About Medshadow

MedShadow is an independent nonprofit health news journalism site focused on the side effects of medicines and lower risk alternative health options. We protect your life and the lives of your family by making sure you have the information you need to make informed decisions about the risks, benefits and alternatives to medicines.

Even though MedShadow is nonprofit, we refuse to accept support from pharmaceutical companies or medical device manufacturers. You can be sure that our information is free from the influence of pharmaceutical companies.

MedShadow is made up of award winning health journalists, medical professionals, donors, and volunteers who are committed to making the hidden and minimized risks of medicines visible so that everyone has the information needed to make the best health care decisions for themselves and their families.

Every medicine has a side effect. So does every herbal remedy, vitamin, supplement, etc. A side effect is any unintended reaction.

• Ibuprofen is effective at relieving muscle aches but using too much can create liver damage in just three days.
• Lavender essential oils have properties that relieve anxiety, but can cause estrogen surges in infants (babies with breasts!).
• Statins lower cholesterol, but cause muscle aches and pains, increase your risk of diabetes, and might affect your cognitive reasoning.

But that’s what happens to other people, most of us don’t worry about side effects until it happens to them. But it happened to me, Suzanne, the founder of MedShadow. Before I was born, my mother was prescribed a drug that was supposed to help her pregnancy. Instead, it affected the fetus’ fertility organs.The drug affected my fertility organs, leaving me without the ability to bear a child. That drug was given to about five million pregnant women before it was finally banned in pregnancy.

Side effects are personal. They happen to real people and to a lot of people.

• Read about Kim’s heartbreak when her husband Woody suffered the undisclosed and devastating side effects antidepressants; or
• Rachel’s story about the harms that women aren’t warned about with breast implants; or
• Andrew’s search for help with his military service related injuries when traditional medicines couldn’t help.

There are more than 2 million serious adverse drug reactions in hospitals yearly, leading to more than 100,000 deaths. (Source: Lazarou J et al. JAMA 1998;279:1200–1205) Side effect awareness, management, and avoidance can change that number. Thank you for reading.