WARNING: DON'T JUST BLINDLY TRUST YOUR DOCTOR!

WARNING: DON'T JUST BLINDLY TRUST YOUR DOCTOR:
Yesterday I woke up feeling dizzy, and a lot of belching, so consulted with my local doctors surgery, on -ine of course,.

Fair enough a doctor phoned e back within a few hours and asked me the symptoms then prescribed me some pills which I managed to get to collect at the local chemist.

Before taking them I read the enclosed leaflet - ithe leaflet with the pills prescribed for the dizzziness read "read this leaflet first".

At the end of quite a long list of people that should not take the pills it iincluded if ...
"Elderly (65 years or over)"

I am almost 74!

The pills that he prescribed for the belching warned "may cause dizziness"!

So this morning I went back on line to the on-line surgery which one can only do between 7.30 and 9.30 and asked what I should do - should i take them or not or could he prescribe something safe?

So doctor just phoned and said i can take the pills and ignore the warning on the label as "we use it every day, it's one of the best ones - you can take it!"

The essential question, who to trust, the doctor or the leaflet warning - the latter, of course, serves as disclaimer - they all get paid - do doctors usually tell patients to ignore the leaflets that come with prescription medication - what consequences for a negative reaction - more pills? Why bother putting in the leaflets unless they are meant to serve as disclaimers - does the doctor mean ignore all the information and warnings or is he being selective? Presumably the warnings are based on patients experiences. Should we just ignore all safety precautions and hope for the best?

The dizziness has passed without me taking them - basically it's a choice between believing the doctor and believing the leaflet given by the manufacturers - I'd rather not believe either - especially as I told the doctor that i was doing a lot of belohing and he prescribed another pill and on that leaflet it said "may cause dizziness".

My previous surgery i went as i was getting arthritic pains in my shoulder and he gave me dihydrocodeine and on the flier it said "may cause contipation" - it did after just one pill - so i went back and told hom (actually by phone of course) so he gave me cocodenol - it said on the flier "may cause constipation". So i never took them anyway. I geuess they would have earned more money prescribing me laxatives. Instead I started eating cherries which it is said eases arthritis.
They did. I told the nurse and she said she never knew that and said "some of these alternative medicines work wonders". I told her cherries were a fruit and have been eaten for thousands of years and grow in my garden, and it is the modern pills that should be called alternative medicines.

We have to remember that these doctors are earning quite large salaries despite compaining about their hours - to be qualified they have to pass exams but they don't actually have to care.