While folding laundry today I caught the very end of the latest episode of Real Sports, Bryant Gumbel’s HBO show. I watched an entertaining piece about Donald Trump suing the nation of Scotland to stop them from putting up wind turbines. It was what Gumbel said at the end of his show that irked me. He brought up the topic of A-Rod, drug use and the outrage people feel toward him.
Here is his statement:
“Finally tonight, what are we supposed to do with Alex Rodriguez? Embrace him? Pity him? Scorn him? I can easily understand any or all of those reactions because I think he’s a liar and a fraud. But what I don’t understand are the expressions of shock and outrage over his alleged drug use because, frankly, this country’s crazy about drugs.
Modern Americans reach for a drug for any and everything – for problems real and imagined. It’s why we consume more pills than any nation on earth and why TV ads are relentlessly selling us Xarelto, Abilify, Stelara, Prodaxa, and dozens of other drugs we never ever guessed we supposedly needed.
Americans are only about five percent of the world’s population yet we take 80% of the world’s painkillers and a whopping 99% of the world’s Vicodin. We have four million kids on Ritalin, 22-million women on antidepressants, over 30-million adults on sleeping pills, 32 million on Statins, 45 million on another drug I can’t even begin to pronounce. The list goes on and on.
So think what you will of Alex Rodriguez but when so many moms and dads are active parts of a national drug epidemic, let’s stop crying that a ballplayer’s the one setting a bad example for kids. And let’s skip the expressions of outrage and shock because however you may choose to view A-Rod’s alleged drugs use, there’s no denying the ugly reality that that’s become the American way.”
Personally I don’t like A-Rod. I think he is is fraud and a narcissist, incapable of seeing just what a jack ass he is. I also don’t like that he has taken and apparently continued to take steroids during his career as a major league baseball player.
According to Bryant Gumbel, this makes me a hypocrite. I am one of those moms and dad who is taking an active part in our national drug epidemic. He pointed out that we are a nation of drug users, spouting off statistic after statistic, calling out parents who have their kids on Ritalin, women who take anti-depressives, people who take sleeping aids.
Guess what Bryant – I pop a pill every day for my blood pressure; is that cheating? There are kids with real anxiety issues who take medication so they can access the educational process in their classrooms; is that cheating? There are parents of both special needs and typical children alike who suffer a form of PTSD who take medication so they can get through the day without falling apart; is that cheating?
The difference, Mr. Gumbel is that many of these people are popping pills so they can get through the day without having a nervous breakdown or die of a stroke or have a cancer spread throughout their body. Alex Rodriguez took steroids not so he could get to the end of the day or stave off a disease, but so he could cheat his way into a 10-year, 25 million dollar a year contract….twice!
If you can’t see the difference, Mr. Gumbel, I suggest you walk a year or two in the shoes of someone who is dealing daily with the stresses of IEP’s, fighting a system that wants to take away supportive services for their child, the financial burdens of out of school services, the isolation that many people feel because much of their community refuses to see them, the daily meltdowns, the daily wiping of feces off the walls, the constant need to be vigilant not because you are a hovering parent, but because if you don’t, your child could have a seizure in the tub or pool and drown. Or maybe walk in the shoes of someone who can’t get up a flight of stairs because their lungs don’t function properly. Or maybe in the shoes of someone who is in the early stages of cancer.
If you can’t see the difference Mr. Gumbel, then you can kiss my ass.
Run Luau Run 
YAY!
I am probably the only one who will say this, but I agree with Bryant’s statement that we live in a country where meds (vaccines too) are suggested as a way to deal with symptoms that could be dealt with through other means like complimentary or alternative treatments and dare I say exercise and a fork. I see it in my practice routinely, both from the perspective of a psychotherapist and a natural medicine practitioner. Big Pharma is at work in this country and alternative care is not valued which is a shame. Mark Hyman, MD is a great physician who speaks to the underlying causes of most diseases/disorders in this country and how to eradicate many of them through safe common dietary practices and if a med is needed, well then by all means he uses them.
Having said that, I don’t think he was speaking to YOU Matt with respect to you having hypertension or ASD children who require medications for their comorbid seizure disorders/ anxiety disorders. Nor cancer or other debilitating chronic issues.
