From Time a report on a study that shows more than half of Americans are taking pharmaceuticals. This article does not concentrate on psychiatric drugs—but does bring up drugs for cholesterol and high blood pressure. Statins, the drugs most commonly used for high cholesterol are very dangerous and the hype around high cholesterol is just that—unless cholesterol is drastically high the cholesterol problem is a myth created by pharma. Hundreds and thousands of people are put on drugs they don’t really need just like in psychiatry.
Another pocket of frequent over treatment is of heartburn or now commonly hyped up and called GERD. My mother supposedly had GERD and after prompting from me telling her the drugs were making her worse she started doing research, quit her meds and is doing better now with natural treatment then in many years of taking drugs like Nexium—which actually confuses your stomach into making more acid as a result of hampering the normal production of acid. It’s a sort of rebound effect—but I’m no expert on this—just learned enough to help out my mom and have now forgotten most of the details.
I could go on and on, but general medicine is not the topic of this blog. Suffice it to say a significant number of those 50% of people on drugs in this country are on dangerous and unneeded psych meds.
The article dares to suggest this is a good trend suggesting doctors are catching things earlier and being more aggressive in treating things that need treating. I cry bull and say that it’s the pharmaceutical companies disease mongering through direct-to-consumer advertising and heavy courting of doctors creating long-term maintenance patients who will be on drugs until they die.
And lastly, it’s a population of people who don’t want to take care of themselves and want a quick fix to everything and so they blindly follow pharma and their pharma influenced doctors.
Patient beware.
great stuff Sloopy, thanks
Word is slowly reaching the masses – statin drugs are not only useless, but very, very dangerous: From the British tabloid press this week:…
yay! We grow our veggies organically as weather permits too…it’s so yummy!!
That seems like a high number, but it is probably correct. Many people have always wanted a quick fix with a pill for any type of problem. However, some of us like to take a minimum amount of medication. I’ve been green for many decades. I like natural approaches to health–exercise, good diet, rest, laughing, gratitude. I eat a great deal of my own vegetables that are grown organically. I do a lot of exercise of all kinds: walking, martial arts, gardening, yoga.
So far my approach has worked. I’ve been off my bipolar meds for over thirty years. I can do enough push-ups and sit-ups to qualify for the Navy Seals.
The drug companies are making lots of money off of our need for a quick fix to our problems.
Jim S
thank you Sloopy, I knew about the muscle deterioration but would not have been able to give such a great explanation without research…
it’s a very common side effect—it really makes me think of psych drugs because people are so convinced that statins are good for you and life saving when they are actually completely unnecessary.
Statins are very dangerous… Too right.
My mother had a terrible adverse reaction to a statin drug, whilst on holiday, in a foreign country. Not the best scenario.
She suffered horrendous pain in her feet, lost much sensation, and could barely walk for many weeks. To say it ruined the holiday is an understatement.
Muscle myalgia is a very common “side effect” of statins. At worse, the muscle damage progresses to rhabdomyolysis, a lethal iatrogenic disorder.
According to a Spanish study, it is believed that statins cause a dangerous breakdown of muscle tissue which is then leached into the bloodstream. The damaged tissue is left susceptible to infection and this is potentially lethal. Gangrene, Amputation and Death.
The breakdown of tissue is very localised and, contrary to the lies spewed by BigPharma, it is because of this localisation that the tissue damage may not show up in a blood test.
This meaningless absence of evidence is used as ‘proof’ by BigPharma that their cash-cows, the statins have done no harm to the patient. More Lies.
It was insightful to watch how my mother’s quack wriggled and writhed and became ever more aggressive in his defense of the terrible injuries he had caused to the poor woman. Denial. Denial. Denial.
Big Pharma is an Evil Industry run by Evil People.
yes, for high cholesterol 1000 mg of Niacin three times a day. Very effective…
thanks…I forgot about that when I wrote that.
Gianna,
Great post.
High cholestorol – niacin runs it out of town.
Actually, I guess the pharm companies know this themselves.
They have a ‘new’ rx – it’s a slow-release niacin – go figure….
Told my parents to order the niacin on Swanson’s.
It works – it’s cheaper.
Duane
We’ve turned into a culture where the first we do when we feel ill or when our doctors tell us we have a problem is to take medication rather than finding if there’s a natural curative,whether we need to change our lifestyle, or whether we can live with what ails us.
It’s good your mother listened to you and then took control of her life. But, it’s unbelievable to me that so many people take so many medications without a second thought!