Book: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker & | Arthritis Information

I recently discovered the book by SHannon Brownlee: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer. Interesting reading.

Jan

How about "How Modern Medicine Allows Us to Lead Longer, More Productive Lives"

Oops sorry. Then we wouldnt be able to gripe now would we.
It help some. Not all!!!!!!!

Have you been helped?

Jan

Henriette -

How much of our sickness has been linked to some of the meds we take? When I was first diagnosed I tried to wean my PPI as all the side effects sounded like what I was going thru on diagnosis. Then, 2 years later, I find scientific evidence in PubMed listing 'autoimmune' reactions to PPI's. Was that part of the 'perfect storm' that helped this disease emerge? I think so.

There's a woman here who has been weaning her meds. I think she's down to less than half of what she was taking. Others are doing the same.

But we shouldn't be taking meds for side effects to the meds we need, either.

What is the lowest amount of med we need? Is the med something I don't need anymore? Is there something else I can use instead of a med? For me, aloe vera juice helped me wean my PPI which I'd been on for 4 - 5 years. Now I don't need the juice either.

It's a possibility.

Pip

I absolutely agree. Everyone here should be doing some med housecleaning. If you don't absolutely need it, don't take it. Try alternatives that are safe. Change in lifestyle, good diet, exercise, stop smoking, drinking....whatever it takes to help. We have become a society of pill poppers. This cannot be good. Yes, there are meds out there that are saving lives...Take a look at type one diabetes meds. On the other hand. Do we need to take type two meds or do we need to change our lifestyle? Do we need to take our BP meds or change our lifestyle and if that does not work...go back on the meds. Statin Drugs? What a joke for MOST of us. What a scam. There are some people out there that are genetically predisposed to certain health problems...but not most of us. It is time for all of us to take a look at our lifestyle and stop relying on a pill to fix all that ails us.[QUOTE=Jan Lucinda]

Have you been helped?

[/QUOTE]

I've been helped by my meds very much. I'm not saying that there aren't meds prescribed that are more harmful to folks than helpful.....but in my case the things I take have been very helpful.

Rituxan has enabled me to drop two meds...So. I guess I think that the meds have been more helpful, than harmful.I know my meds has cause a lot of problems, But I can now walk and do a few things, so if I had to do it over, I would take the same meds.

I'm glad some of you feel you have been helped by your meds. That is how it is supposed to be. I do know people where meds have created new problems and it has made me very careful about what I take. If I can find a natural remedy, I will always do that first. I guess we all know our own bodies and how they react to various meds.

Jan

I'm the woman who has cut her prescription meds by 1/2. At one point I was taking 14 prescriptions and now I'm taking 7 and that includes MXT and Humira. Because of RA I have interstial lung disease and a RA nodule in my heart. So far none of the prescriptions I've been on have destroyed my body the way RA/PsA/OA have.....so I'll take my meds but I research each and every one of them and weigh the risks and outcome. Sometimes I've chosen not to take a prescription because the risks outweighed the relief - Celebrex, Protonix, and Advair. For some people these drugs may be their only relief but for me I found alternatives that were easier on my body and with less side effects.

After Enbrel, Humira and Remicade failed I decided to restart Humira with a 2.5 mg. increase in MXT. I'm now in clinical remission for the first time in over 10 years. I didn't want to go on to Rituxin or Orencia because of the side effects. I went backwards and it worked. Sure Humira has side effects but considering my other health problems Humira seemed a better choice.

Everyone should sit down, make a list of prescriptions, revisit the websites for side effects vs. outcomes and look for prescriptions with less side effects. Take your list to your doctor and discuss each of your prescriptions. You might be surprised that you're taking a drug out of habit rather than need. Lindy

I guess I get a different picture of poly pharmacy than many. I am the one that hands them out when I work. I sometimes pass 30 pills to a single patient. And that is the 9 am med dosing. There is more to come throughout the day. Instead of replacing pills, doctors just want to add more. I don't think this helps. Pretty soon, a person is on so many meds, they honestly don't know what is helping and what is not. This is what I'm talking about. Many of you have to be on your RA meds, that is a given. But there are meds that some of us do not need to take. There are alternatives. I have quit taking my Nexium due in part to this thread. I honestly didn't look at all the problems associated with it. I was after the quick fix. I was only taking it as needed but I will reach for Tums or rolaids first. And if anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear. Hi Lori, when I quit Protonix I never had a problem. Once in a great while I use Tums but it's very seldom. Since I'm not taking Celebrex or Pred. any longer I didn't need Protonix. Even very spicy, hot foods don't bother me. LindyThe title of the book is "Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer." The key words are "too much," not why medicine is making us sicker, but why "too much" medicine is making us sicker.

