PRESCRIPTION NATION

America is #1 – that is, in terms of the number of people on prescription medications. We outrank the rest of the word in terms of how many people take meds regularly and the number of multiple medications people are on!

 

Don’t have time to read about the big studies and surveys in the news right now? Here’s a run down for you:

 

 

• 59 percent of adults Americans use a prescription drug regularly. That’s up from just 50 percent when the survey was last conducted a decade earlier.

 

 

• The share of people who took more than five prescription drugs in a month nearly doubled to 15 percent.

 

 

• Many of the widely used drugs treat conditions related to obesity, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol.

 

 

• Many increases in prescription use are in areas such as muscle relaxants and antidepressants.

 

• Prescription opioids led to 92,000 overdose visits to the ER in just one year.

 

 

 

What questions naturally come up?

 

• Why do we as Americans, part of the richest society in the world, need increasing medications to keep ourselves healthy?

 

• With all the research on food and health available on the internet, why do more and more people still stop for fast food EVERY DAY and feed it to their kids nightly?

 

• Why is America growing fatter each year?

 

• Why are death rates from HEART DISEASE climbing?

 

 

 

Doc Annie’s Take:

 

 

Obesity is the main culprit –

 

Sure, obesity has such a complex web of causes….socioeconomics, working parents, health and nutrition education, demise of the two parent family, a society where BIGGER IS BETTER which means portions everywhere you go, and a lifestyle where few people are PRESENT in their lives – which means eating standing up, in the car, on the go.

 

 

FOOD is our first medicine. A borderline diabetic isn’t placed on metformin right away; they are given nutritional counseling.

 

A complaint of pain to your doctor shouldn’t yield an Rx for pain medications first. Physical therapy and activity modifications should play a part in treatment.  Diet also has to figure in to the game plan. (Like eating for anti-inflammation https://www.docannie.com/eating-to-fight-inflammation-lets-get-to-the-root-of-the-issue/)

 

 

High stress lifestyle where fewer hours are available to us to plan meals and shop right, so we value convenience over quality ingredients – that means shopping in the center of the supermarket – prepared, processed, foods that can last a nuclear war.

 

Eating right requires a bit of time – definitely more time than stopping at that drive thru!

 

 

Digital age works against us – Screentime – from laptops to Iphones to video games – is robbing us – especially children – of their fresh air and exercise. We’re always hearing about studies linking shorter lives to how much time we spent SITTING!

 

 

We avoid the PRESENT and neglect self-care – why else are more and more people taking antidepressants and anxiety meds?

 

Of course many people NEED these medications; however as a physician in a busy suburban area I can tell you that the moment a patient complains about stress or sadness most are handed a prescription – and it isn’t for yoga, meditation or support therapy. Why wouldn’t you try that first?

 

 

Finally, the prescription medicines themselves are causing a rise in MORE prescription medicines to be needed.

 

Newton said FOR EVERY ACTION THERE IS A REACTION.

 

Every single thing we put into our bodies has a side effect. After a while your medication helps what you took it for – but then an unwanted side effect (sleep issues, heartburn, urinary problems, I could go on forever) prompts you to go to your doc who prescribes something else for the side effect!

 

This goes on every day. We are on a slippery slope of turning to medications to mask the symptoms of disease, instead of looking at the root of causes of disease.

 

We need a shift to considering the food going in our mouths as being our primary medicine.

 

We need to demand more from our healthcare system – not simple prescriptions for complex problems.

 

 

I’m not saying it’s easy, I’m saying we don’t have much choice. The road we are on scares me: the road of skyrocketing healthcare costs and of a growing number of chronically ill people in America. It should scare you too.