« Mediterranean Diet Reduces Hypertension & Heart Disease | Home | Cholesterol Lowering Statins Cause Permanent Muscle Damage »
Runaway Health Costs & Lethal Effects of Prescription Drugs
By admin | October 28, 2009
Runaway health costs and lethal prescription drug usage are killing our people and the economy. This is no small, unsubstantiated claim. Drug companies influence lawmakers, medical doctors and the public with their skilled marketing and enormous budgets. The large drug companies typically spend 7% on research and 25% of their budgets on marketing. Have you noticed TV lately?
Dr. Julian Whitaker reports in his February 2009 newsletter about prescriptions: “Drugs are Bankrupting the Country”. Medicare prescription drug benefits represent a $17,000,000,000,000 (17 trillion) unfunded liability. That would amount to more than one third of the social security’s unfunded liability.
With talk of expanding the health care program to as many as 47 million more who knows what the price tag will be? Will the medical system be able to handle the enormous influx of extra patients?
Sources report that the U.S. residents consume 50% of the world’s prescription drugs but we are only 5% of the world’s population. Dozens of M.D’s, even cardiologists, are beginning to see the “rip off” occurring with drugs and pay attention to better scientific evidence.
Recently Pfizer Drug Company was fined 2 billion, 400 million dollars for misleading and false advertising. No problem…they have deep pockets. They generate over 12 billion dollars per year on just one drug, a cholesterol lowering statin called Lipitor. Most alternative medical doctors condemn the long term prescribing Lipitor and the other cholesterol lowering statin drugs. The overwhelming consensus of current research is that lowering cholesterol does not reduce cardiovascular accidents. (Half of those with heart attack are in the normal range of cholesterol…150 to 200. This was a huge study done at Harvard University Medical). Another study showed that after 75 years of age, those with high cholesterol lived longer.
Ironically it can be argued that prescription drugs are actually destroying our health and health care system. Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau states that we are 42nd in longevity worldwide. A recent study by the World Health Organization listed us as 24th in longevity, previously they listed us as 37th. I am skeptical that we have actually improved that much. There are over 600 lobbyists just for drug companies…far exceeding the number in congress and the senate who make the laws. Are they influential? I believe so.
The analysis cited by Dr. Whitaker was from IMS Health. The total prescriptions written have increased by 72% in the last 10 years. Hard to believe, but that would now mean 12.6 prescriptions per person in this country.
Cost is a huge problem but patient health is arguably more important. The paradox is that the more drugs are prescribed, the more unhealthy the population becomes!
The FDA (Federal Drug Administration) who is the “watch dog” for U.S. citizens is receiving record numbers of serious, adverse drug reports. Over 100,000 people are killed each year from prescription drugs. A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association listed prescription drugs as the 4th leading cause of death in the United States…years ago. (JADA…April 1998) I believe it is far worse today due to under reporting and increased drug usage.
Medical Dr. Julian Whitaker in his February 2009 newsletter provides a chart of 16 drug classes that are problematic. I would like to focus on just one of these categories, that of blood thinners. They are often prescribed with high blood pressure or in the case of dangerous blood clots.
In the case of “thick blood”, due to excess fibrin, blood thinners are often recommended. Increased fibrin, causing increased blood clotting and increased blood pressure, prompts doctors to prescribe blood thinning drugs such as Coumadin.
As you may know Coumadin was originally used (and still is) as a rat and mouse killer. It works by causing bleeding that results in unstoppable hemorrhage until death. Of course carefully controlled doses are given to humans, but bleeding does become more of a health hazard for the patient… especially with an injury.
A number of diseases warrant thinning the blood. Diabetes, kidney disease, Crohn’s disease, obesity, arthritis, lung disease are common ones. These diseases tend to increase PAT-1 which reduces the enzyme plasminogin that naturally counteracts the excess fibrin.
There is good argument to avoid blood thinning drugs like Coumadin. Drugs are foreign substances that tax the body in some way. Blood thinning drugs have a thin margin of error and different people respond differently to drugs. Of course this should be discussed with your medical doctor who is best able to assess the actual risk hazard of thick blood, and what the best treatment would be.
According to alternative medical doctors and researchers there are arguably better natural substitutes. They are proteolytic enzymes that break down proteins. Fibrin is a protein. Some foods that contain these are nattokinase (fermented soy) bromolain (pineapple) and papin (papaya)
You can actually buy enzyme supplements that have a variety of enzymes contained in them. They usually have digestive as well as the proteolytic enzymes mentioned already. They should not be added to your diet if you are already on a blood thinning drug. They will increase the bleeding tendency.
The proteolytic enzymes attack protein. One drug in Germany is the 2nd largest selling over the counter drug for pain relief. It is called Wobezyme. Pain is often caused by an inflammatory protein that is reduced by Wobezyme. It is also an excellent blood thinner…Denis Van Loan D.D.S.
Related posts
Topics: Alternative, Health, Heart Disease, alternative health | No Comments »