I was on naprosyn, trilisate, and oral mtx for years. When I had severe stomach problems (lost 25 lbs) the doc added cytotec and nexium. I started enbrel, switched to injectable mtx, and discontinued naprosyn and trilisate. My stomach got better, I was more mindful of what I ate and drank (no coffee, no booze, no soda), and was able to stop cytotec and nexium. Four less drugs, and less money spent for prescription meds.

The issue isn't solely about taking drugs when there are possible nondrug alternatives, but it's also about an increasing use of prescription meds among all segments of the population - children, young adults, and the elderly -- and the increasing cost of prescription drugs which drives up health care costs -- insurance premiums and individuals' out of pocket expenses.

Joie2008-06-24 19:23:31Lindy - I thought it was you but wasn't 100% sure.

Lori - I sure didn't think that aloe vera juice would work but it worked miracles. I was barfing bile (TMI, I know) when I tried to wean so I had to do every other day and then every 3rd day with the juice and the Protonix and it WORKED! Thanks JSNM! Anyway, normally, a person barfing bile would assume they still needed the med but with some guidance here somebody mentioned 'acid rebound effect' and I looked, figured that was me, and with my docs approval, started weaning. Now I don't hardly have any problems - maybe when I get super, super, super stressed.

Pip

[QUOTE=Jan Lucinda]I'm glad some of you feel you have been helped by your meds. That is how it is supposed to be. I do know people where meds have created new problems and it has made me very careful about what I take. If I can find a natural remedy, I will always do that first. I guess we all know our own bodies and how they react to various meds. This book is excellent. She says studies estimate that as much as 30 percent of the medical care that is paid for by Medicare as well as private insurers is useless, unneeded, a waste of seven hundred billion dollars a year.

TAlking about medical research, she says getting medicine that is based on reality, rather than potential return on investment, requires a new source of funding for clinical research other than drug company funding. We collectively, as taxpayers and health insurance purchasers, have to find ways to fill the gaping holes in the science of medicine.

She talked about drug company marketing. With Viagra, Phizer started out marketing it as a treatment for ED erectile dysfunction, a disease that could be reserved. The FDA ordered warning that it could cause irreversible vision damage and rarely blindness. When ED marketing was successful, they then marketed it as a sexual aid for erectile quaity and wild sex. Sales were billion in l0 months. This helped launch the age of Internet pharmaceutical sales with teen-agers getting Viagra and street drug ecstacy for rave parties resulting in many drug problems. The marketing ads then got saucier and gave a boost to the multi-billion-dollar ** industry. Not a great product I would say.

The book is praised by Marcia Angell, M.D., senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School and author of The Truth About the Drug Companies.

Ms. Brownlee does acknowledge drugs and devices that help and save lives but she points out others that do not.

I got the book at the library. I highly recommend it.

Jan

I do believe Viagra and like drugs have a good place when used as they were meant to. I have heard of the mixing it with other drugs for wild parties. That is wrong and dangerous. It is too bad this drug is not more controlled. People don't realize that this drug was originally a cardiac drug and if used wrong, could be fatal...and I bet it is. With internet drug sales, I bet it is hard to control a med like this. You can buy almost any drug via the internet.

The other thing as Jan mentioned, is that ED is reversible and in most cases due to other medical conditions and much of that is due to lifestyle (high cholesterol, hypertension, and meds, etc)I would prefer to see the other medical conditions, lifestyle, treated FIRST, before using a drug. Eli Lilly now has an ED drug also with many TV ads. I agree with Melody Peterson that the U.S. usage of TV ads is not a good thing.

Jan

Part of the title of this book is why too much medicine is making us poorer. Americans spend more on medicines than do all the people of Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina combined. Are our citizens sicker than all of the people in these countries? Is there a correlation between marketing practices and direct to consumer advertising (tv ads), which are only permitted in the US and New Zealand, and the US's high use of prescription meds?

