Should You Take the Recommended Meds?

https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/13299.18.0.0/society/should-you-take-the-recommended-meds ^

[Thistooshallpass9]

“I’m writing you a prescription for drugs A, B and C,” the doctor says. “Take those from now on, and you’ll feel like yourself again.”

These kind of medical recommendations are issued with increasing frequency in the United States, and patients are generally quick to follow the orders. Researches at the Mayo Clinic reported that almost 70 percent of Americans today are taking at least one prescription drug, and over half are taking at least two.

A smaller percentage of Americans are on numerous prescriptions. In 2014, Americans were written a total of 4.33 billion prescriptions. For a population of only 319 million, that number is staggering. It pulls the average number of prescriptions per person up to 13.5. And with each passing year, these numbers are climbing, making the pharmaceutical industry ever larger and more powerful.

ARE YOU AT RISK—FROM YOUR MEDS?

These expensive drugs often provide users with relief from some symptoms. But they also carry a host of health risks. About 16 percent of all hospital admissions are related to adverse reactions to prescription drugs.

Women are at particularly high risk of complications from pharmaceuticals. That is in large part because although women take the majority of prescription drugs, many drugs are only ever tested on men.

And here’s the big one: Pharmaceuticals—used as prescribed—are the fourth-leading cause of death for Americans. That puts medication-induced deaths ahead of diabetes, car accidents and aids. The death rate for prescription drugs is 10 times higher than the number of people killed by illegal drugs.

Patient advocate Lisa Bloomquist says that, in far too many cases, “the pharmaceutical industry has effectively taken an acute problem … and converted it into a chronic problem.” She says these chronic problems “mean repeat customers, and the pharmaceutical industry makes billions.”

In light of these risks, patients should ask their doctors some questions before blithely following all recommendations to take pharmaceuticals.

'WHAT'S THE NNT?

First, a patient should ask the doctor about a statistic called the nnt, or the “Number-Needed-to-Treat.”

The nnt is a piece of data doctors and pharmaceutical companies generally don’t like to discuss. It describes the number of people who need to take a certain drug in order for one of them to be helped by it.

Consider the example of statin. Statin is a class of drug routinely prescribed to lower patients’ cholesterol levels. But the nnt for the most widely prescribed statin is a jaw-dropping 250. That means for every 250 people taking it, statin helps only one person.

Dr. Jerome R. Hoffman, professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained: “What if you put 250 people in a room and told them they would each pay $1,000 a year for a drug they would have to take every day … and that 249 would have no benefit? And that they could do just as well by exercising? How many would take that?”

Statin has an unusually high nnt, but GlaxoSmithKline estimates that 90 percent of all prescription drugs work for only 30 to 50 percent of people taking them.

And in many cases, the effects of your medications are far worse than neutral.

That leads to the second question a patient should ask.

'WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS?'

Before agreeing to a new prescription, a patient should also ask the doctor about the drug’s side effects and the percentage of people who suffer from them.

To stick with the example of statin, the side effects are serious. They include joint pain, muscle pain and gastrointestinal distress. These are known to affect about 5 percent of people taking the drug. (In severe cases, it can also cause muscle breakdown and type-2 diabetes.)

So, if you add the side-effect percentage to the nnt, you see that for every 250 people taking the most-widely prescribed statin, just one person is helped, while more than a dozen suffer side effects. This means each individual patient is 12.5 times more likely to be harmed than to be aided by the drug.

'DOCTOR, IS THE DRUG COMPANY PAYING YOU?'

It isn’t possible to watch tv without being bombarded by stressed-out women finally getting a good night’s sleep, depressed teenagers undergoing a transformation to joyfulness, and silver-haired men regaining long-lost virility.

But pharmaceutical companies spend only a fraction of their marketing funds on directly targeting consumers.

Unlike the situation with most products, consumers can’t buy pharmaceuticals unless they have a doctor’s approval. So the pharmaceutical companies know that doctors are the ones who actually have the power to get their drugs off the shelves and into patient’s medicine cabinets. So companies channel the bulk of their marketing directly to health-care professionals.

Nine of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies spent more on marketing than on research and development of new drugs. In 2012, pharmaceutical companies spent $3.5 billion on direct-to-consumer marketing. That same year, they spent about $24 billion marketing directly to health-care professionals.

