Drugs in Business

Life is a chemical reaction. Every one of the 100 trillion cells in your body experiences about 6 billion chemical transactions every second. I bet you never knew how busy you really are!

The human body is an astoundingly complex system. We would like to think that we know a lot about it. And certainly, we know a lot more than Greek doctors did. In terms of the total complexity, however, I suspect we don’t know very much at all.

Why is this important in the context of business? I’m glad you asked!

Rather than try and put together a theoretical argument to make the point that I want to make this week, it seems so much easier to look at it from my own personal perspective. I hope you don’t mind.

As you probably know, I have been a diabetic since 1971. This means that I have probably been on the receiving side of more medication then you have. (Four injections each day for the past 37 years adds up.) Not that I’m complaining about that. They keep me alive. Stop them, and this is the last Petes Weekly.

One of the long-term challenges of diabetes is side effects that develop over time. Almost all of us develop high blood pressure over time. No problem, one imagines, because there are so many drugs are available to treat that very symptom. In fact, as we get older, the professionals add a few more drugs into the mix — a little dash of this to pull down that cholesterol, Mr Carruthers, and a little pinch of that to thin out the blood.

All good stuff, you would imagine, especially at the price charged. Not really. Firstly, there are the drug side-effects you notice immediately. For example, hopping into bed with the woman of your dreams requires a modicum of enhanced blood pressure in a specific localised area. Not a problem, Mr Carruthers, yet some more pills to give you the lift you need at the time you need it.

The side-effects you can immediately notice are not the problem. It’s the ones you don’t notice that cause all the problems — in life, and in business.

Imagine, for example, that you have a physical job. (Something that involves lifting stuff, for example.) How challenging would it be to get two frozen shoulders. (A frozen shoulder is just that: Any movement is agonizing. Takes anything up to 3 years to work through it.) This is something that happened to me three years ago. Turns out it happens to diabetics four times more often than the most common group of normal people — middle-aged women. Interestingly, it does not seem to have anything to do with diabetes. It seems to have a lot to do with one of the pills prescribed to diabetics with high blood pressure — in my case something called simvastatin.

You wouldn’t be bothered if you were to read any of the Greek literature that accompanies the tablets. You would only notice if you searched the web for the terms frozen shoulder and simvastatin. Even then you won’t find much official literature. What you will find is a whole range of complaints from various people with frozen shoulders on simvastatin.

Turns out that there isn’t really an official complaint mechanism where you can complain to a drug manufacturer about your side-effects — if you noticed them and made the connection. I didn’t, until recently.

I also didn’t make the connection to the high level of grumpiness the woman of my dreams assures me I have had for the past few years, nor to the increasing lassitude and loss of interest in life.

Some time ago I wrote that no business owner should be on tranquillisers of any sort, because they take away any urge you might have to solve the problems in your business. But what about medication that takes away your vision, your edge, your joy of life, the urge to get up in the morning and kick the world in the stumps?

It turns out that almost anybody over the age of 50 is probably on one of the drugs that are the biggest culprits in this arena.

Almost everything that you read about business assures each one of us that nothing stops us from being the next Richard Branson, Henry Ford, or William Gates. Nothing, that is, other than the prescription medicine most folk over the age of 50 are taking. And we’re all supposed to have the same 24 hours in each day. Not true if you’re so tired that you need to sleep through 10 of them!

I have just finished reading a wonderful book by Patrick Holford called Food Is Better Medicine Than Drugs. It details how the modern drug system operates, and why very, very few doctors focus on teaching you to eat right to fix the problems instead of prescribing solutions to the symptoms – every single one of which solutions carries significant side-effects.

Coincidentally, last week, I ran out of two of the three medications I am on. I replaced them with a series of vitamin supplements. (And a few tools to ensure that my blood pressure stays low.) My blood sugar control over the past week has been better than in the past five years. I feel better than I have in the past three years. I reckon it’s worth the very small risk of being around for less time if I can actually have some fun while I am here!

You might think that this weekly e-mail happens because I’m interested in small business. I am, but I am infinitely more interested in the people that own small businesses. You are what makes business interesting. And anything that threatens you, and consequently your business, is worth writing about.

Do yourself a favour and take some time out to read the book. It’s fascinating, and a little disturbing.

Since I’m completely unqualified to offer any medical advice (my two years in medical school in 1976 hardly count) please do not take this as advice. It is simply a discussion on an issue that I think is sorely neglected, with my personal take on the matter.