America Overmedicated

I was listening to the radio this afternoon when I heard an alarming statistic. 82% of Americans are on some form of medication. More people are taking perscription drugs than ever before in history and what really gets me is that most of these drugs are ment to treat (not cure) disease. Aditionally, the big drug companies make up to 1500% ptofit and more. That's right, they're selling you the pills for more than 15 times what it cost them to make them! I think 82% of Americans on medication is an alarming statistic, a clear indocation that our nation is overmedicated. Even more troubling is the fact that perscription drugs end up in the water supply after they are excreeted by the body. This will only serve to dammage the world's precious fresh water supply and possibly have harmful effects for people.

I agree, many people take drugs they don't really need. Some are lured by TV ads. Others truly need them and can't afford them. Then there are guys like me who manage to get by with things like heart failure and ulcerative colitis thanks to drugs. The problem, as you mentioned, lies with the drug companies and doctors ready to write prescriptions whether they are needed or not.

The heart failure thing amuses me. I thought when your heart failed you were dead.

I think the advertising is part of the problem, and have to admit that I have always thought that really weird that you could advertise a drug so that people would go to their doctor and ask for it.
I wonder when the naturopaths will have the same kind of budgets so they can counter with a campaign to increase people's commitment to good health.

Personally, I think they should ban advertising drugs on television. The decision to take medication should be between the individual and his or her doctor. Advertisers should not be trying to sell perscription drugs to the public on TV or the radio or in magazines. I remember a few years ago seeing an ad on TV for a pill that's suppose to give you better looking toe nails, but one of the side effects was death. Would you be willing to die for better looking toe nails?

There is a problem with leaving it to the doctors though too, in my opinion. They have way too much clout. They learn about new drugs in one of a very few ways: they are visited by drug reps whose job it is to sell the Dr on those drugs, they attend seminars that are sponsored by the drug companies, and then they read medical journals that have ads by the same drug companies.

Those same Dr's then encourage people to take medication that the drug reps have sold them on, which may or may not be the best option (I am thinking of the growth interruption side effects to Ritalin that so many thousands of kids are on. Then there was the "no morning sickness drug" of the 60's [Thalidomide] that resulted in babies being born with no limbs and more recently the approvals of anti-depressants for teens being revoked because of an increased suicide rate).

No easy answers here, although I do enjoy talking to my local pharmacist as well a naturopath, a dietician...and others.

True enough, we need to reduce the influnce of the drug companies on medical schools. Drug Company representatives should not be allowed to influnce doctors with their special incentives and smooth talk. Medicine should be about helping people, not just making money. The over-perscription of drugs has led to people suffering side effects from drugs they don't even need. I think we need to get the corporate greed out of the medical system.