Let’s hope other companies follow Carlberg’s lead.

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