Can you be vegan and still take over the counter or prescription drugs?!
Answers: Think about this seriously before you answer. All medications are tested on animals. The drugs might eventually be tested on humans, but initially they are all tested on animals. At one time, all insulin was made from beef or pork pancreas (not today). So my question is if you are taking any kind of medication...aren't you supporting the testing of animals by taking it?
If I absolutely need a medicine, I will take it. But if I can manage in other ways, I'll try to avoid the drug if possible. However, if I am taking a supplement that has a gelatin capsule-- I will always do an online search to see if there are any formulations that are made with veggie caps.
There is something called a 'compounding pharmacy' where they fill the medicines in the pills on site. (These types of pharmacies aren't as common as your Walgreens or CVS, but some cities have them.) I recently was prescribed a medication that was prepared in a compounding pharmacy, and I made sure to tell my doctor and the pharmacy to put the medicine in veggie caps, and they did that for me. So just check to see if you have any options, as it may be possible in some cases.
If a drug is only made from animal products (like gelatin or animal glands), then I personally would consider how severe my condition is-- and if is it only moderately severe, I'd look to see if there are vegetarian alternatives available or if I could make do with other lifestyle changes that might improve the condition on its own.
For instance, due to my past with post-traumatic stress (PTSD), the chronic stress really messed up my adrenal glands over the years. My clinical tests shows that my adrenals are not producing sufficient epinephrine (a hormone the body makes), which is leaving me extremely tired and exhausted all the time. It has nothing to do with being a vegan, but is related to my past history. Anyways, I went to a holistic physician and they recommend me take this bovine glandular-- which is a cow's adrenals, which would make up for the deficiency of epinephrine my body isn't making. Initially I did buy a bottle, but afterwards reconsidered. I decided I didn't want to use animal products. Instead, I read about adrenal issues and learned that things like coffee and sugar and refined starch can continue to mess up the glands. So I've predominantly removed that stuff from my diet. I also learned that B-vitamins and such can really help. So I started including those. Obviously my recovery this way is much slower than if I were to just take the cow glandular pills-- but I just can't do it. But doing the other stuff, I am still recovering, though slowly. But I feel better doing it this way, since it's in line with my ethics. That's just an example, though one could apply it to his/her own medical conditions.
I would just do my 3 day jillian Mckeith detox and continue with what is needed at the time until such time as I could be healthy enough to wean myself off specific meds
There is no perfect vegan, there's always going to be some level of cruelty that occurs. Personally, if my daughter was very sick or dying, I'd do anything to make her better. I'd buy any medicine, no matter how cruel the means. I still value my own survival and my family's survival above other animals, that's the way the world operates.
I nix cold medications and things like that for myself all the time and just weather out colds and flus (I rarely get sick anyway), but if I had cancer I'd want to get treatment, including radiation and all the drugs that could help me. Being vegan isn't about being some great martyr either, in my opinion. I don't think it's normal or even sane to slowly die of cancer just because medication was tested on animals.
My aim in life is to greatly reduce my impact on animal suffering and to live animal product free to the best of my abilities. My aim isn't to derail my life and my family's life completely in an attempt to do the impossible - have a life that has no contact with animals and is absolutely free of any cruelty whatsoever. I really don't care about other's views on my lifestyle, I think it's better to do the best that you can than to give up and do nothing at all about it. We are all on the Earth for a short period of time, just a blip in the face of history, so why die after a life of nothing but waste, cruelty, destruction and lack of consideration for the billions of living creatures that accompanied it with us at the time?
Personally, I dont take any kind of pill, perscription or not. i came down with Strep a few weeks ago, and i didnt take any sort of pill for it. the body has a way of making you better all by itself. If it is something small, like a cold or strep, then dont do it.
If it is serious, though, don't let being vegan make you unhealthy.
The fact if it is vegan or not: It isnt because it is tested on animals.
In a nutshell:
If you can live without the medication than don't take it.
As Maggie pointed out - being a vegetarian/vegan isn't about being a martyr, it is about making healthy lifestyle choices.
I have pointed out more than once that there is no such thing as a person being 100% vegetarian/vegan (got the thumb downs to prove it for the comments). It isn't possible in the world that we live in.
What IS possible is to limit and make choices as to the extent that we allow such within the actions and choices that we make.
Trust me - you don't want me to operate my car and not be taking my zarontin for my seizures. While I can feel the seizures coming on and have always been able to get to the side of the road before getting on the med's - it is a scarey thing to have within a life - and dangerous.
Would you deny your family member cancer treatment that is totally cureable because it was treated on animals and allow them to die? Testing was done long ago - it isn't go to do anything to help those animals now - how is the family members death going to help?
It is about priorities. It is about common sense and a rational approach to day to day life.
Considering what some of the colds are turning into now days - over the counter drugs look much better than spending a few days in the hospital because it turns into something more serious and being stuck with the food that they offer in the hospital that isn't fit to eat.
I avoid drugs whenever possible. And I will try nonconventional therapies first. But if those don't work, and the only thing that will make me better is the conventional OTC stuff, I'll take the stuff with the fewest cruel ingredients. As Maggie pointed out, we vegans do what we can to reduce animal exploitation. We're human, not perfect.
I'm a vegan because I want to minimise my contribution to animal suffering and exploitation. Risking my own life is not part of the deal.
I owe my life to drugs that were by law tested on animals; it never occurred to me to refuse them, and if I had to do the same again tomorrow, I would. I also take a drug daily which was, by law, tested on animals. Not to take it is to make a recurrence or metastasis of cancer more likely.
There are three non-veg*n contributors to this forum who have called me a hypocrite or a bad vegan for putting my life first. They - FlexitarianVegan, FlexiVegan and Common Sense (all three names are intended to confuse) - apparently feel no shame at claiming, on a forum they KNOW is read mainly by young and impressionable people, that 'true' vegans would allow themselves to die rather than take medicines that had been tested on animals.
Being a vegan doesn't mean being a martyr; it means doing all you can and the best you can not to contribute to animal suffering. I do more than most to minimise personal contribution to animal suffering - my choice, and not in any way a judgement on people who make different choices.
A slow, painful and avoidable end to my life is not part of that choice.
You say ''Think about this seriously before you answer''; I didn't need to, because I'd already thought this issue through. I hope you and anyone else will think seriously before suggesting anyone should endanger their life.
**Edit: Sunshine, I don't see any rude or hostile answers to your question. Some answers have been considered carefully and some are emotive reactions, but that's par for the course.
You didn't actually make any reference in your original question to the fact that this is a dilemma you yourself are facing, and in fact ''So my question is if you are taking any kind of medication...aren't you supporting the testing of animals by taking it?'' felt to me like a criticism.
Windrain... I don't think a Gillian McKeith 3 day detox would have done it for me.
Dolphin...interested to hear more about that charcoal chemotherapy lol.
many capsules and pills have gelatin in them..... so if you eat gelatin than i guess so..... bu if you don't eat gelatin than don't take the medicine!!! ( try natural ways instead..... ex: carcoal)
Well try answering this one with a human perspective. Modify it to fit your situation. If you needed one or else you would die, would you make a person be your bone marrow donor (they could die because of the transplant) even if they didn't want to. Hey, also don't forget, some pills come in gelatin capsules.