America: We have a Problem

Americans spent more than 280 billion on prescription drugs during 2013. A Mayo Clinic study reports, nearly 70% of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug.  And 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs. Many of my fibromyalgia patients are taking 8 or more prescription when they start working with me.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 750,000 are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, that there is an unintentional drug overdose death in the United States every 19 minutes.

And in the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined.

It has been reported that prescription drugs kill approximately 200,000 Americans a year.

Treating symptoms with potentially dangerous drugs, while ignoring the cause of the illness is ruining our health. Covering up symptoms leads to more symptoms.

Yes you can take metformin or other anti-diabetic drugs to reduce your blood sugar but an elevated blood sugar is a symptom of being overweight (type 2 diabetes). Treat the real problem and there is no need for the drug.

Like ignoring your engine warning light, covering up symptoms, leads to future problems. Sure you can cover up the warning light with a magic marker or disable the wire to the light-the symptom, an annoying warning light is now gone. However, you know, this course of action will cause you more problems when your car engine dies.

Is everyone in America depressed? Antidepressants are given out like candy.

An astonishing 1 in 5 Americans take at least one psychiatric drug. One in three doctor’s visits by women now involve a prescription for an antidepressant medication. And, one in ten American women, takes at least one antidepressant drug. Americans now spend more money on antidepressants than the gross national product of two-thirds of the world’s countries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors wrote more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants during 2010.

Numerous studies show that between 19% and 70% of those taking antidepressant medications do just as well by taking a placebo or sugar pill. While patients are attempting to correct their mood disorders with prescription drugs that may or may not be more effective than a sugar pill, all of these drugs have potential –sometimes-serious – side effects. Prozac alone has been associated with over 1734 suicide deaths and over 28 000 adverse reactions.

Prescription antidepressants can cause depression, anxiety, addiction, suicidal tendencies, tremors or involuntary muscle spasms, and senility. Yes, prescription antidepressants and antianxiety drugs can and do cause depression and anxiety.

Many of these antidepressants contain warnings that “suicidal thoughts” are one of the side effects that should be expected.  The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 rose by close to 30 percent between 1999 and 2010.  The number of Americans that are killed by suicide now exceeds the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents every year.

In 2010, the average teen in the United States was taking 1.2 central nervous system drugs.  These drugs are mostly for treating conditions such as ADHD and depression.

Just as alarming, the number of preteens on psychiatric dugs continues to rise, year after year.

According to IMS Health’s Vector One: National and Total Patient Tracker Database for 2013 these are the figures:

249,669 0-1 year olds are on anti-anxiety drugs (such as Xanax, Klonopin, and Ativan).

26,406 0-1 year olds are on antidepressants (such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil).

There are 1,422 0-1 year olds taking ADHD drugs (such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Concerta).

654 0-1 year olds are taking antipsychotics (such as Risperdal, Seroquel, and Zyprexa).

The CDC reports that 10,000 2-3 year olds (toddlers) are being prescribed ADHD drugs. Scary, yet even scarier is the following:

The number of toddlers on anti-anxiety and antidepressants:

318,997 2-3 year olds are on anti-anxiety drugs.

46,102 2-3 year olds are on antidepressants.

3,760 2-3 year olds are taking antipsychotics.

And as for other age groups, the numbers start in the millions with 0-5 year olds:

The total number of 0-5 year olds currently prescribed psychiatric drugs is 1,080,168.

The number of 6-12 year olds on psychiatric drugs is 4,130,340.

The number of 13-17 year olds taking psychiatric drugs is 3,617,593.

While stimulant drugs may be effective at alleviating core ADHD symptoms (such as inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity), it comes at a price. The potential side effects are numerous and sobering.

• Heart Palpitations
• Tachycardia (rapid heart beat)
• Hypertension
• Cardiac arrhythmia
• Chest pain
• Cardiac arrest
• Mania, psychosis, hallucinations
• Agitation, anxiety, nervousness
• Insomnia
• Irritability, hostility, aggression
• Depression, emotional sensitivity, easy crying, social withdrawal
• Drowsiness, “dopey,” reduced alertness
• Confusion, mental impairment (cognition and learning)
• Zombie-like (robotic) behavior with loss of emotional spontaneity
• Obsessive-compulsive behavior
• Convulsions
• Dyskinesia, tics, Tourette’s
• Nervous habits (e.g. picking at skin, pulling hair)
• Anorexia
• Nausea, vomiting, bad taste, dry mouth
• Stomachache, cramps
• Constipation, diarrhea,
• Abnormal liver function tests
• Pituitary dysfunction, including growth hormone and prolactin disruption
• Weight loss
• Growth suppression
• Disturbed sexual function
• Blurred vision
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Hypersensitivity reaction with rash, conjunctivitis, or hives

Amphetamines are chemically similar to cocaine. Both cause similar reactions in the brain. If we were to give cocaine to hyperactive children, instead of Ritalin, we’d most likely get similar results. Yet doing so would be criminal.

“We have become the only country in the world where children are prescribed such a vast quantity of stimulants that share virtually the same properties as cocaine.”
– Gene R. Haislip, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

What are we doing to our children’s bodies and minds, long term? We are raising a sick, overweight, over drugged future population- one that has been led to believe that all of life’s ills and challenges can be solved with a pill.

Like the frog, who learns, all too late, that he’s in a pot of boiling water, our slow ever increasing acceptance of drugs for every ailment will be the end of vibrant health and premature death of millions of Americans.

The brainwashing propaganda only increases year after year-commercials broadcast to us and OUR CHILDREN 24 hours a day, through carefully positioned magazine, newspaper, TV, theatre, radio, and Internet media. All promising relief from life’s little and big ills – there is a pill for every ill real or IMAGINED.

Our health care-really disease care, system is broken. We spend billions of dollars a year treating symptoms with life robbing drugs. If you have high blood pressure you are placed on a drug to bring your pressure down. The beta-blocker drug lowers your blood pressure but leads to bronchitis, increased risk of type 2 diabetes, fatigue, breathing problems, and more drugs.

High blood pressure is a symptom. The cause is usually poor diet, being overweight, and or other medications (NSAIDs, antidepressants, etc.).

Treating symptoms, not causes, is literally killing us.

Why do we do this?

It turns out that treating symptoms with drugs is extremely profitable.  The 11 largest pharmaceutical companies combined to rake in 85 billion dollars in profits in 2012.

There isn’t any money to be made in having patients get healthy- clean up their diet, exercise, lose weight, and take the appropriate vitamins and minerals.

I wish this optimist could end this blog with a positive note, but I don’t see it getting any better anytime soon, there is just too much money at stake.

If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, sick of taking life draining drugs that aren’t helping you get well, I’m only a phone call away to help you find and fix the cause(s) of your fibromyalgia. Through proper testing, good old medical detective work and the right nutritional protocols you can feel good again and even more important get healthy and stay healthy.

90% of my practice is phone consults. I order blood work and functional medical lab test that you do in your hometown, labs tests you’ve never had done but should’ve had done years ago. I treat and beat the causes instead of covering up symptoms. If this is the approach you are looking call the clinic to learn more 205-879-2383.

Fibromyalgia can be beat. Here are some of my growing list of testimonials, and please watch the videos at www.drmvideos.com

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