More On Deaths By Doctors, Drugs and Hospitals!

I thought I would do one last post in this series on the atrocious situation in America today concerning the death and mayhem caused by drug side effects, drug interactions, hospital mistakes and doctor caused fatalities. It is a very SAD and for the most part unnecessary situation that unfortunately is NOT LIKELY to receive much press and controversy for the simple reason, "Money Talks and Nobody Walks".

I consider it a blight on America. Here are statistics on same.

Condition                                 Deaths Annually          Cost              Author
Adverse Drug Reactions         106,000                        $12 billion      Lazarou(1), Suh (49)
Medical error                           98,000                          $2 billion       IOM(6)
Unnecessary Procedures          37,136                          $122 billion   HCUP(3,13)
Surgery-Related                       32,000                          $9 billion       AHRQ(85)

This shortened list includes $145,000 billion in costs and #273,136 deaths annually from these (4) causes

Total chart reveals 8 conditions and shows 783,936 annual deaths and $282 billion dollars cost

To read more, see link:

http://www.webdc.com/pdfs/deathbymedicine.pdf

It makes a lot more sense to be to do your best to educate yourself on natural alternatives to drugs, try and eat right, exercise, and take supplements. It is also important to get off sugary drinks, all Diet and Regular and (DIET)  Coke, Pepsi, carbonated drinks, all soft drinks, 99% of all bottled flavored drinks of any kind (exceptions could include Pom/Pom juice (Pomegranate juice / sparingly). In addition stay away from empty nutrition, high calorie, high sugar foods.

REMEMBER THAT THE EMPHASIS from the medical community is on TREATMENT and MANAGEMENT of symptoms, and NOT on finding cures.

Money talks, nobody walks!

• 2.2 million people suffer in hospital adverse prescription drug reactions
• Antibiotics are miss prescribed 20 million times a year to ward off viral infections
• Nearly 8 MILLION unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed every year

DON'T be a statistic. It is never too late to make a change in your life. Today is the 1st day of the rest of your life.

God Bless,

Dan

Psalm 30:2-3
LORD my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me. O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

MORE Prescription Drug Information

Do you know anyone over the age of 30 that isn't on some sort of prescription drug? What about people 50 and older? It is almost impossible to find a senior citizen that is not on one or more prescription drugs and sometimes 10 or more prescription drugs. Each of those come with a couple of pages of side effects (some of them fatal) and to top it off there are interactions between the prescriptions themselves. It gets sort of complicated doesn't it.

Just my own personal observation is that when I was a kid, doctor's still made house calls and it seems that the emphasis was on getting you back to health. Full well realizing the technology, testing, surgical procedures and the like are light years ahead of when I was a kid....it still seems to me that we LOST something along the way. The overwhelming emphasis today seems to be on WHAT PRESCRIPTION DRUG CAN WE WRITE FOR THIS PERSON? We have lost in many cases (NOT ALL), that personal touch and asking questions about eating habits, lifestyle, how much exercise and what kind does a person do etc. In many cases you only have a doctor's attention for perhaps 5 to 10 mins max, so it is easier to prescribe a drug or two and hope that solves the problem.

Dan

Take a look at the information below concerning this issue:

http://www.enlightenamerica.com/files/Over-Prescribed.pdf

EXCERPTS:

A vitally important story reported in the April 15, 1998, issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), sums up that a
minimum of 106, 000 people die each year from properly prescribed
medications.
 This death toll may be as high as even 196,000, which places deaths
from prescribed drugs between the 4th and 6th leading cause of death in the
United States, just behind heart disease, cancer and stroke.
 While only approximately 15,000 people die each year from illegal
street drugs, over 100,000 are killed each year from properly prescribed
medications.
 The real drug problem seems to be the misuse and overuse of both
prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration say there are about 300,000 over-the-counter drugs
available. Did you know that 75 percent of all visits to an MD end with a
prescription? Did you know that pharmaceutical companies spend 10
billion a year to market their drugs?

The following article contains some alarming facts that you should be
aware of. After reading it over, please share it with your friends. It is part
of my job to keep you informed on health-related matters.

● In an average year, 1.6 million people are hospitalized due to the
side effects of prescribed drugs. Up to 160,000 will die from their
reaction (Dangerous Drugs, 1992).
● Americans consume 15 tons of aspirin a day, 19 billion tablets per
year. Although thought to be harmless, a single aspirin will…

…Be responsible for 1500-2000 deaths,

…be the leading cause of kidney disease,
…Cause ulcers, toxic headaches and children’s Reye’s
Syndrome.

