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Learning Caution

 Watching The Bleeding Edge was a sad and distressing experience but one that everyone should have. The story about a hip replacement making a person lose his mind was at first difficult to understand but when the reason was explained, the dots started to connect. It made me think about the side effects of medicines people write about - sometimes it runs such a gamut that it leaves you confused. How many of these things are related to the drug itself and what is unrelated. Surely this whole constellation of issues could not be attributed to one medicine. But it could very be and maybe the more diverse the range of problems being reported the more concerned we should be instead of dismissive. The medical device business seems to a whole another level of disaster. The fact that any number of lawsuits against one of Bayer's devices failed to move the needle and this documentary succeeded is a great accomplishment. 

I have over the years offended any number of doctors by refusing to accept the first thing they prescribed and demanding they explain their rationale and disclose how many years the thing has been in the market. I have told many upfront that if they are looking for a lab-rat to try novel meds on, I am definitely not their person. I often feel that people do more diligence with their mechanic who diagnoses the ailments of their old car and prescribes a fix than they do with their doctor who is doing the same thing but to their body. The cost of a subpar auto-repair job is rarely life threatening but as the stories in this documentary illustrate one wrong decision can completely upend a person's life and even destroy their family. 

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