And marketing is shockingly big business for these drug companies. The bbc found that in 2013, nine of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies spent more on marketing than on research and development of new drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies market to health-care professionals in two primary ways.

First, they send sales representatives to routinely visit hospitals, bringing gifts and free lunches to doctors. Former pharmaceutical sales representative Jamie Reidy told Last Week Tonight that the lunches are more than just occasional offerings: “There are some offices that advertise in the front desk job description ‘free lunch everyday’—not because the doctors are paying for it, but because the drug reps are bringing it in everyday.”

The National Physicians Alliance said that 83 percent of doctors report having accepted food and/or gifts from drug companies. One study showed that the United States has about 100,000 drug representatives, which means about one for every eight doctors—and the average marketing spent on each doctor is more than $12,000.

In one case, a drug company spent $9,750 on a dinner for three doctors—in an effort to persuade them to prescribe its drugs.

Drug company gifts to doctors can also include fishing trips, educational fees, sample drugs—and services such as building free websites.

This problem is so widespread that the government recently launched a website that allows the public to see how much each doctor is receiving from various drug companies.

The second way pharmaceutical companies market to doctors is by hiring doctors to talk to other doctors about their drugs.

In 2013, federal prosecutors accused the Novartis drug company of spending almost $65 million to pay doctors to conduct more than 38,000 such “speaker programs.”

The Wall Street Journal reported: “The speakers were paid an average of $750 to $1,500 per program, with some speakers earning as much as $3,000 a program, prosecutors said. In one instance, a Florida doctor was paid $3,750 for speaking to the same four doctors about a Novartis drug five times in a nine-month period, prosecutors said.”

Novartis tried to defend itself, saying physician speaker programs are an “accepted and customary practice in the industry.”

But that is the problem. The customary nature of the practice means the objectivity of many health-care professionals is corroded.

When a drug company pays a doctor to act as a spokesman for its drugs, that doctor will often feel beholden to that company. It will cause him to make some recommendations based not on his best judgment but on the wishes of the drug company.

So, the third question you should ask your doctor, if he recommends a certain prescription to you, is whether he is receiving money, gifts, speaking fees, or other benefits from the company that makes the drug. You may also ask if his opinion of the drug has been influenced by doctors paid to speak on behalf of its manufacturer.

'HOW CAN I DO MY PART?'

A final question you should ask is directed less at your doctor than at yourself.

It is: What long-term changes could I make in my diet, exercise, and other lifestyle habits that could improve my health without pharmaceuticals? Unlike popping pills, these kinds of changes are difficult and ongoing. But they can make massive, side effect-free improvements in our lives.

To understand more, read our articles “Help Yourself to Radiant Health” and “Belly On, Belly Off.”

[loungitude]

And when you quit taking some med, you start getting letters and phone calls.

[Awgie]

I am a physical therapist therapist visiting elderly patients in their homes and assisted living I attest to the fact that pharmaceutical companies are doing more damage than good

[Rodamala]

If you want to retain your 2A rights, stay the Hell out of the doctor’s office. I self-medicate with Coffee, Whiskey, and Lucky Strikes... so far I am in the prime of health.

[CyberAnt]

Here’s a clue: If the drug has a warning like “swelling of the tongue and throat” .. this would not be a good med to take. I have been at the every edge of this occurrence, and I can tell you it’s very, very scary.

If you can’t take statins, check out a supplement called, “Citrus Bergamot”. It’s made from a plant which grows in the southern part of Italy. It is regularly stocked at most drug stores - just call around and you’ll find it.

It costs less than $40/mo - you take one capsule per day.

My cholesterol DROPPED 86 points after I had taken this supplement for 120 days (supervised by my doctor). He did not recommend the supplement; but he was willing to run the test to see if it would help me. I also got an increase of my good cholesterol of 8 points; I was already at 58.

This has totally changed my physical well being, and because of the new supplement, I have lost 3.5 pounds in the last 5 months, without having to make any great changes in my diet.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

“Should You Take the Recommended Meds?”

Only after researching the meds, reading very carefully the cautions, warnings and side-effects.

I start the meds and watch very closely how my body responds. If there are negative-effects then I stop taking the medication immediately.

I have refused taking some meds recommended by a doctor and have fired more doctors at which can shake a stick for the reasons above.

