Monday, January 01, 2007

A Brief Treatise on Restless Legs Syndrome, Better Known as Restless Pharmaceutical Company Syndrome

Here is my first outrage of 2007.

I've been seeing commercials advertising a drug that claims to alleviate the symptoms of Restless Leg Syndrome, marked by exactly what the name of the malady suggests.

It is, "described as uncontrollable urges to move the limbs in order to stop uncomfortable, painful or odd sensations in the body, most commonly in the legs. Moving the affected body part eliminates the sensation, providing temporary relief."

I'm sorry, this is just completely silly. Half of my peers (myself included), when sitting down, tend to move their legs up and down repeatedly. It's called Too-Much-Caffeine Syndrome or Nervous Person Syndrome.

On a related note, it's time to stop the excessive medication of America, especially American youth. More and more children are diagnosed with ADD and ADHD when their only real problems are lax parenting and lack of respect for others. I myself was suspected by my first-grade teacher to have ADD when in reality, I was just bored in her class. I was talkative because I finished my menial little tasks before my classmates did (but tenured teachers are a subject for another post). Thank God my parents recognized that I was just a weirdo, rather than a weirdo-in-need-of-ritalin...

More to come later perhaps (the night is young and all that).

4 comments:

Juicy said...

maybe RLS does exist and you've just never had it...don't be so quick to disqualify its legitmacy, especially seeing as a lot of people nowadays really don't get enough exercise. Plus people who move their legs out of nervous habit usually don't find that this habit prevents them from relaxing at night, which i think RLS does, and how would you like it if you were suffering and someone was like 'oh it doesnt exist'? (ok yeah i am a hypochondriac, but still...)

Gavrich said...

Well I'm told I sleep on my back with my right leg bent (which is exactly what is represented in a picture at restlesslegs.com). I sleep great, and I wouldn't call it a "devastating" condition. My point is that it seems a dubious thing at best, and (as always) companies are treating a disease with medications whose side effects are worse than what they are supposed to treat (you know, like magnesium oxide causing diarrhea...).

gbz said...

Maybe RLS isnit serious, but any kind of insomnia kinda sucks and maybe its just medical science removing another imperfection of the human body

k.ann said...

I like the last sentence, "Thank God my parents recognized that I was just a weirdo, rather than a weirdo-in-need-of-ritalin..."

I LOL'd.

:D