Too many Americans on prescription drugs

[question everything]

During a given year, seven out of every 10 people in my town go on some kind of a drug. As a writer I am fond of hyperbole, but that’s a verifiable statistic. It’s culled from the Rochester Epidemiology Project and published this summer in the journal “Mayo Clinic Proceedings.” According to the Mayo database, 68 percent of Olmsted County residents were prescribed at least one drug in the course of the year studied; 51 percent were prescribed at least two, and 21 percent were directed to take five different drugs. For comparison, only 46 percent of U.S. households own a dog. In short, taking a pill may be more American than man’s best friend. Which is unfortunate, given that owning a dog is one of the best things you can do for your health. (Dogs do come with powerful side effects: You fall in love with them and then they die.)

But here’s some good news: the most-prescribed drugs in these parts, at 17 percent of the population, are antibiotics. I think we can agree that antibiotics have had a profound impact on reducing sickness and death. Once you get past the amoxicillin, however, the cost-benefit picture for the American medicine cabinet is a bit of a hot mess. Coming in second: 13 percent of our county is on antidepressants. In third: 12 percent of us are on pain-killers. And in fourth: 11 percent take statins, the lipid-lowering drugs all in the news last month. As the authors noted, Americans spent $250 billion on drugs during 2009. That’s comparable to the entire economic output of Finland, Greece, Israel or Ireland.

(snip)

As Robert Whitaker reported in his 2010 book “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” since the start of the Prozac era the rate of Americans on disability for depression has more than doubled, from 1 in 184 to 1 in 76. During this same time, the rate of children on disability for mental illness has swelled by a factor of 35... Statins, “risk-factor” drugs conferring compliance with the prevailing heart disease narrative, are taken by 41 percent of people over 65 in my county. The drugs lower blood cholesterol, supposedly reducing the risk of heart disease in the process, and supposedly with no cost to public health. For people who have had a heart attack, the drugs do reduce the risk of a return of cardiovascular illness and early death, albeit by a small amount (from 3 percent to 2 percent in one large trial — or “36 percent” according to the TV ads). But sick people were never the target of those confessional Lipitor spots featuring frightened and repentant midlifers. (The one with a 50-something jumping off a dock at sunset did at least promote ownership of a chocolate lab.) Two-thirds of the $17 billion market for statins is for primary prevention — people who have never had a heart attack.

(snip)

By dispensing statins en masse, we not only spend billions on unnecessary drugs, we expose millions of healthy Americans to a host of side effects whose magnitude have been downplayed thanks to trials that don’t look very hard for bad news. Statins do lower your LDL, or so-called “bad” cholesterol. So why don’t they work? LDL comes in many forms, only the smallest of which predict heart disease. And as pioneering LDL researcher Ronald Krauss, M.D., will tell you, “they disproportionately reduce the large forms of LDL” (the kind that don’t hurt you).

(snip)

Any time the health media start telling us to grab a bag of popcorn and pull up a chair because the guys at Sanofi, Pfizer and Amgen are close to landing a big one, we should know where this is heading. A guy who takes a pill, jumping off a dock with a chocolate lab — when all he really needed was the lake and the dog.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/219051511.html

[love_katz]

1. I think many of us are depressed by the recession/depression.

Mental health profiles seem to mistake people's dissatisfaction with their lives as indicating that they need to be medicated.

No one seems to make the connection that if people feel like they can create satisfying and successful lives that maybe they would not need prescription drugs for depression at all.

[tridim]

2. 7 out of 10 blows my mind.

I haven't taken a prescription drug since high school, 25 years ago. Don't need em.

Exercise, diet, and herbal supplements keep me off them. I'm easily the healthiest person in my family, they all take prescription drugs.

Edit: And the dog helps too.

[Marie Marie]

3. I agree - diet and exercise do so much with none of the side effects.

Except for that side effect of feeling better - physically and mentally. I know that many people have conditions that might require a specific drug and need to take them but too many of us would rather pop a pill to feel better. Better living through chemistry..

[bemildred]

4. Yes, a stunning lack of health when you think about it. ntg

[CanSocDem]

5. What is also interesting....

...is that the most popular medications are those that don't actually cure the condition but are taken to ameliorate the fear of the condition.

Fear of disease.

Fear of sadness.

Fear of pain.

Fear of heart attack.

A simple solution would be to reduce the "fear".

.

[question everything]

9. Except for antibiotic... for bacterial infection

Too many demand, and get, antibiotics when they have the flu which is caused by a virus, not bacteria.

[COLGATE4]

6. Congratulations on your excellent health -

at least up to now. But you should be aware that an illness can appear out of nowhere and fell the most previously healthy individual. From your post I calculate that you are approximately 43-44 years old. At age 50 I also had extraordinarily good health. Never sick, even with a cold, never saw a doctor, much less any hospitalizations, surgeries, etc. And then one day feeling absolutely fine I was diagnosed with a severe blood disorder that required months of drugs, treatments, infusions, tests, more drugs and eventually hospitalization in a world-famous hospital for 2 straight months (with three separate trips to Intensive Care while there). This little stint left me with six months of physical rehabilitation to regain my ability to walk.

My only point is that the state of one's health is not a given and is highly susceptible to sudden and unexpected change. Enjoy your good health every day but try not to be judgmental about those who are not as fortunate and must take prescription drugs.

[tridim]

7. I understand..

It's just that I know lots of people my age who take these things at their doctor's orders, with no questions asked. Diet changes and exercise aren't even mentioned. Just pop a pill. Lots of it is laziness IMO, doctor and patient.

Then they start to get sicker.

Anyway, I'm saving the antibiotics until I really need them later in life.

[COLGATE4]

8. We're in complete agreement on that. nt

[winter is coming]

10. That was my mom, for many decades. She's still never taken an antibiotic. n/t

[SheilaT]

12. Count me as another one who is incredibly healthy.

While there are good and necessary drugs, even antibiotics are over used in this country.

I'll be 65 on Friday, so getting some kind of chronic condition or illness is NOT inevitable.

A woman I went to high school with has taken it upon herself to do mass emailings to all of us about this and that. Far too often it's about illness or death of some kind. Yeah, we are all in our mid-60's, and such things happen, but still.

A couple of months ago I was able to have lunch with another two h.s. classmates who were passing through. One was someone I'd barely known, so it would have been too rude of me to ask exactly why she could barely walk.

Me? I can still do a headstand.