 Prescription Drugs: There's Got to Be a Better Way "All drugs of interest to any moderately intelligent person in America are now illegal"~Thomas Szasz
Do you ever listen to the staccato rattling off of side effects in the prescription drug ads on tv and really hear any of it? If you did hear it, would you attribute any significance to it or even understand it? For the most part we all ignore that part of the message, which is what is intended. We are accustomed to hearing those disclaimers at the end of advertisements. The difference is that the myriad side effects listed can and do happen, sometimes at great detriment to our health. Most of us have no business asking our doctors about a drug because we simply don't understand the action of the drug or much about the body in general. That is the reason that pharmaceutical ads weren't allowed on tv until more recently and why I would assert they still shouldn't be. Our "Quick Fix" society is all too willing to take a drug to get the problem taken care of quickly, but fails to see the longer term consequences of that. The IMS reports that Americans spent an unbelievable $307 BILLION on prescription drugs in 2010! People blindly take drugs because "their doctor put them on it", but what is happening in pharmaceutical industry, suggests it is time to become our own advocates. If I had a dime for every time someone told me they "are on the lowest dose" of a drug, I would be a very rich woman!-Yes, you and millions of other people! And if you tell me it is "just in your genes" I have heard that a million times too! But the truth of that is that with proper diet and supplementation, you will not necessarily manifest a certain disease or condition even though you might be susceptible to it. And while there are numerous examples of physicians that have begun to question prescription drugs and explore and recommend more natural means of taking care of their patients, the majority still write prescriptions as their main solution to your health. In the book "Our Daily Meds", New York Times reporter Melody Peterson highlights a few facts that may make you wonder if prescription drugs are beneficial for your health: - 65% of the American population takes at least one prescription drug.
- 100,000 Americans die each year from the PROPER use of prescription drugs, and this is only from KNOWN side effects. Many more experience debilitating side effects.
- No other country in the developed world allows pharmaceuticals to be advertised directly to consumers.
- In 1992 the drug companies started paying fees to the FDA to get their drugs reviewed.
- Drug companies pay for up to 80% of the continuing medical education that doctors need to maintain their licenses.
- Physicians are paid to lecture to other doctors about drugs, but it is rarely backed up by their own clinical experience, but rather scripted by the drug companies themselves.
- The pharmaceutical industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars on physicians every year.
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