I look at his statement through a different lens, like what is suggested to folks in the AA community-take what you need and leave the rest.
I agree with you Sheila, however, in making his broad statement, without any kind of specificity, he ends up including us all. Because of statements like his people will look at Brooke and say, “her parents are just lazy” because that is the assumption. I agree that America is over-medicated, but his statement was clumsy and possibly harmful.
I agree with you, Luau. to say the very least, he was painting with way too wide brush strokes!
Love you,
Mom
If he wants to take it to it’s logical conclusion, he should include antibiotics and heck, why not surgery? What he said was inane.
if you have a problem with bryant’s statement, then you also may have a problem with denial. don’t be afraid to listen to what he is pointing out about our habits and consider that we are not the only industrialized nation.
JT – I understand that as a nation we are over medicated, however, just like saying things like all autistics are good at science or all autistics don’t want to socially interact, the generalized sweeping statement can harm those that do not fit in to the broad strokes of his brush. Am I an abuser if I take BP medication? I eat right, I exercise regularly and outside the normal stresses of parenting I’m pretty low-key. Is my autistic daughter an abuser like A-Rod for taking an anti-anxiety medication so she can access the curriculum at school? Without it she jumps at every noise, screams at every touch, crumbles under every inquiry. I’m in denial because I don’t think my daughter is an abuser and a cheat?
Now, that being said, are there people who pop Vicodin in an abusive way in this country? Absolutely. Are too many people on anti-depressants and other types of medication they could be off of if they simply got off there asses and exercised for 30 minutes a day? Totally. But Gumbel’s (and your) disregard for those that try everything but drugs first and then ultimately choose to pop a pill so they can be a productive, integral part of society is cold-hearted and mean-spirited. Would you deny a returning soldier a sleeping aid because his PTSD from getting his bunker bombed in the middle of the night gives him insomnia? Is that soldier the equivalent of Alex Rodriguez, who knows he is breaking the rules simply to pad his stats and get a $250 million contract? I don’t think so.
It’s general, not well thought out attitudes like Gumbel’s that continue to make the world a cold place for minority groups (and I don’t mean just race).
Have you tried a vegan diet to combat your blood pressure?
Never fully vegan, no. Has it been shown to do so?
I agree with Bryant’s general message, although there are certainly exceptions. I highly recommend the films ‘Forks Over Knives’ and ‘Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead’ on Netflix. A lot can be remedied with a whole foods plant based diet rather than pills.
I totally agree Matt – my beef with Gumbel was that it was a sweeping statement – kinda like all conservatives are mean or all liberals are wackos…
I will check out the films.
Great post Matt. You are the exception because you are an exceptional parent. I don’t agree with Gumby in the least. Only part I’d mildly agree with is that I do think some parents are too quick to pull the trigger just as docs are to prescribe things which taints the water for those that really need it.
I came across this post in my own outrage, trying to find an email address to voice my concern. What an idiot, if he can’t see the difference in a prescription pill for an actual medical condition and a pill (used illegally) to help someone cheat than he is someone who I have no respect for. Two of my children are on several medications for neurological and psychiatric conditions. Without them, they would not be able to function in society as well as they do. It is not socially “acceptable” to have several seizures a day or a breakdown over frustration because your memory is so poor you can’t succeed in anything. I constantly have to deal with other people’s opinions of the medications and treatments recommended by the doctors. It is partly because of idiots like this that have no idea what they are talking about. This man should be ashamed of himself in making this comparison!
Wow. What a jerk. I’m sorry, but calling out everybody who takes medicine just because somebody used it to get an unfair advantage somehow means our whole culture supports A-rod cheating? WTF? Maybe Mr. Bryant should get a disease that requires Stelara or Pradaxa to cure and then he’ll sing a different tune. Some of these drugs are absolutely life changing… for which no cure is known. Could we as a culture be more active and eat better? Who can deny that. But to just blast everyone with a chronic disease and link them to a cheater, Bryant can kiss my ass too. Stick to sportscasting, leave the medicine to the guys who went to medical school. That goes for all the other high-and-mighty people who already preached to Luau. Yay internet trolls.
