We tend to think of prescription drug side effects as mild, short-lived reactions to new medications that disappear as the body gets used to them. However, sometimes these drugs can cause very serious health problems, and in rare cases even death, so it's important to know all of the risks up front before you start taking any pharmaceutical drugs.

Although they can be quite effective in treating a variety of ailments, and are in some cases a necessity, prescription drugs are man-made chemicals created in a laboratory. Much like with smoking, illegal drugs and other toxins, introducing unnatural substances to the body causes internal stress that can impede normal functioning. While a certain medication is addressing one health concern, it is actually interfering with dozens of other body processes, which is why there are so many different medical drug side effects.

Anyone who has read a magazine or watched television has seen advertisements for drugs, be it for high cholesterol, depression, insomnia or impotence. These ads are always accompanied by a laundry list of potential side effects from these prescription drugs. That's because they wreak havoc on the body, and you must build up mechanisms to cope with this new stress. Headaches, stomach issues, restlessness, irritability and other concerns are quite common with a large percentage of these medications. Some can cause more serious medical drug side effects such as an irregular heart beat, sexual problems even strokes, heart attacks and in some cases death.

Most of the more serious prescription drug side effects are rare, but they do occur, and even if it's 1 in 100,000, do you want to be that one?

Some prescription drugs cause so much concern that they are recalled. An example of this is Vioxx, a very popular anti-inflammatory medication taken by millions of people. After a long struggle where the company denied any wrongdoing, the product was recalled due to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes with prolonged use.

One of the biggest problems is that there are little to no long term studies on most of these prescription drugs. So the manufacturers and your doctors have no clue what the long term medical drug side effects will be. We can only hypothesize that years and years of man-made chemicals circulating around the human body will cause damage...to what extent is anybody's guess.

Does this mean you should not take prescription medications? Absolutely not. For many health conditions they are a must, especially where the alternative is an unmanageable situation. You have to weigh the benefits and the drawbacks. But in some cases there are natural alternatives that you can try that may be just as effective as their prescription counterparts. And the best part is they don't have prescription drug side effects because they are comprised of natural substances such as vitamins, minerals, herbal extracts and other nutrients that they body can easily assimilate.

Be a smart patient...make sure you learn about all of the potential side effects before taking any medication...it may save your life!
Read more info about prednisone side effects at Side Effects HQ.