When a website becomes a drug company's Get Out of Jail card

I discovered a new health website on the weekend; mindbodylife.com.au. It gives a fairly comprehensive view for mental health patients as how to improve their living habits to being healthier. I also discovered that it is sponsored by pharmeceautical company Lily, which gave me food for thought. Why would a drug company give two hoots about caring about the physical health of mental health patients? Then I considered the possible legal aspects and/or cases of people on psych drugs which cause weight gain and any possible court cases which may have been lodged by people who may have developed life-threatening illness like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

So is Lily covering their arse by creating a caring and sharing website for people like me with schizoaffective or some other illness? I get a fairly constant message from my doctor about needing to lose weight and do more exercise; even when I tell him I walk for 50mins 4 times a week he counters with: It should be an hour every day. Pretty tough love. I see a dietician and haven't had much success; I crave fatty carbs, which I've read can be caused by Zyprexa, which simultaneously then makes it difficult (the zyprexa) for my body to process the said carbs and burn them off. It's tough to lose weight on some drugs, really tough, as many people who take them could attest to.

I wonder how many legal cases or precedents have been set by anyone rich enough to take the drug companies on. You hear about other medications like Vioxx and how that was withdrawn. I just wonder whether its because most mentally ill people tend to be disenfranchised that they can be ordered to take meds which can endanger their physical health to the extent that they develop physical conditions which can be life-threatening. It sucks. I know, I know, the alternative in not taking medication can result in hospitalisation. I just look at my cousin; she's a fair bit older than me, she's 60 and has schizoaffective like me. She was on Lithium for donkey's years and now has to go on dialysis regularly for her kidneys which are shot. It brings it a bit closer to home for me, but she's pretty stoic and cops it on the chin.

I just hope the damned drug giants can refine the crap we currently ingest to the extent that side-effects are a thing of the past. To be honest though, I can't see it happening in my lifetime; I'm 40 and am grateful enough to have tried many different new types of medication in the hope of getting the 'right' balance. So far type 2 diabetes and heart disease haven't raised their head yet, but they are on the cards unless I can lose weight and give up smoking. I'm sure there are some people out there who have managed far better than I have done with far more challenging illnesses; I don't mean to whine. Sometimes medication is frustrating, that's all.