--> Approximately 45% of Americans use at least one prescription drug.1 2 The Kaiser Family Foundation reports 2.1 billion prescriptions were written in 1994 and 3.5 billion prescriptions were written in 2004—a 68% increase. Spending for U.S. prescription drugs was 188.5 billion dollars in 2004, a 450% increase since 1990.3 Unbelievably, it is projected that in 2015, prescription drug spending will exceed 446.2 billion dollars. We spend more money on health care than any other country. Are we healthier for this increased use in prescription medications? The answer is no. |  NewsTarget DrugWatch(TM), a free online resource that reveals the nutritional deficiencies caused by over 540 brand-name prescription drugs. The pages are provided free of charge as a service to enhance the health and safety of consumers: http://www.NewsTarget.com/DrugWatch_Home.html
All prescription drugs have unintended side effects, and many drugs deplete the body of essential nutrients. | | Chapter 8
Final Thoughts
FINAL THOUGHTS
The National Center for Health Statistics reported that between 1997 and 2002 expenses for prescription drugs increased 75%. Since then, this trend has only continued to increase. Approximately 45% of Americans use at least one prescription drug.1 2 The Kaiser Family Foundation reports 2.1 billion prescriptions were written in 1994 and 3.5 billion prescriptions were written in 2004—a 68% increase. Spending for U.S. prescription drugs was 188.5 billion dollars in 2004, a 450% increase since 1990. |  I mean, if we're going to get serious about driver safety and ban cell phones, we should ban anyone who's taking a great number of prescription drugs from driving.
I was talking with a traffic control officer here recently who said that as many as 30 to 35 percent of all traffic accidents are caused by people who are dosed up on prescription drugs. Another third or so are caused by people on alcohol or illegal drugs. So prescription drugs are causing just as many accidents as people doped up on cocaine, marijuana and alcohol. |  But let's compare those 10 deaths to how many Americans have been killed by prescription drugs this year alone. Even the Journal of the American Medical Association says in a peer-reviewed study that prescription drugs cause 100,000 deaths a year in this country.
Ten children die in this school shooting, and it gets a lot of attention. Why? It's violent; people pay attention to violence. Meanwhile, we have 100,000 Americans (and that's a conservative number) dying every year just from prescription drugs side effects, and it gets no attention. Why? It's not violent. |  They redefine normalcy as illness, and once they give it a disease name, suddenly everybody's taking prescription drugs for it.
That's how Ritalin became so popular. They invented a disease and gave it a name. They dreamed up "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" and suddenly it was a bona-fide disease that demanded prescription drugs. And of course, psychiatrists were happy to dole out those prescriptions because they got kickbacks from drug companies or ego-feeding power rushes by pushing prescriptions onto little kids who really just had a problem with too much sugar in their diets. |  Doctors and hospitals in Iowa helped the drug companies spread the word that many people suffered from chemical imbalances that were easily treatable with prescription pills. At an event for children at the Jordan Creek mall in West Des Moines in 2005, a clown was painting youngsters' faces and the staff of Mercy Hospital was offering its services in diagnosing children with attention deficit disorders. The hospital employees were handing out brochures that said drugs like Ritalin "medicate parts of the brain which aren't working as well as they should. |  Let's say you're taking a couple of prescription drugs . . . you add a few herbs and a dose or two of Tylenol here and there . . . and, of course, your nightly beer or glass of red wine (or two). You're playing a danger-
153 ous game with your health—a game that has killed some well-known people. Remember Anna Nicole Smith? Hers is far from the only example where young, generally healthy people—who didn't think that the combination of chemicals they were consuming would hurt them?ended up in the hospital or dead.
Your body is an amazing machine, and it can bounce back from a lot of abuse. | | All prescription drugs have unintended side effects, and many drugs deplete the body of essential nutrients. Today, most consumers are not being told about these drug-induced nutritional deficiencies, and they continue taking pharmaceuticals without knowing they are often leaving their body in a dangerous state of nutrient depletion that can lead to chronic degenerative disease. | | Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, for example, greatly interfere with Coenzyme Q10 production (a nutrient essential for cellular energy), but instead of being told to take supplemental CoQ10, many patients suffering from fatigue and exhaustion on statin drugs are simply diagnosed with another disease and given yet another prescription drug to take.
