Posted on 11/27/2015 11:43:34 AM PST by 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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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?â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
Novartis tried to defend itself, saying physician speaker programs are an “accepted and customary practice in the industry.â€
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.â€
It's about treating the symptoms whether or not it medication kill you slowly...
Not funny.
On one of those ER type shows a guy did show up with that problem.
It is a real, and serious problem.
I think they had to amputate. Seriously
Or, don’t take their meds, and then sue them when they have to take your legs off because they weren’t forceful enough, or they didn’t tell you that could happen if you didn’t take your meds.
Better yet, have hospitals incorporate a process where they have a long list of things that can happen to you if you don’t take your medications, and have each patient sign it. Not that it will protect anyone from lawyers in any way.
And then everyone can complain some more about how expensive health care is, but we can’t get rid of that person whose responsibility it is to have the patients sign that form, and the person who has to update that form to keep it current, or the person who has to go over it looking for errors and approve it.
Tell her to cut of the HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) ...it causes high cholesterol because it metabolized differently than sucrose...
HFCS is hidden in a lot of processed foods...check your labels...
Very true, rlmorel. That is basically what the conclusion of this article says.
Was told by first doctor that a statin was absolutely necessary with BP
meds. Was also prescribed antidepressants because I was sleeping 16 hours a day; physical lethargy was misdiagnosed as a mental condition!
I discontinued the antidepressant, which had only made me more exhausted. Felt a little better, not much.
Then I changed doctor. She ordered tests, discovered severe Vitamin D deficiency. Doc told me to add Vitamin D and magnesium to BP and statin.
Still exhausted.
I started reading up on statins. Learned statins cause bone deterioration and premature aging. No wonder I felt old.
I stopped taking the statin, switched to OTC red rice yeast.
Didn’t ask permission. Told doc after the fact.
Doc says, no problem. Red rice yeast is the natural form of statin. I’m like, ok, why didn’t you tell me that years ago?
Now taking BP med, vitamin D, magnesium, red rice yeast in capsules.
I’ve also reduced carbs, eliminated white potatoes and white rice altogether. For rice dishes, I use red rice.
Feel 20 years younger.
Study the meds first, study your diagnosis, look at natural alternatives. Only after that should you ever take the med.
My cousin just died from his medications, he was young and vibrant and had a great life. He was in his 50s. He was like a lot of you, thinking that a visit to the doctor positively correlated with health and long life. It’s not true.
Doctors do not have to know ANYTHING about nutrition, gut bacteria, vitamins, nutrients. They only know one path: symptom : pharmaceutical medication. This is not a path to health. It’s just one way to stop symptoms. All pharma meds are not bad. BUT IT’S A DUMB PARADIGM FOR EVERYTHING. And it kills and shortens life as much as it helps.
My cousin went to his doctor and didn’t do a second of thinking about it. He was a financial professional and his clients didn’t have to worry about his expertise, so why should he worry about his doctor? They gave him a new blood pressure medication (which doesn’t deal with whatever was causing his blood pressure to be a little elevated) and combined it with a diuretic, which is supposed to help the medicine be “more effective,” just meaning it would bring down his BP even more on a test. No thought to how these meds could affect his life.
My cousin was also taking daily small dose aspirin (sometimes called baby aspirin) because it was supposed to be so good for the heart, on the advice of the same doctor. My cousin didn’t look up the drugs, he just took them.
This summer, on vacation, healthy and having fun, he was complaining that he felt light headed upon getting up, a classic too low blood pressure symptom. He also complained that the diuretic was making him wake many times in the night to visit the bathroom. He kept taking his meds because, after all, a medical “expert” told him to.
One night he got up after midnight and his wife heard his head hit the floor of the vacation condo they were in. He had called straight backward and hit the back of his head. He was knocked out for 15 minutes, only waking when the paramedics arrived. He insisted he was fine, but they said they had to take him in.
Once in the hospital they found a massive brain bleed at the site of impact, and they couldn’t stop it because of the daily baby aspirin. They frantically were trying “antidotes” to the aspirin save his life. In the end, after telling the family it was inoperable, they operated anyway three times but couldn’t save him. He passed away a few days later.
