The result of a recent experience wherein I ended up in the hospital emergency room at midnight ultimately resulted in me seriously questioning the functionality of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). MedicineNet.com defines the FDA as a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.”

As circumstance would have it, my visit to the emergency room eventually concluded at 3:00 a.m. with the doctor administering and prescribing medication to rectify the physical “discomfort.” My general disdain for the idea of ingesting pharmaceuticals impulsively prompted an inquiry as to the anticipated side effects. As is the usual response from virtually every physician or nurse ever questioned, I received from “Ms. RN” who’d told me, “Oh no, it’s perfectly all right. There are no known side effects to taking this medicine.” so I reasoned it perfectly safe and returned home to arrive around 3:25 a.m.

To sum up the overall medical experience in two words or less, “They lied.” I woke the next day with a headache so intense it hurt to turn on the bedroom light. The window blinds couldn’t be opened because of the sunlight, light from the television or lap top computer caused excruciating pain, and it even hurt to lay my head on the pillow. These issues were further complicated by the fact that to sit upright resulted with the room spinning uncontrollably. I later discovered that severe migraine headaches and dizziness were marked side effects of the sulfur-based medication.

After suffering through an entire day of side effects from the medicine that “Ms. RN” had assured me was “perfectly all right,” my dear spiritual mother who is affectionately known as Granny proved a saving grace. Granny hails from Trinidad and swears by what she calls the old ways. Thankfully, the eighty-nine year-old matriarch informed me of a vegetable called “Daikon radish” that, when I tried it, miraculously provided relief from the intense headache.

The relief and tremendous appreciation compelled me to look into this miracle food so I turned to Mr. Google. A search of the vegetable actually termed a “super food,” according to the internet, revealed benefits extending from the fact that it cleanses the blood of toxins, helps with weight loss, improves kidney and liver functions, acts as an antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory. The vegetable also aids in skin, respiratory, and bone health as well as digestion. There is evidence that characteristics of the super food also aid in combating some cancer causing agents in the body.

My excitement at “discovery” of this miracle food and the information learned from briefly researching its benefits inspired me to report the news to everyone I know who’s plagued by any physical ailment. Unfortunately, my optimism was rather abruptly compressed when speaking with someone who is a licensed Registered Nurse. She informed the Food and Drug Administration would snatch the license of any medical professional who purports that the Daikon radish possesses any healing properties. Of course, I questioned the integrity of her statement after having experienced the benefits first hand. That’s when I learned that there is no food or drug that can be introduced in American society that hasn’t been “approved” by the FDA.

In further researching the matter, I soon realized the Food and Drug Administration is subject to the same capitalistic cancers that exist among most every legitimate organization in our country…dollars and cents. Simply put; if the federal agency that regulates what foods and drugs are actively marketed in the United States was to open the flood gates to allow “competition” from natural products, billions of dollars would be lost by pharmaceutical companies each year.

These mammoth conglomerates have the funds to pay representatives who lobby congress to pass laws that keep perspective competitors at bay. The realized benefits are freedoms to peddle chemically engineered medications that ultimately cause more issues than they’re designed to treat. As a consequence, the patient will end up taking another medicine to treat side effects of a potential cure and requiring more prescriptions to combat the perils of that one. The result is a virtually never-ending “cyclonic” effect consisting of doctors’ visits, medication refills and more doctors’ visits for other prescriptions that keep you returning to the primary care physician.

Something I still can’t quite wrap my mind around; if a doctor prescribes medicine for an on-going condition why is it that the prescription will, most often, only call for a thirty day supply? Then, it’s necessary for the patient to schedule another doctor’s visit in order to obtain another prescription to continue the process. That, to me, bears a strange resemblance to racketeering more so than regulation. I could be wrong but it’s just something to consider.