Antidepressant drugs, as another example, interfere with the metabolism of carbohydrates. Most people taking antidepressants are deficient in the B vitamins (especially folic acid). |  In fact, prescription drugs interfere with normal human metabolism, and that is one reason why prescription drugs are killing people. Yet all the conventional medical doctors are terrified about the unknown side effects of alternative therapies.
Today, conventional doctors are finally admitting that people over 50 are turning to alternative medicine because conventional medicine isn't giving them answers. | | As a result, your doctor is unlikely to instruct you to supplement the prescription that he or she is handing you.
PHARMACEUTICALS TODAY: GOOD, BUT NOT PERFECT
Before the mid-1990s, consumers had enormous faith in the miracles of modern medicine. Most of those miracles, they thought, could be found in the pills, potions, ointments, and shots made by drug companies and dispensed by pharmacies.
High cholesterol? Don't want to subsist on vegetables and oat bran? Here, take this cholesterol-lowering pill. Heartburn? Want to keep eating cheese fries three times a week? |  Sales of prescription products for joint health totaled $8,114 billion in 2001—an increase of 39 percent over the previous year.
Most of us do not like to take the drugs. When Dr. Jones pulls out his pad and scribbles a prescription to take care of our latest medical problem, we sigh and ask, "Is it really necessary?" Yet, the physician would not prescribe it if he didn't feel it was necessary.
The dilemma is that inflammation is a serious problem. The three top killers in Western society are heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. | | Needed supplements: Calcium (1,000-1,200 mg), folic acid (400 meg), phosphorus (700 mg), vitamin Bj2 (200 meg), vitamin D (600-1,000 IU), and zinc (25-50 mg)
H2 blockers: cimetidine (Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid), nizatidine (Axid), and ranitidine (Zantac)
These medicines are available both OTC in lower doses and by prescription in higher doses. They block the production of acid in the stomach. They are also used to help the healing of stomach ulcers. Don't use an OTC H2 blocker to treat your own heartburn for more than two weeks without checking in with your doctor. | | The hearings made headlines that turned the marketing of prescription drugs into a national issue. The public also got to listen to pharmaceutical executives tell their side of the story.
In his opening statement to the committee, Francis C. Brown, the president of Schering Corporation, explained his theory on why the public was complaining about high medicine prices. It was not that companies were charging too much, he said. The American people simply did not earn enough money.
"It seems to me that this problem must be viewed in its true light," Brown said. | | None of Kefauver's proposals aimed at reducing drug prices was left in the bill, but the new law greatly strengthened the FDA's control over the marketing and promotion of prescription drugs. It also required the companies once again to focus on good science.
Under the new law, the companies were required to perform careful clinical trials that proved not only that a medicine was safe but that it was effective for its intended use. At the same time, doctors and scientists performing the trials had to show they were qualified to do the work. | | Magnesium: 500-600 mg daily
Note: While antioxidant supplements, like most nutrients, almost never interact with drugs, some herbs with drug-like effects can have risky interactions with prescription medications.
You can often lower your cholesterol and blood pressure with diet, lifestyle, and natural supplements. Then, when medications are necessary, use them with caution, take the lowest dose possible, and make sure to take your supplements to stave off depletion and enjoy the best possible heart health. Next we'll look at anti-inflammatories. | | In the end, be respectful of the power of prescription medications, both to heal and to harm. By educating yourself about possible nutrient depletions, side effects, and drug interactions, you will be in the best position possible to take advantage of the positive effects of your medications. And by supplementing accordingly, beyond just the level of the depletions, you are giving yourself a chance for true healing and optimal health. You deserve it.
Resources
For updates and additional resources, check out www.drcass.com. You can also email me at www.drcass.com. | | Or it may be because of misguided notions about the scientific support for nutritional supplementation in people who are depleted by prescription drugs.
If you are truly committed to embracing both medications and vitamin/diet/lifestyle approaches—and you should, as this increases your chances of success by capitalizing on the strengths of both—and your doctor isn't interested in helping you out, you might consider seeking out a more supportive medical practitioner. | | In fact, prescription drugs interfere with normal human metabolism, and that is one reason why prescription drugs are killing people. Yet all the conventional medical doctors are terrified about the unknown side effects of alternative therapies.