And for anybody who is curious, Enbrel and Stelara both treat psoriatic arthritis (Bryant named ‘Stelara’ in his rant). Know any high profile athletes who take Enbrel? That’s right, Phil Michelson. I guess Phil should just quit sports and make Mr. Bryant happy as Phil suffers in pain from the sidelines. Would make me even happier to see Phil win 10 more majors.
Maybe instead of just popping a pill for BP you should look at some alternatives. BP medicine has many side effects which are pretty negative in the long run. Have you ever looked into Olive leaf Extract (Oleuropein) for high BP? 500 mg. twice a day was included in studies which showed a pretty significant decrease in BP. Look it up. You appear to be very much into health and exercise so make sure to look into all alternatives with this issue. Do you take in enough magnesium, calcium and potassium? Crucial with high BP. Also, I take at least 600 mg of Magnesium Citrate per day. No one’s diet can ever supply enough magnesium needed plus this is so vital with high BP and anything heart or nerve related. Most people do not get enough magnesium per day. Anyone who says supplements are junk science have clearly not researched enough. It is also important to get good quality supplements, Thorne, Ecological Formula, Metagenics and others are great brands. NEVER just get supplements from the drug store, grocery store or Walmart, etc.. Look at all the crap in the ingredients (dyes, fillers, etc) of those brands and you will see why. The vitamin content is also way too low or very poor quality. I hear of parents giving their kids this stuff and it is awful.
Also, wanted to say that you should never take traditional BP meds and OLE together without asking your doctor. You don’t want to drop your BP too low obviously.
Blood Pressure
Animal studies demonstrate that olive leaf extracts lead to significant drops in elevated blood pressure.6,7 Remarkably, these effects are evident when supplementation occurs either before or after the animals develop hypertension. This means that the extracts have the ability to both prevent and treat high blood pressure.8
The drop in blood pressure is accompanied by reduced pressure in the heart’s left ventricle. This results in improved blood flow to the heart’s own coronary blood vessels. Additional human studies demonstrate the ability of olive leaf extracts to significantly reduce blood pressure measurements.9
One particularly fascinating study was conducted among identical twins with borderline hypertension (blood pressure in the range of 120-139 mmHg over 80-89 mmHg).10 Studies of identical twins virtually eliminate genetic variations which may impact study results. After 8 weeks, placebo recipients showed no change in blood pressure from baseline, but patients supplemented with 1,000 mg/day of olive leaf extract dropped their pressures by a mean of 11 mmHg systolic and 4 mmHg diastolic.10 The supplemented patients experienced significant reductions in LDL cholesterol.
A human study measured olive leaf extract against captopril, one of the conventional drugs used for treating hypertension.11 In this study, patients with stage-1 hypertension (140-159 mmHg over 90-99 mmHg) took either 500 mg of olive leaf extract twice daily, or 12.5 mg of captopril twice daily, which was increased as needed to 25 mg twice daily. After 8 weeks of treatment, both groups experienced a drop in mean blood pressure from baseline (11.5 and 13.7 mmHg systolic; 4.8 and 6.4 mmHg diastolic, respectively), with no significant difference between the two groups. In other words, the olive leaf extract performed as well as the prescription drug. A closer look in the laboratory reveals the reason for this equivalence. Although they utilize different mechanisms of action (oleuropein acts as a natural calcium channel blocker and captopril is a well-known ACE-inhibitor), both oleuropein and captopril function inside the vasculature to decrease the tension in the walls of blood vessels and promote widening of the vessels (vasodilation), ultimately lowering blood pressure.
wow i have to say this just makes me glad me and my family don’t follow professional athletes or any of the other celebrity role-models. I honestly have no idea who A-rod is and my kids don’t either, and honestly we don’t care. what bothers me is A sportscaster saying taking performance enhancing drugs is the same as a diabetic or some one with high blood pressure taking a prescription medication for a problem. the only time steroids should be taken are for very specific problems. While I do think we are a society of hypochondriacs that turn to a pill for everything. what really amazes me is the comments suggesting you replace your one prescription medication with not only diet and exersize but also several supplements that are taken as a pill,. So be less of a druggy by trading your one pill a day for 6 otc’s anyone else see the irony of that.