The average senior citizen gets 15 prescriptions each year (U.S.
Health and Human Services Department 1992).
● For people over the age of 60, in one year there will be…(from the
Public Citizen Health Research)
…1 million adverse reactions to prescriptions,
 …243,000 hospitalized due to drug reactions,
 …163,000 suffering from memory loss due to prescription
drugs

61,000 Americans will suffer drug-induced Parkinson’s Disease this
year.
● 32,000 suffer hip fractures annually including 1500 deaths from
drug-induce falls (USA Today, July 29, 1994).
● 7600 deaths and 76,000 annual hospitalizations are due to internal
bleedings caused by non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs, most
used for arthritis. Forty-one percent of these prescriptions are
unnecessary (Ann Intern Med, 1997; 127:429-438).
● 23% of the elderly receive repeat prescriptions for more than a year
without seeing a physician.
● In U.S. hospitals, a serious drug error occurs in one out of every 14
patients. (Harvard School of Public Health, Sept. 22, 1994).
● Medical malpractice is responsible for 80,000 deaths per year, one
every seven minutes (Public Citizen. May/June 1994).

Between 106,000 and 196,000 people die each year in U.S. Hospitals
form properly prescribed drugs. Over 2 million suffer serious side
effects. (JAMA, 1998).
● A 13-year study showed that 66% of all non-prescription drugs don’t
work. (U.S. Public Health Service, 1986).
● 4500 people die each year due to angiograms for the heart, with no
evidence they work at all (Health & Healing).
● No studies have shown that heart bypass surgery extends life at
all. Most studies show plaquing of the arteries again six weeks after
surgery (Health & Healing).
At present, there are in excess of 54,000 prescription drugs and
300,000 over-the-counter drugs on the market. (CNN Headline News,
Sept. 18, 1995).
● Americans consume over half of all drugs in the world today. We
are only 5% of the world population. This is at a rate of over 25
million drugs per hour.
● The average family has over 29 different drugs in the home at any
time.
● Every third TV commercial is a drug advertisement. By the time the
average child reaches 18, they have seen 20,000 hours of drug
commercials such as “Plop-plop, fizz-fizz, oh what a relief it is!”
● Three of ten patients now request a prescription drug they have
seen advertised. Doctors can net up to $4,000 per patient referred to
drug companies to participate in their studies. Smart Money
November 1999.
● More than 11 billion is spent each year by pharmaceutical
companies in promotion and marketing, $5 billion of which goes to
sales representatives, “It has been estimated that $8,000 to $13,000
is spent per year on each physician. This is about $30 million each
day. Physicians and the pharmaceutical industry, JAMA, Jan. 19,
2000

Adverse drug reactions kill 73,000 elderly Americans each year 

(Sacramento Bee, 3-24-91). 

● One-fourth of all alder Americans are prescribed at least one 

“inappropriate and dangerous drug” each year (USA Today, 7-28-94). 

● 40-60% of all antibiotics in this country are misprescribed (Health 

Letter, 1989;5(7):1-5. 

Approximately 180,000 people die each year partly as a result of 

doctor- caused injury. This is equal to three jumbo-jet crashes every 

two days killing all passengers (JAMA, 1994; 272:1851-52) 

● Drug “problems” each year cost as much as $182 billion, kill as 

many as 198,815 people, put 8.8 million in hospitals, and account for 

up to 28% of all hospital admissions (American Medical News; Jan. 

15, 1996 P.11) 

● Adverse drug reactions add an average of 4.6 days to the length of 

a hospital stay, at an average cost of $5,857 (JAMA, 1997;227(4):307). 

● Over $75 Billion per year is spent on treating patients injured from 

bad reactions to prescribed drugs. Almost $2 billion of this is spent 

on additional prescriptions (Arch Intern Med., 1995;155:1949-1956). 

● Properly prescribed drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in 

the U.S. Only heart disease, cancer and stroke kill more Americans 

(Newsweek. April 27, 1998 P.61). 

● Overall, 51% of approved drugs have serious adverse effects not 

detected prior to approval (JAMA, May 20, 1998). 

● Up to 140,000 people die annually due to side effects of prescribed 

drugs (US News & World Report, Jan. 9, 1995).