Never, and I repeat, NEVER trust a doctor simply because he is a ‘doctor’. There are many quacks who should be in some other business other than the medical profession.

There are many others who are simply ‘milking’ Medicare/Medicaid.

[Pontiac]

This problem is so widespread that the government recently launched a website that allows the public to see how much each doctor is receiving from various drug companies.

I am not too crazy about that.

The government can just keep out of the market place thank you very much.

For one thing why does the government know how much the drug companies are spending on individual doctors? Why is it the government's business?

[VaRepublican]

I have decided NOT to take statins.

[annieokie]

Very true, elderly people are the most vulnerable, they TRUST their Dr.s, and the Dr.s know they are thought of as GODS.

They are overmedicated because it is easy. I am elderly but I maintain my control over the Drs. I take only 1 prescription that for HBP...

Every Dr. appointment, he seems to have ONE more pill he thinks I should have......NO I won't. I can tell he is not happy.

Side effect....this, this, this, this and last but not least I may lead to death. Sure send me a boatload, not. Mother in law had one pill after another and each time developed something else that called for another pill.

[Paladin2]

Wiki sayz: "Melitidin and brutieridin, only recently discovered, exist only in citrus bergamot, and exhibit statin-like properties"

Also sayz: "Use on the skin can be carcinogenic; excessive consumption can be toxic"

[Georgia Girl 2]

My criteria for prescription meds is will I die if I don’t take this? If the answer is no I don’t take it. :-)

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

“My criteria for prescription meds is will I die if I don’t take this? If the answer is no I don’t take it. :-)”

That goes without saying. ;-)

[EternalVigilance]

Out where I live in NW Iowa, in many of our small towns, where there used to be one pharmacy, with one pharmacist filling a handful of prescriptions every day, there are now three or four pharmacies with large staffs working as fast as they can to fill a flood of prescriptions.

It’s criminal, IMO.

[Mr Rogers]

I take blood pressure medicine. It gives me BP of 120/75 instead of 155/110. If I stop taking it, my BP goes back up. Been taking it for 8 years without any side effects I’ve noticed.

My wife was prescribed statins. Lots of side effects, so she finally told the doctor to blow it out his butt. She feels much better now.

Switched to eating high fat/protein & low carbs. Lost 30 lbs. The doctor frowned when he heard my eating habits. Then the blood work came back...and he told me to keep it up, since it obviously was working for me.

[rlmorel]

Here’s a suggestion for everyone: Stop stuffing your face, smoking/drinking, being obese, and get some exercise, you will be the picture of health.

Naaah. That is far, far, too commonsense. Much easier to mistreat your body, then go to a doctor when you aren’t feeling well, and then ignoring all the recommendations.

It is far, FAR easier to stuff your face, be obese, not exercise, drink/smoke to excess, and blame it all on unnecessary medications prescribed by greedy, evil and incompetent doctors.

[Awgie]

the pharmaceutical commercials are absurd they try to sell us on positive benefits to this or that medication the whole time reading the dangerous and long list of side effects.

one of my favorites is cialis which cautions that side effects may include erections lasting 6 to 8 hours along with loss of vision and hearing I want to be there when that guy shows up at the emergency room

[rlmorel]

My goodness, what is commonsense doing here? Whaaaaaat...take responsibility for your own health?

[rawcatslyentist]

Take their meds, and wait for the lawsuit commercials if ya live long enough.

[Balding_Eagle]

My wife was prescribed statins. Lots of side effects, so she finally told the doctor to blow it out his butt. She feels much better now.

Your wife is not alone, although I simply said no.

Same is true for relatives.

Statins won't let you live forever, they just make life so miserable it seems like forever.

[Seruzawa]

There are several major drug companies. Each of these companies hires a lobbyist dedicated to each US rep and Senator. This means that each drug company has 535 lobbyists for the Congress alone.

Then there’s the revolving door where FDA bureaucrats get great jobs with Big Pharma after protecting Pharma from the public. One has to be a special kind of stupid to not see where this is heading. The latest is new rules that allow the marketing of drugs without having to bother with anything so trivial as actually testing them.

The corruption of the Federal Govt is endemic. FDA, USDA, Interior, HEW.... you name it. Each agency is beholden to private interests as these agencies’ bureaucrats chase that retirement pot of gold. There’s no longer even the pretense that the govt is anything more than an arm of special interests.