Observations of The Minimal Kind

I was sitting in my usual place, a recliner facing the TV, when it dawned on me that I had not yet authored a post for the blog. This is not all that unusual... I often forget. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and scramble to string a few words together for that day's post. But not this time... this time the realization of the lack came to me last evening after settling into that recliner after returning from our weekly dinner with friends. Yes, we do have friends. Actually, Faye has them and they are willing to tolerate me for an hour or so.

In any case, I was (obviously) watching the TV... in "real time"... which means I could not fast forward through the commercials.  One of them starts with a guy saying, "I have low testosterone. There, I said it." While I am wondering why that is such a big deal, he goes on to talk about how it can affect various things in his life. As I am thinking... "I really don't care about your testosterone levels" I began to muse...

It seems like some researcher for some pharmaceutical company either develops a medication or discovers one that already exists for the treatment of some condition can also treat some other condition and the company then markets it heavily. Soon, other pharmaceutical companies develop their own versions and they start marketing their versions of the same medication and, within a few days millions of people are being urged to ask their doctors about some possible condition they might have (but probably don't) and insisting he (or she... let's not be sexist now) prescribe this new wonder drug.

They have a name for what these companies are trying to turn us into.... hypochondriacs. I don't need the urging, thank you, I can do that on my own easily enough.