The pill phenomenon in the USA, Consumer Reports investigates this disturbing trend.

The pill phenomenon in the USA, Consumer Reports investigates this disturbing trend.

Statistically, Americans are taking more medications than ever before, and spending more on them than any other country in the world.  Some doctors are beginning to resist this trend but more often than not, drugs designed to improve our lives are hampering it in more ways than we can imagine.   The other concern is that we are often getting medical advice that usually ends with us taking a prescription medication, rather than advice that can naturally improve our health without the cost or the side effects.

The growing Opioid problem is a result of this trend, and as our fragmented healthcare system continues to have multiple specialists who recommend medications, without consulting with one another, or being monitored by your primary who is usually short on time, we are paying for it with high medical costs and side effects than can be avoided with better advice.

The chiropractic profession has always recommended drug free methods to resolve problems, often with creative and natural remedies.   Shouldn’t more medical doctors be educated in pharmaceutical alternatives, considering todays alarming trends? Is it good medicine to give a drug, then give another to counteract the side effect of it and is the idea of treating each symptom with another medication a rational approach to our ailments? According to Consumer Reports, our current approach in 2014 resulted in 124,000 of us dying due to adverse drug events.

Your pharmacist is now more important than ever, considering they are the best traffic cop for multiple prescriptions and can point out red flags that can land you in the hospital or worse, create a chronic disease you would never have developed in the absence of prescription drugs.  True, they do not have your medical history available to them like your primary would, however, they can make you aware if there is a problem that you can share with your primary doctor, who in today’s system is often underpaid by the insurance carrier for the work they need to do to make sure you are getting safe and effective medical care.

This month, Consumer Reports investigated this growing trend and offered some wonderful advice.  Check it out below


Too Many Meds? America’s Love Affair With Prescription Medication

We now take more pills than ever. Is that doing more harm than good?

By Teresa Carr August 03, 2017

If you’re like most Americans, you probably start your day with a hot shower, a cup of coffee—and a handful of pills.

More than half of us now regularly take a prescription medication—four, on average—according to a new nationally representative Consumer Reports survey of 1,947 adults. Many in that group also take over-the-counter drugs as well as vitamins and other dietary supplements.

It turns out Americans take more pills today than at any other time in recent history (see “Pill Nation: The Rise of Rx Drug Use”)—and far more than people in any other country.

Much of that medication use is lifesaving or at least life-improving. But a lot is not.

Read more