Not sure if this will surprise you or not. I was actually rather taken aback.
Almost HALF of Americans are on some sort of prescription drug.
Right now. This very minute!
This includes children by the way, it’s not just adults.
Americans are truly a drugged up nation yet thorough examination of the situation reveals that most prescription drugs only work for 30% of the people for which they are originally intended!
The most popular drug prescribed by doctors is by far antidepressants although these drugs work no better than a placebo. Even “talk therapy” was found to work 20% more effectively than antidepressants in clinical trials.
Why are half of doctors (by their own admission) routinely prescribing drugs they know won’t work and despite the fact that 85% of new drugs hitting the market have been found through research to provide little to no benefit to their patients?
Psychiatrists, for example, earn twice as much when they prescribe drugs instead of therapy for their patients.
It’s easy to point the finger at Big Pharma and corporate greed in general as the cause of America’s drug woes. The fact is that many doctors are complicit and just as guilty. If doctors refused to go along with the drug companies’ shenanigans, the game would be over tomorrow.
Big Pharma has your doc’s back though. $7 Billion was paid out by the pharmaceutical industry between 2007 and 2010 for lawsuits where doctors were actually paid to prescribe drugs for unapproved uses.
Insist on the 10 Year Rule
The best way to protect yourself from falling victim to unnecessary prescription use is to question when a doctor writes you a script rather than dutifully filling it without a second thought which is what most people do.
Do you really need this drug? Would wiser lifestyle choices result in a better outcome long term? Would herbs or natural therapies produce the same improvements without any risk of toxic side effects?
If you do feel that you need the drug for whatever reason, be sure to research it yourself and determine whether it is really as effective as marketed. Â A good rule of thumb is to insist that your doctor only prescribe you a drug that has been on the market for at least 10 years. Â This is the rule my father used when prescribing for his patients and he never felt like he was being overcautious in his approach.
By using the 10 year rule, he knew it was highly unlikely his patients would turn out to be guinea pigs for the drug companies and that the drugs his patients did take under his guidance would most likely work as he anticipated given that they had been on the market for awhile.
What is your doctor’s drug prescribing philosophy? Â It might be worth your while to ask a few questions and find out.
You just might be surprised.
Hint: Â If they don’t have one, run!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I would add, if the health care system got away from rewarding doctors for this behavior and rewarded them for caring for patients, there would be no incentive to grab the ever-present RX pad.
It would be interesting if we all asked our doctors this question – even if we never got an answer. And thanks for the tip Anita.
Speaking of prescription drugs…our family knows SIX couples in our family and our close friends here recently who have had one spouse suddenly file for divorce and leave the marriage after at least 14 years of marriage (and up to 31 years). In all of them, the other spouse was blindsided by this action and did not want the divorce. In every couple, the one leaving had or is taking anti-depressants and their uncharacteristic behavior happened after they started taking them. All of these people who left their marriages were loved by us and their families. In every case, the spouse being left had done nothing wrong to cause the other to feel they had a right to divorce. On top of this, our oldest son’s fiance died of prescription drug overdose four years ago and one of the drugs she was taking was an anti-depressant (she had lupus). She had overdosed several times in three years and it finally got her. She was not overdosing on purpose. She was taking Ambien to sleep and she was getting up and taking more pills when she thought she was sleeping. One doctor in the ER told me, Don’t ever let someone you love take Ambien. Once you take one pill, you don’t know what you are doing.
I’m speaking up for the providers here because I am one.
First, let me say that I believe that diet changes, especially a gluten free, low sugar, low refined carb diet, can help immensely for things such as fibromyalgia, many autoimmune diseases, diabetes, acne, allergies, and more. Personally I have battled for years with symptoms and had my own providers give me prescriptions for ridiculous amounts of controlled substances, antidepressants, anxiolytics, antibiotics, and more. Turns out, I have Celiac disease and I basically did the diagnosing myself but it is confirmed with blood work and endoscopy.
Another friend of mine was being treated for Fibromyalgia with potent medications and gained 30 pounds and really didn’t feel any better. Turns out, she has an allergy to casein and if she avoids it, she’s fine!
The problem is that not everyone is motivated to try an elimination diet or go to physical therapy to even research their symptoms. They come in and say I have such and such a pain, I’m tired all the time, I’ve tried “EVERYTHING” and NOTHING works. Now, I work in a specialty office so for many of them, this is true. We deal with autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, and fibromyalgia. Usually we need to prescribe potent medications in order to prevent the ravages of these diseases. But when I tell someone who smokes that they need to quit because the smoke from the cigarettes interferes with the medication, essentially making it ineffective, I get a song and a dance about why they are smoking (usually stress-I had one woman tell me she started smoking again when her husband lost his job. Isn’t that counterproductive? A pack of cigarettes is at least $8!!) and some outright refuse to quit. But they want the medication anyway. And when it doesn’t work that well, we have to add another, even more potent medication. All because they won’t quit smoking!
I tell my “fibro” patients to try an elimination diet because many people feel better off certain foods. I also recommend this to my RA and psoriatic arthritis patients, even those with Lupus. Most of them ignore the advice. But they come back to get their meds.
I tell them to try warm Epsom salt baths, yoga, stretching, walking and melatonin. They come back asking for more vicodin and ambien or worse.
I have basically stopped prescribing narcotics to any one with fibromyalgia because I know it is not an effective treatment and people just get hooked and won’t take care of themselves.
I can’t cure anyone in a 15 minute office visit, just like my own providers couldn’t figure me out. I had to do it myself for the most part. I was fortunate to find a provider who dabbles in complementary medicine as well and she supports taking supplements. We have a few of those here locally and many others are catching on but there is still a battle to be waged on the medical front.