(PLEASE read the entire article for more information - STARTLING statistics)

Prescription Drug Related Deaths Annually In USA Alone Are 100,000 PLUS

My last post was concerning the relative safety of supplements of all kinds (I.E. Vitamins, minerals, herbs, multiple vitamins etc.).

Here are statistics on how many people on average die every single year in the USA from Prescription Drugs USED AS PRESCRIBED. Remember these figures are for drugs taken as prescribed and do not include drug abuse or getting high on stolen drugs etc.

HERE IS A LINK IN THAT REGARD:

http://www.alternet.org/story/147318/100,000_americans_die_each_year_from_prescription_drugs,_while_pharma_companies_get_rich

EXCERPT:

  PERSONAL HEALTH  

AlterNet / By Daniela Perdomo

 193 COMMENTS

100,000 Americans Die Each Year from Prescription Drugs, While Pharma Companies Get Rich

Prescription drugs taken as directed kill 100,000 Americans a year. That's one person every five minutes. How did we get here?

June 24, 2010  |  

How many people do you know who regularly use a prescription medication? If your social group is like most Americans', the answer is most. Sixty-five percent of the country takes a prescription drug these days. In 2005 alone, we spent $250 billion on them.

I recently caught up with Melody Petersen, author of Our Daily Meds, an in-depth look at the pharmaceutical companies that have taken the reins of our faltering health care system by cleverly hawking every kind of drug imaginable. We discussed how this powerful industry has our health in its hands.

Daniela Perdomo: Your book includes some staggering stats. For example, 100,000 Americans die each year from prescription drugs — that’s 270 per day, or, as you put it, more than twice as many who are killed in car accidents each day. Could you elaborate on this? Are these people abusing their prescription drugs or is this a sign of prescription meds gone bad?

Melody Petersen: The study estimating that 100,000 Americans die each year from their prescriptions looked only at deaths from known side effects. That is, those deaths didn’t happen because the doctor made a mistake and prescribed the wrong drug, or the pharmacist made a mistake in filling the prescription, or the patient accidentally took too much. Unfortunately, thousands of patients die from such mistakes too, but this study looked only at deaths where our present medical system wouldn’t fault anyone. Tens of thousands of people are dying every year from drugs they took just as the doctor directed. This shows you how dangerous medications are.

DP: You write about a growing market for drugs for children. You say we know little about the long-term effects of prescription meds on kids. Let’s talk particularly about depression medications and ADHD meds, which seem to be what kids are mostly prescribed.

MP:In recent years, sales of drugs for children have been the industry’s fastest growing business. Doctors now prescribe pills to children for all kinds of conditions — from high cholesterol to anxiety. The market for ADHD drugs has long been a big opportunity for the industry. More recently, the companies have had their sales reps urge doctors to prescribe antidepressants, antipsychotics and other psychiatric meds to children. The result: our kids take more of those medicines than children in other countries. For example, a study last year found that American children take three times more attention deficit medications and antidepressants than children in Europe. 

DP: Could you tell me how the prescription med industry is in bed with doctors?

MP: The industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars on physicians every year. In one survey, 9 out of 10 doctors said they had recently taken something of value from the drug industry. And some of those doctors take hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the industry. The drug companies pay doctors to be their so-called consultants. They also pay them to sit on corporate advisory boards and to give lectures to other doctors. They pay for up to 80 percent of the continuing medical education that doctors need to maintain their licenses. If you ask a doctor if this is a problem, they will more than likely tell you no. But the studies show that even a small gift will sway doctors to write a prescription for a certain drug. The truth is that doctors are no longer independent gatekeepers who keep us safe from drugs we don’t need. Far too many of them are financially tied to the industry. They are writing the prescriptions that their financial backers want them to write. 

DP: We are the only developed country that doesn't control prescription drug prices. Could you tell me what that means, practically, for consumers?

MP: It means that the drug companies can charge whatever they want to — even for drugs that don’t work very well. One drug costs $400,000 a year. Some cancer drugs now cost $50,000, even though on average, they give the patient just a few weeks extra to live. It’s clear that the drugs aren’t worth these extreme prices, but the companies are taking advantage of patients who are desperate for a cure. The industry’s unlimited hikes in prices have helped make health insurance unaffordable. This is also why wages of American workers have stagnated. When health premiums rise, employers must get the extra money from somewhere, and employee raises are one of the first things to go.

DP: You write about how companies are more interested in developing 'lifestyle drugs for rich Americans' rather than discovering cures for diseases that affect the majority of the world, like malaria. How many cholesterol drugs do we need? Sex drive meds? Hair loss meds? 

