 Dr. Val's Wellness Letter
Naturopathic Doctor
Master Herbalist, CNHP
www.DoctorValerieNelson.com
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| Dear :
Deadly Prescription Drugs
Written by: Mike Adams
On the heels of the sudden death of celebrity actress Brittany Murphy, people are once again raising the question of just how dangerous prescription drugs might really be.
Some are arguing, however, that street drugs are the real danger, not prescription drugs. But the following study demonstrates why prescription drugs are far more dangerous than illegal recreational drugs.
According to a new study conducted by physicians at St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, the number of deaths due to prescription opioid use has doubled between 1991 and 2004. Following the introduction of oxycodone into Toronto's drug formulary in 2000, there has been a 500% increase in deaths due to the drugs.
(Opioid drugs are typically prescribed for pain -- if you are not sure whether or not the drug that your doctor has prescribed for you, I would suggest that you google the names of some of these "opioid" drugs.
Researchers reviewed over 7,000 files from the Office of the Chief Coroner in Ontario and found that between the years of 1991 and 2004, oxycodone prescriptions increased by more than 850 percent, representing about one-third of the opioid prescriptions given in 2006. (This is the largest prescription increase among all opioid drugs.)
Following the addition of this drug into the provincial drug benefit plan in 2000, deaths from opioid usage rose by 41 percent. Shockingly, deaths from prescription opioids like oxycodone were far greater than deaths from heroin. The vast majority of people who died from opioids had visited their doctor and received a prescription for the drug within a month of their death.
The total number of opioid-related deaths in Toronto in 2004 is estimated to be 27.2 per million people. Study authors said they hope to shed light on the tremendous dangers associated with prescription opioid drugs.
Coked up on prescription smack
It's the dirty little secret of the pharmaceutical industry: More people are killed by prescription opioids than all those killed by heroin and cocaine combined.
Prescription drug abuse is now more common than street drug abuse -- by far! And yet Big Pharma rakes in huge profits from all the patient addictions to their opioids. And by "opioids", what I mean is narcotics. They are, in fact, one and the same.
So of all the drug addicts in America today, you can divide them into two camps:
1) People addicted to street drugs.
2) People addicted to prescription drugs.
The people in group #1 (street drugs) are taken to jail where they are given prison sentences. People in group #2 (prescription drugs) are taken to their doctor where they are given prescription refills. It's all really the same narcotics, it's just that one group is legal and the other is illegal.
And what really determines whether a particular narcotic is legal or illegal? Whether or not Big Pharma profits from it. If Big Pharma makes money off the narcotics, they're considered legal -- that is the only difference.
For instance, the drugs used for treating ADD are in the same classification as cocaine.
Big Pharma, you see, earns tens of billions of dollars each year from drug addicts. And just by coincidence, it turns out that their prescription narcotics are extremely addicting, guaranteeing repeat business. The business model is so extremely lucrative, you might think they were drug dealers...
Another Report -- A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death.
An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem.
"The abuse has reached epidemic proportions," said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. "It's just explosive."
In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax.
Alcohol directly caused 466 deaths, but was found in the bodies of 4,179 cadavers in all.
While the number of dead bodies containing heroin jumped 14 percent from the prior year, to a total of 110, the number of deaths influenced by the painkiller oxycodone increased by 36 percent, to a total of 1,253.
Across the country, prescription drugs have become an increasingly popular alternative to the more difficult to acquire illegal drugs. Even as illegal drug use among teenagers have fallen, prescription drug abuse has increased. For example, while 4 percent of U.S. 12th graders were using Oxycontin in 2002, by 2005 that number had increased to 5.5 percent.
So what are we to do?
The best prevention is not being deficient in any of your vitamins/minerals and doing whatever you can to avoid toxicity and get on a regular detoxification schedule. If you think that you are going to get your vitamins and minerals through diet alone, read the article on the side of this newsletter entitled "Why doesn't my doctor tell me about vitamins and minerals?" (below)
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A Response from Last Newsletter
This came from a client of mine from Canada.
**Very well written, I might add".
Just a quick response to your wellness letter that talked about chemo and its affects on the body and patient as a whole, I totally agree.
Perhaps in other issues you could expand on conventional treatments as a whole. Western medicine doesn't focus on finding the cause of an illness. Doctors are encouraged to treat symptoms versus cause. Who sets these guidelines, I can guarantee you, if you look close enough it's the pharmaceutical companies. There are so many diseases out there today, cancer being just one of them that can be effectively prevented or cured, but this is not good business for pharmaceutical companies.
Perhaps they may be able to get a huge lump sum for a cure but there is no way that the income stream generated would compensate for the billions of dollars they make in treating symptoms and then treating the symptoms of the side effects of 'said cure'.
Why cure diabetes when you can generate an income stream on insulin for the remainder of that individual's life? Why educate people about nutrition when the fast food industries (who all have billion dollar lobbyist accounts) make so much money and the food they produce contributes to our health decay and drug companies profits (again an industry pouring billions of dollars in lobbyist accounts to politicians). As a nation, the US has one of, if not the highest rate of diabetes and the number of people suffering from juvenile diabetes is staggering and only getting worse. Why is this when we know what causes the majority of diabetes cases today and yet again the US has the highest rate of fast food restaurants per capita than any other country.
Living in a country where health care is covered (Canada), I have to say that I think universal health care will be a big step towards slowing down this trend. When the government starts footing more of the bill perhaps they will change how medicine is practiced and limit the influence drug companies have on our lives. In Canada, doctors actually get paid more money to keep their patients healthy, prevention is pushed because a long term illness costs more than prevention and since the government pays the bills it puts them on the opposite side of the drug companies. Their goal is to keep costs down, they've recently changed policies and are covering many non traditional medical costs like chiropractics, nutritionists and naturopaths.
Anyways, I think it would be an interesting topic to discuss why we let the drug companies keep us sick for their profits versus finding real cures.
PS. I've been keeping up with my supplements and I'm already noticing a difference. I also immediately felt adjustments start to take place in my body within hours of putting on my EMF necklace. I look forward to our follow-up consult, which I will be booking soon. I'm ready to start coming off my medications and have scheduled an appointment towards this for Jan 4th with my family doctor. I know with the proper nutritional support that after 6 years I can finally do this!
Thanks for all your help and encouragement,
C.B.R
Canada
(used with client's permission)
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I hope that you have an awesome day. I appreciate your business and please pass this information on to individuals that you think can benefit from it. I hope that I have blessed your day and you are a blessing to me as well.
Sincerely,
Dr. Val
Naturopathic Doctor
Master Herbalist
Certified Natural Health Professional
This information is not intended for diagnoses, treatment, cure, alleviation, prevention or care of any disease of any kind, in any way. We believe in bringing the body back into balance (homeostasis) so that the body can heal itself as God intended.
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