Medical schools don’t teach this stuff. The old timers think it’s hokey. Even many nurses don’t believe in the stuff and that’s really unfortunate. Even our office manager questioned my giving out samples of OTC probiotics and coupons for them. I told her that well, we’re tearing up their stomachs with the meds we order, we might as well also help heal the damage we’re causing! There is a lot of education still to be done. For both the providers and the patients.
I know personally that motivation is a huge factor in whether someone follows through on the advice I give. It was for me and I can see that in other people. But when they want it bad enough and are willing to do the work, 9 times out of 10 it helps. I had a woman come in the other day and tell me that I was a miracle worker. All I had done was tell her to take Vitamin D and a B Complex! But she did it and didn’t just come back after taking it twice and tell me it didn’t work. But I also have others who take the meds after having the less toxic stuff not work and they have come back feeling much better too. Hopefully for them, the meds are not a forever thing and once they feel better they can start exploring more gentler ways to heal.
I’d say that if you go to any random medical office expecting them to tell you what herbal preparation or supplement to take, that you are likely barking up the wrong tree. Get a recommendation instead. Call and ask questions ahead of time. See a naturopath first. But sometimes, the more mainstream medical practice is where you need to be. At least for a while. Hopefully more and more of us will start working better with complementary practices and educating ourselves. And in the meantime, you do your homework too. What the people demand, we will provide!
I’m sure being a medical provider right now must be very frustrating. Even if you have good answers, so many people don’t want to do the work. Instead they want a “quick fix” pill that will set them up and send them on their way. Most people really don’t understand that the “quick fix” pill has long term consequences.
Best wishes for your good practice.
Liz H–I am a provider too. I provide professional advice and negotiation for people who want to sell their homes—the largest investment of their lives. I agree that the best way to get good service from a medical professional—just like a real estate professional–is by referral and recommendation. Effective and successful work with a client from any industry, like medicine, requires 1. a relationship 2. of trust 3. based upon a motivated client. A good referral naturally will provide what is needed for #1. and will have #2. Motivation is the final element that must be tested—for the good of the CLIENT as well as the provider. The provider’s motivation ought to be, compensation aside, what is in the best interest of the client. If my motivation is right as a provider but is not met by an equal amount of cooperation (trust) and motivation from the client then it is wrong for me to continue to work with that client. Why? Because I will compromise my values, money will become my only motivation, and any failure that may be due to the clients’ lack of the necessary elements for effective service puts me at risk for being blamed, “thrown under the bus.” There are only so many ways to be human and even fewer—I would say TWO–ways to be a provider: Either you have authority to lead the client to the successful end that they are paying your for or you lack that authority. My contention that any profession that is compensated by money—especially any profession providing basic human necessities like health and, in my case, shelter– to be ethically conducted must do so with a high level of professionally. This means that I cannot “cave” or acquiesce to my clients’ wishes when they are uninformed and incorrect in my professional opinion. If I get to the point in my business/profession that I “cave” to my clients fears or misinformation than I must assume that I am allowing this–risking this–in order for short-term gain. The question I must ask my self—and I think doctors must ask themselves–am I willing to forgo the financial gain of (and take on the risk) of working with client like that where I compromise my professional belief and, out of respect for them, let them work with another doctor. (But not work with them myself unless they are willing “do it my way”) So, my reason for including this comment here is that I believe that the medical profession–just like the real estate profession—has many providers who do not trust that they will make enough money if they are honest and consistent with their clients—and instead tolerate a client who they know will not be able to have a successful outcome —endure the pain of lack of client motivation, anger and blame, being the nag for them in order to “get paid.” I refuse to work with clients who will not receive and trust my advice. (I have truly regretted the times that I did) An example of this is my mother’s doctor’s care around her high blood pressure. Her doctor simply allowed her to be non-compliant with the other life and death factors of stroke prevention aside from taking high blood pressure mediation: diet and exercise. (I am assuming that he actually directed her to attend to these). Yet, he collected compensation for at least 7 years for seeing her even though he knew as a professional she was living quite dangerously. ( I would like to know what “charge” level this doctor labelled the visits for Medicare compensation. ) I believe this is 1. bad business practice that restrict good business growth and development for the long term and 2. unethical in its treatment of patients. By condoning, allowing or overlooking key factors for a healthy, lower-mortality risk life, the doctor gave my mom false security. She died because there was not a whole-person treatment of the risk factors for a stroke. This didn’t need to happen. I was not surprised that this doctor did not call the ICU, visit or attend her funeral.
Think also about all the pharmaceutical ads on TV. They are geared toward possible patients, not doctors. And people are suckered by the ads and go in to the doctor asking for these meds (and they may not even really have the condition it supposedly helps). The doctors are receiving an ad campaign from their end (in the medical journals/trainings/magazines and have reams of new information from a variety of sources every week. It is a lot of information to absorb and when they have an article in a journal on one hand, and a patient specifically requesting a med – they are probably going to try it with that patient.
You’re so right, Sarah. Chemical prescription drugs are the number one killer in North America as per Dr. Mercola. Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson are just cases substantiating this point. As Doctors of Natural Medicine, we always know what law of cure were prescribing on and on the basis of what principle. I wrote a juicy article a while back regarding the ethical physician. It sounds like your Dad also tried to live more in this camp.
This was a wonderful article. Being a pharmacist over 20 years I new this information. I no longer practice pharmacy in the “traditional setting”. I now have a company called JesusRx. please see our product at http://www.Jesusrx.com
It’s important to treat the whole person! check us out on facebook too! Thanks for the article.
Eva, what a wonderful thing… I love it
I had to share it …thanks!
Not surprised. It’s how they make an part of their income.
My kids’ pediatrician used to facetiously refer to Tylenol as “Vitamin T” because his colleagues prescribed it for just about everything. Not surprisingly, he left that practice and opened his own.