Italy is unfair when it comes to medicines: nearly 600 people don't have the money to pay for them. And we're throwing them away.

More than 580 men and women turn to 1.700 healthcare providers each year for free medication. This represents a 9,7 percent increase in just 12 months. And many Italians, far too many, choose not to seek treatment.

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sick people who don't get treatment

ITALIAN CHE NOT SI THEY CURE

Over three million Italians forgo treatment. Many immense have the money to afford private healthcare, and immense they support the interminable waiting lists, for example for radiological investigations which are valuable for prevention. But many refuse treatment, thus dividing the population in two, for example with regard to drugs: those and they buy too many and waste them, and who immense can afford them or refuses them.

PATIENTS WHO REFUSE TREATMENT

Our relationship with health—let's look at the world of pill-swilling people and try to reduce this phenomenon—is very strange and even contradictory. We're gluttons of information about health , diets, and the risks of certain foods, and we're also huge wasteful drug users (we throw away 1 kilo each, costing each family €400). Yet at the same time, we turn our backs on doctors when we need to carefully follow a specific treatment. The mechanism is almost automatic: during the acute phase, we obey and take the prescribed medications, then as soon as the danger seems to ease, we abandon the treatment without consulting a doctor but on our own initiative.

WHY' SI REFUSES TO GET TREATMENT

This genuine suppression occurs in massive doses, and a significant portion of Italians have effectively chosen not to seek treatment . It occurs in 86 percent of those with respiratory problems and asthma, 61 percent of those with depression, 45 percent of those with hypertension , and 57 percent of those who should be taking specific cholesterol-lowering medications. Not to mention 38 percent of diabetics. These are serious conditions, therefore, with proven and internationally approved therapies, but they pose enormous health risks when not followed. Constantly high blood pressure, for example, increases the risk of a stroke, while excess cholesterol is the leading cause of heart attacks.

READ MORE: How we waste our health, and even our lives. The book that confronts us with our responsibilities.

REFUSAL OF MEDICAL TREATMENT

But why do we become sick, untreated, and thus waste our health ? There are several reasons. We don't want to be slaves to pill schedules , which often require long periods of time: one reason why it's best not to obsess our relatives by constantly reminding them to take their medicine . Then there's the usual skepticism combined with temporary fear, which only kicks in during the acute phases of the illness and then disappears. And finally, many doctors, partly to get rid of the patient and move on to the next appointment, often overprescribe, thus encouraging patients to ignore them.

HOW TO HELP A PERSON CHE NOT HE WANTS TO GET HEALTHY

We can help a sick person who doesn't want to seek treatment in several ways. Here are some tips:

  • Talk to the patient to help them understand that treatment is important not only in the early stages but also as symptoms subside. The risk of worsening is just around the corner if the doctor's instructions are not followed;
  • adopt a patient attitude by listening to the reasons of those who do not want treatment;
  • help the sick person create a routine so as not to forget their medicines.

HOW TO TREAT YOURSELF, WITH CARE AND IN SOME CASES, WITH NATURAL REMEDIES:

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