The body will always strive to maintain homeostasis. As a consequence, the shaking of this internal equilibrium may lead to the occurrence of diseases.
Unfortunately, we all too often react to the signals our body is sending us by taking a painkiller. Research has shown that, in situations when we feel less than well, we automatically reach for pharmaceutical measures. Among the countries of Europe, Poland ranks second, right behind France, in terms of the quantities of medicaments taken. Statistically, the average Polish resident consumes thirty-one packets and bottles of medicine per year. Painkillers and anti-inflammatory agents were the most frequently purchased. The fact that an entire fifty-three per cent of the study subjects using a given non-prescription medication for the first time do not consult a doctor is astonishing. The total percentage of people who always ask a physician before taking a new medicament was a mere twenty-one. According to research carried out by the Central Statistical Office in 2009, seventy-one per cent of Poles took non-prescription and prescription medications. The results of that study point to a growing trend in the use of medicines not prescribed by physicians, with painkillers, which are available from every newsagent kiosk and grocery shop taking the lead. Painkillers may assuage pain, but they do not inhibit the progress of a disease.