MP: The answer is that we really don’t need many of those kinds of drugs, those lifestyle drugs that don’t save or lengthen lives. But the drug companies have discovered there are billions of dollars to be made by selling pills to Americans who worry about getting old, but are otherwise healthy. It’s so easy to fall for the marketers’ claim that a little pill will enhance our lives and keep us young forever.

DP: Could you tell me about drugs that are developed for one use but used for another. How often does this happen?

MP: It is a common sales tactic in the industry to have sales reps push doctors to prescribe a drug for many uses and patient conditions. The drug companies do this even though it is illegal to promote a drug for anything other than the condition the FDA has approved it for. I detail in my book how a lackluster drug for epilepsy – a drug called Neurontin -- was sold by a company for just about any condition that affects the brain. The company’s sales representatives pushed doctors to prescribe Neurontin for children with attention problems, for adults with mania, for just about anyone with restless legs. They did this even though they had no scientific evidence that it helped people with these conditions. This is a very dangerous corporate fraud. 

DP: How often are ailments created simply to fit a drug already created?

MP: The industry has proven that it is not beyond creating new diseases when it wants to expand the use of a drug. For example, I wrote in my book about how the company Pharmacia created the disease of overactive bladder to expand sales of a drug for incontinence. We don’t know how often this is done because few companies are willing to tell the public how their marketers work behind the scenes.  

DP: What do we prescribe drugs for that other countries don’t? In other words, what ailments do Americans suffer from that other nations don’t?

MP: The drug companies have made Americans believe that almost anything should be treated with a pill. Women can ask their doctors for a drug that will diminish their facial hair. Parents can ask for a stimulant to keep their children calm and focused. Even people who are shy are now told they have a disease that needs to be medicated. This is far less prevalent in other countries because the drug companies don’t have as much power elsewhere. The U.S. and New Zealand are the only two developed countries in the world that allow the drug companies to aggressively advertise prescription drugs to consumers.

DP: Why do we rush to prescribe? Have we always been this way or was there a shift at some point? 

MP:The prescriptions are driven by the promotional efforts of the industry. Today, the companies start promoting a drug years before it even goes to the FDA for approval. Some drugs have promotional campaigns funded by more than a billion dollars. It was around 1980 when the big drug companies learned that they could make far more profit by focusing their efforts on marketing rather than on the truly hard work of scientific research and finding new drugs.

DP: American life expectancy is low compared to other developed nations. What are they doing right? We’re not the only ones with prescription drug companies within our borders.

MP: In America, if you’re lucky enough to have health insurance, you can easily get too much medicine, too much health care. Many Americans don’t understand that all of health care has risks and that too much of it can actually shorten your life. Is this one of the reasons why we’re falling fast in the world rankings on life expectancy? No one knows for sure. But it’s obvious that all that money we spend on prescriptions and doctors is not giving us an advantage.

DP: From a consumer/patient standpoint, are certain drug manufacturers better than others?

MP:No. There is not an ethically minded shining star. All the companies operate in a similar way. Fraud is rampant in this industry because there is so much money involved.

DP: How will the health care bill affect prescription drug use and the med industry?

MP: The drug companies and their lobbyists won big under the new health care law. The companies will get millions of new customers. At the same time, Congress agreed with the industry’s lobbyists that there should be no limits on how much they can charge for medicines. We needed to make health insurance available to all Americans, but there should have been stronger cost controls and promotional limits in the law. Now, even more people will be at risk of getting dangerous and expensive drugs that they don’t need.

DP: What do you make of theories that someday very soon we’ll all be on smart drugs. Realistic? Already here?

MP: I recently spoke to a college student who told me he used Adderall, a drug for ADHD, to enhance his studies. He didn’t have a prescription for the drug. He got the pills from friends. He knew this was dangerous and illegal, but he did it anyway. People no longer understand that every drug comes with risks. Adderall, for example, comes with a label warning that using it without a prescription can lead to addiction, and in rare cases, death. The marketers have made us believe that we can do just about anything with the help of a pill.

DP: What is the biggest issue relating to prescription drugs that the mainstream media misses?

MP: Overall, the biggest problem is that the news media is not objective when reporting on medicines. Much of the news coverage on prescription drugs exaggerates their potential benefits and glosses over their risks. Many news stories about new drugs don’t even mention the side effects. People are getting distorted information on prescription drugs. Many of these news stories are little more than press releases that come straight out of the drug companies’ marketing departments.