Today, conventional doctors are finally admitting that people over 50 are turning to alternative medicine because conventional medicine isn't giving them answers. | | I was talking with a traffic control officer here recently who said that as many as 30 to 35 percent of all traffic accidents are caused by people who are dosed up on prescription drugs. Another third or so are caused by people on alcohol or illegal drugs. So prescription drugs are causing just as many accidents as people doped up on cocaine, marijuana and alcohol. And occasionally there are really bad drivers -- people who are taking antidepressant drugs, smoking pot, drinking beer and trying to talk on a cell phone to hook up their next drug deal. They're an accident waiting to happen. |  The FDA is threatening to use the courts in an effort to get a judge to declare that purchasing prescription drugs from other countries is illegal. That makes perfect sense. There's nothing in this country made in other countries. I mean, if you go to Wal-Mart, everything there says 'Made in the U.S.A,' doesn't it? The FDA, by the way, still can't produce a single Canadian who has been harmed in any way by Canadian prescription drugs -- that is, in any way worse than how people are normally harmed by prescription drugs in the first place. | | But here is a staggering figure: almost every single prescription is in some way harmful. Just look at the warnings that come with each drug! So, if you're going to use a medication, be sure it is the right one for the purpose, use it properly, and do what you can to minimize risks of adverse side effects.
Among the most ignored side effects, which is quite common and can even be life threatening, is nutrient depletion. That is, most medications will rob your body of essential nutrients. | | She left with a prescription for another acid-lowering drug called Prevacid that, according to her doctor, she would probably have to take for the rest of her life.
Corinne wasn't too thrilled about this. Her family was on a fixed income and didn't have health insurance. This really set her stomach acid churning—but, as it turned out, she didn't have much of it to churn. You see, too much stomach acid wasn't Corinne's problem in the first place—it was too little stomach acid.
She learned this after she came to see me and I conducted a special test called a Heidelberg Test. | | Even the Journal of the American Medical Association says in a peer-reviewed study that prescription drugs cause 100,000 deaths a year in this country.
Ten children die in this school shooting, and it gets a lot of attention. Why? It's violent; people pay attention to violence. Meanwhile, we have 100,000 Americans (and that's a conservative number) dying every year just from prescription drugs side effects, and it gets no attention. Why? It's not violent. These 100,000 people die separately, and they die quietly. They die in homes or in hospitals. | | AN INTRODUCTION TO DRUG-INDUCED NUTRIENT DEPLETION
Supplement Your prescription will, in particular, educate you about a lesser-known side effect of the most commonly used medicines: the many ways in using one or more of them can rob your body's supplies of nutrients that are essential to your health.
This side effect, which is an issue with a surprising number of the most oft-prescribed drugs, doesn't hit the headlines too often; it's usually not dramatic or immediately noticeable. | | The final chapter covers polypharmacy (taking multiple drugs) with some general principles to help you optimize your prescription use. Finally, you'll be given resources for accessing more information on your own.
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON HEALTH AND HEALING
If a warning light on your car's dashboard goes on, what do you do?
1. Unplug it so it stops flashing.
2. Pop the hood to see what's wrong, and/or take it to a mechanic.
Of course, you'd choose the second option. Better to attack the problem at its source and fix it so that your car runs smoothly. |  We need to find out the relationship between the intake of prescription drugs and the increased risk of automobile accidents. And if that data show a strong correlation, prescription drugs need to carry strong warnings and physicians need to start warning patients not to drive when they consume these drugs.
Then again, most doctors and patients alike routinely ignore drug safety warnings. Come to think of it, cigarette packages quite blatantly tell people that smoking causes lung cancer, and the general population hasn't figured that one out yet, either. | | The public's belief that each new prescription drug introduced was yet another magic bullet like penicillin made the industry wealthy and powerful. It also greatly eased the job of the pharmaceutical marketers.
"Americans have come to believe, that science is capable of almost everything," said Dr. Louis M. Orr, the president of the American Medical Association, in 1958. "Any glib salesman who has a white coat and calls himself a doctor can take a black box, a powder, a pill, or a liquid and set out to capitalize on it."
The industry's golden age of medical invention soon came to an end. | |
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