Drugs

I have a book titled Worse Pills Best Pills. It is produced by a group of medical professionals that go by the name Public Citizen's Health Research Group. It has a lot of very valuable information about the leading cause of death in this country---prescription drugs. It has been very helpful in our home to help us better understand this very serious topic. It is frequently updated and re-published because information on the danger is constantly changing and the medical industry is seeing more and more that drugs are not the answer.

My favorite author on health says: "drugs never cure disease, they only change the form of the disease." This change is called side effects.

In this book they say: "...Drug-induced illness is one of the leading causes of preventable disease and death in the United States". They also quote The Journal Of The American Medical Association which says that adverse drug reactions are responsible for 100,000 fatalities a year and afflict 2.2 million people with serious drug-induced diseases. This is not talking about overdosing, suicide or mistakes made by someone (pharmacist, physician, caregiver or the patient) but it is talking primarily about correct dosage taken as prescribed.

Now this version of the book was written in 1988 so those figures are much higher. However I would like to add my two cents worth to those figures. I believe that the problem is exponentially greater. Why? Because so many people that I have known personally who have died, died from prescription drugs that were taken as prescribed. But their death certificate states that the death was caused by something else. The death certificate details the symptoms or the physical manifestation of what the drug did to the person but it doesn't list the root cause of the death. Here are some instances from people I personally knew or know. 1. A fearful and timid woman who believed her doctor when he put her on blood pressure drugs. She always had a high blood pressure when in his office but not at home when her son took the BP reading. She was put on several drugs all of which gave her serious reactions and the drugs were always being changed until she died of heart failure. 2. Another woman that was diagnosed with breast cancer didn't die from breast cancer but she died from a heart attack that was caused by the radiation treatment destroying her heart. 3. A woman who made serious lifestyle changes was told that "she will always need the drugs" but her blood pressure at home was normal because of the lifestyle changes. She began feeling faint when she would try to stand up and would sometimes pass out. She wanted to be off the drugs and felt that she didn't need them but took them anyway because she was told that she would "always need them". 4. A man that UNKNOWINGLY was taking quinine in a homeopathic dose for 3-5 years died of congestive heart failure. He was recommended these homeopathic pills by a HEALTH FOOD STORE OWNER. Quinine destroys the heart and he should never have taken it for the leg cramps. A good diet would have taken care of that. 5. A friend of mine is currently dying of congestive heart failure from a drug he was given at the VA hospital. 6. Another friend of mine is also showing symptoms of having congestive heart failure from taking Coumedin a few years ago. His feet are swelling, he is having fainting spells and every time he sees a doctor they either add another drug or switch him to another. He wants to be off the drugs but takes them anyway.

Consistently my experience has been that the people that don't visit doctors and don't take drugs live the longest. I don't know if the damage is reversible but it sure isn't safe to continue their use.