A commonly prescribed medication could have killed me. “One size fits all” medicine works fairly well most of the time for most people. But what about those people who don’t fall near the mean? What about the outliers? Aside from that, none of us are truly average. Even identical twins are not exactly the same at birth, and as they age the difference between them grows ever wider.

Doctors today are overloaded. They don’t have a lot of time to look back at a patient’s full history, and even if they do take the time, they may not catch the significance of a brief entry. As a result, they sometimes take shortcuts based on their knowledge of patients in general.

• They know that most older Americans are overweight
• They know that most older Americans have high blood pressure
• They know that most older Americans have interrupted sleep because they need to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom

I went to see a doctor at my HMO about some test results. After we finished discussing the results, he asked if I had any other problem or complaint. I mentioned that I had to get up in the middle of the night several times to go to the bathroom, and that often there was difficulty getting the flow started. I’m sure this is a complaint he hears a lot from people my age, so he knew what to do. He prescribed a drug that would loosen up the constricted passageway.

Great! I filled the prescription and took the first pill, a 24-hour time-release capsule, before retiring for the night. Later that night, when I got up to go to the bathroom, I felt a little dizziness, but thought nothing of it and went back to bed.

In the morning, when I got up, I felt dizzy again. “That’s odd,” I thought. That day, every time I stood up from a sitting position, the dizziness returned. I contacted my doctor and described my symptoms. He directed me to stop taking the medication immediately.

It turns out that this drug works by lowering a person’s blood pressure. That relaxes vessels in the body and opens them up, permitting a smoother flow of fluid. The prescription I received was probably appropriate for most American men my age. However, I am not most American men my age.

I am not overweight. In fact, I am underweight and have been counseled by another doctor to gain weight.

I do not have high blood pressure, even though the medical assistant who took my blood pressure before the doctor came into the examining room received a reading that was unusually high for me. I mentioned this to her, but she did not do a retake. My normal blood pressure is low, not just for someone my age, but for anybody. That’s just the way I am.

The prescribed drug made my already low blood pressure even lower. Dangerously lower. It put me on the verge of passing out and collapsing. I have done that before, more than once, even without the help of a blood pressure lowering drug. Passing out at the wrong place at the wrong time can be dangerous. It can even be fatal.

What’s the solution? How can we do better than prescribing drugs or other interventions based on what works for most people most of the time?

Personalized medicine. If treatment is tuned to the individual rather than to some generic average person, outcomes are bound to be better. That sounds great, but how could we actually do it? It may surprise you to know that personalized medicine is not that far off. Once people’s full DNA has been read and catalogued, artificial intelligence scans can uncover genetic risk factors, and combine that knowledge with test results and patient history to deliver the most appropriate treatment for each person, for any condition. I’m happy that the day when much better diagnoses and treatments become available, will soon dawn. But for me, that day cannot come too soon.

Bio:

Allen G. Taylor is a 30-year veteran of the computer industry and the author of over 30 books, including Develop Microsoft HoloLens Apps Now, Get Fit with Apple Watch, Cruise for Free, SQL For Dummies, 8th Edition, Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies, Database Development For Dummies, Access Power Programming with VBA, and SQL All-In-One For Dummies, Second Edition. He lectures internationally on astronomy, databases, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He also teaches database development and Crystal Reports through a leading online education provider. For the latest news on Allen’s activities, check out his blog at www.allengtaylor.com or contact him at allen.taylor@ieee.org.