Thursday, February 21, 2008

Take once daily on an empty stomach

Color seems like it would be completely unnecessary when it comes to something as small and simple as a the little pills that we swallow. However, once you take a moment to think about how medication permeates just about every aspect of American life, the details of those pillls begins to take on a whole new importance...especially if you happen to be taking more than one medication, which is becoming more and more commonplace as technology progresses.
Images of these pills assault you from every angle: magazine pages, newspaper blurbs, 30-second clips on the television and even blown up to a monsterous size and displayed on a billboard. Taking pills has become a cultural norm, whether it is something as innocent as a daily vitamin or to treat prevent much more grave symptoms such as the rejection of an organ in a transplant recipient. Advertising agencies along with pharmaceutical laboratories have capatilized on societies acceptance of pills as a cure-all, and to make them even more attractive they often come in an assortment of bright candy colors which appeal to the child in all of us.
Of course, aside from advertising and memory related purposes, the color of our pills seems to have a pronounced psychological influence, perhaps even extending to the point where the effectiveness of the pill may be compromised by an ill-suited color. If you are skeptical. Try imagining "fire red capsules for acid reflux or murky bile green for nausea." A pill that is a visual representative of the distasteful symptom that a person is experiencing does not indicate relief of that symptom. If a person takes a pill that they do not believe will work, or that they believe will not work well, the person will have less relief than they should, regardless of how biologically well the chemicals in the pill should treat the symptoms. Treatments are considerably more effective when the colors of the pills are in accordance with the feeling that they are supposed to promote. A soothing pale blue is often the color of choice for sleeping pills, and the earthy green of Excedrin capsules seems to suggest tranquility and relief from pain.

All extraneous information and quotes take from :

"Taking the Color of Medications Seriously
Pharmaceutical Color – A New Frontier!"
www.colormatters.com/body_pills.html

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