The Miracle Pill Epidemic
We live in a society where we can order our prescription drugs like dessert right off the menu with at least 70% of Americans on 1 or more of these drugs. Soccer moms, teenage boys, and Grandpa Joe can walk right into a doctor’s office they’ve never been to and order almost any prescription. The commercials show them exactly what to complain to the doctor about and before they’ve even finished complaining the prescription is in their hands. The doctor assumes the patient isn’t going to leave until they have the RX so they go ahead and write it, possibly forgetting to discuss the side effects, and probably skipping over the adverse effects as well.
The miracle pill is finally in your hands. You’ve been hearing about it on TV every single day. You want your symptoms to go away and you trust the doctor who wrote it for you; they must have thought you really needed it too. You have hope in this pill, that it will do what the commercial says and you too will be frolicking in the sunshine. Your neighbor took the same medication and feels so much better now, you feel like it’s safe. You think as long as you take this pill your blood pressure will stay down, the pain will go away, the depression, anxiety, or high cholesterol will be under control. The reality is the problems are still there, the symptoms are just covered up and the diseases are allowed to silently fester. Your body is trying to tell you something with each and every symptom, but we’re too quick to run to the medicine cabinet rather than addressing the root cause. Year after year you keep paying to see your doctor for refills and the dose keeps increasing. If a side effect appears it can be controlled by another medication so you continue until you eventually either overdose or the disease you’ve been covering up finally spreads so far through your body there’s no hiding anymore.
The truth is you’re more likely to die from a prescription drug than you are from a car crash. Someone dies every 14 minutes due to a drug related incident and we’re not just talking overdoses.
“The fact of the matter is, adverse drug reactions from drugs that are properly prescribed and properly administered cause about 106,000 deaths per year, making prescription drugs the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States. And more than 2 million others will suffer serious side effects. When you compare these statistics to the death toll from illegal drugs — which is about 10,000 per year — you can begin to see the magnitude of the problem the legally prescribed drugs versus recreationally used drugs, it is TEN times worse.” Dr. Mercola
From my experience the discussion on side effects and certainly adverse effects is not taking place in the hospital, the pharmacy, or the doctor’s office. Everyone is overcrowded and understaffed and if you don’t ask they won’t tell you. It’s up to you and you alone to read the ingredients, what other medications are safe to take with it, and what side effects and adverse effects you need to look out for with each and every medication.
My Experience
I can’t count how many times a patient or family member has been under educated about their blood pressure. When asked if their doctor discussed their sodium, caffeine, alcohol, or processed foods intake the answer is always no. Medication seems to be the solution instead.
When I worked in the hospital in 2007, 78,000 patients ended up in the ER for problems associated with Tylenol. These people took one too many, or forgot about the glass or two of wine they had earlier in the night.
I clearly remember one patient, in tears, showing me her severely burnt skin and said she recently started a new medication. A quick google search told us this medication should never be used in the armpit. This was the exact location her doctor told her to use it and didn’t discuss any side effects with her. She was absorbing the medication through her skin, then it had to be filtered through her kidneys. So not only were her armpits on fire, you can imagine what going to the bathroom felt like!! She stopped the medication, started aloe vera, and couldn’t stop thanking me a few weeks later.
Personally I’ve had my fair share of prescriptions and side effects, mostly antibiotics. Now that they’ve finally taken their toll on my gut and I’ve learned so much about healing naturally, prescriptions are now a thing of the past in my house.
All prescription drugs are copies of plants in nature. Why not just use the plants instead with far less side effects and adverse reactions? How many people die from plants? How many plants have been recalled? Plants can’t be patented, unless you’re Monsanto, and doctor’s don’t get kickbacks from them either. If your doctor isn’t discussing alternatives to medications that’s a red flag it’s time to look elsewhere.
Sources:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/11/28/prescription-drug-death.aspx
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Drugs/drug-deaths-exceed-traffic-deaths/story?id=14554903
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21294217
Find more about the author Emily Smith RN-BSN, Holistic Health Coach @ OrganicHolisticHealing.com