PLEASE, if you read this, rethink your meds and be careful. I do take a pharma drug myself, for migraines, but we all must be more discerning. Medicine - especially the combo - killed my cousin. The diuretic made him wake to pee at night; the BP Med made him dizzy upon standing; and the coup de grace was the daily aspirin which made him a bleeder and unable to stop a brain bleed from a hit to the head.
I come from a family that lived the natural food and drug free lifestyle even before it became popular-when I was young, it was discovered that my system reacts badly to drugs when the anesthesia for dental surgery nearly put my lights out permanently, so the times that I’ve had a significant injury, I’ve had to make do with Ibuprofen, and lightly at that. I say “no” to all drugs-even to processed food, but I’m not lazy, overweight or overindulgent with my vices, either-and I do a physical job.
I’m lucky as I take no prescription meds. I do take a lot of supplements.
Re: High fructose corn syrup.
Agreed.
Even many supposedly healthier groceries, such as multi-grain breads and bottled fruit juices, are loaded with the stuff.
High salt content is bad for or the blood pressure, too.
During a difficult year in my life, I was eating a lot of quick, microwave-heated canned soups, veggies, and stews, as well as rice-a-roni, ramen,
hamburger helper. All that stuff is lethal if eaten regularly.
Ended up in ER with BP of 190.
Preppers stocking up on canned goods should buy low or no salt, and avoid the HFCS altogether.
Unfortunately there are some of us that have to be on meds. Period. If I quit taking my thyroid med, I croak, if I quit taking the glaucoma drops, I go blind.
Before making a career change about 12 years ago, I was a workers comp case manager for a private voc rehab provider-no one who worked there-not the owner, the OT/PT staff, case managers, front desk-no one-took prescription drugs-too many of our clients were examples of the bad stuff that could happen-side effects, addiction, etc-scary stuff...
One of my neighbors is a rep for a pharma company, and the stories he tells are enough to make you avoid drugs-he stays strictly away from them, too.
That phrase can be directly applied to politicians by the way. Just substitute big donors and interest groups for drug companies.
I'm in my 50s and I've pushed back on prescriptions all my life. I have still yet to take a prescription for anything. Walking 5 miles a day (not hard to do) will keep your blood pressure and cholesterols within normal range. I also stay away from junk food and stick to basic foods. I eat very well by the way. Meats, fishes, eggs, nuts, vegetables, cheeses...
Well .. anybody can add info to Wiki .. so I don’t go there to get my information.
I take no prescription drugs-they would likely kill me, since I have lived drug free my whole life-I take supplements daily, and avoid processed foods, flour and other carbs and any bleached/white rice.
I am nearly 68, take absolutely no alcohol, drugs, tobacco, etc.
I did have pain meds after surgery a couple of years ago, but discovered I needed to raise the alarm that I wanted to be rid of the damn side effects, and get off. Got off immediately.
A patient has the responsibility to learn what his condition is, what meds are recommended, for how long, and what is the prognosis without the drug.
My doctors have been willing to steer me clear of drugs as soon as I want to. So far.
OTOH if my doctor said I needed a drug for a condition, I would follow their advice.
I do NOT believe in practicing medicine without training or a license on myself, or others.
I refuse statins, too. The doctor keeps on trying to get me
to take them. - Drugs are a trap, even prescription ones.
I’m already on 4 kinds of BP meds. That’s MORE than enough.
You just get in a trap where you can’t quit the things
without having problems. The diuretic isn’t so terrible; but
they had to keep on adding stuff due to the stress I was
under. - So, now I try to live quiet; but the doctor keeps
insisting I turn up for a “checkup” 3 or 4 times a year.
It gets old. Stressful.
Yes, I’ve seen that one. Strange though the men would probably say if 1 is good two must be better. oh boy.
Looking into the root of things, we see
where The Trumpet is a mouth piece of
what we used to call the Worldwide
Church of God. And when I decide to
take medical advice from Herbert or
Garner Ted Armstrong, I’ll probably
want to get my psychiatric therapy
from the Scientologists.
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