According to Melody Peterson, author of "OUR DAILY MEDS: HOW THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES TRANSFORMED THEMSELVES INTO SLICK MARKETING MACHINES AND HOOKED THE NATION ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, America has become the top consumer of prescription drugs in the world, with nearly 65% of the population on physician-prescribed medication. In 2005, Americans spent 0 billion dollars on such drugs.

I am not critical of using prescription meds when appropriate, my concern is the increasing cost of health care and drugs, and more and more of that cost being passed on to the consumer even if they have insurance. The overprescription of drugs that may not be necessary drives up the cost for insurance companies and employers and the government, and could result in those of us on expensive drugs like biologics, of which there are few alternatives, having to pay more. On another arthritis website, there were several working insured RAers, whose copay for their biologics had recently doubled. I think that will be a trend as health care costs increase and little is done by our government to address it.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=136#more-136Rereading this book.

Jan

I read that Phizer is now marketing Viagra for women taking SSRI antidepressants reported in JAMA. THey funded the study, paid the consultants and finally will be able to increase the .76 billion they made on Viagra last year.

Shannon Browlee in this book thinks the marketing of Viagra for ED, which can be treated with lifestyle modifications, was an instance of creating a market. I think she has a valid argument.

Jan

Hey Jan - glad you posted this - when I was researching AI hearing loss earlier there are reported cases of this from ED drugs.

Hugs,

Pip

Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

Now Phizer is trying to market viagra for little bitty premature babies. Where is it going to stop with these corrupt, criminal big pharm companies. Altho many parents say that they believe that thier chilren would not have made it without the ed drug, so what?

Another thing. It is so easy to give up rheumatoid arthritis drugs when you suffer from palindromic arthritis. Palindromic arthritis is usually treated with aleve, advil and in some cases plaquinal/sulphasalizine. It's easy when non damaging joint pain flares for hours or a few days and then not re-appear for months as in the patient with palindromic arthritis but that's not how rheumatoid arthritis works. It's also so easy to speak against ra drugs taken for moderate to severe ra when a person has minor ra at the very most. Anyway, here is the story as reported by Reuters about that nasty old big pharm company trying to sneaky-snake the criminal drug viagra to itty-bitty premature babies:

(REUTERS) Doctors are giving infants and babies the anti-impotence drug Viagra to save them from a life-threatening lung condition even though it has not been tested on children, a magazine said Tuesday.

The drug, produced by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, has already been used to treat a small number of children with pulmonary hypertension in India, the United States, Canada and Britain with promising results.

"Critics have expressed serious concern at the fact that no clinical trials have taken place for this use of the drug and at the wide variation in doses used," New Scientist magazine said in its online version.

Although the drug is approved for the treatment of impotence, doctors have found that it helps babies suffering from PHT, which affects 28,000 children and 250,000 adults in the United States alone.

The magazine said adults with PHT were already being enrolled in clinical trials of the drug. Studies on children could start in the next few months.

A spokesman for Pfizer said the company was considering using the drug to treat PHT, but could not comment on any clinical trails.

"We are seriously looking into the use of Viagra for PHT," he told Reuters.

Viagra was originally developed to treat angina by opening up blood vessels when doctors and patients discovered the impact it had on male sexual arousal.

PHT is a blood vessel disorder of the lung. In babies with the problem a bypass vessel used for fetal circulation fails to close after birth, depriving the child of oxygen.

Babies with PHT are usually put on a ventilator and given nitric oxide, but doctors who have used Viagra for PHT said it works better than nitric oxide and has fewer side-effects.

"At the moment it is given on a compassionate use basis agreed with the hospital's ethics board," said Ian Adatia, of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

Adatia has given the drug to 10 children.

Dr. PK Rajiv, of the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi, India, treated an 8-hour-old baby girl with the drug after other treatment failed.

"The child recovered in 48 hours and within a week two other newborns survived the same treatment," he told the magazine.

The use of Viagra in babies highlights the problem of giving drugs approved for adults to children. Very few drugs are tested on babies and children because it is not cost-effective for the pharmaceutical companies and parents are often reluctant to put their children in clinical trials for an untested treatment.

Children may also react to drugs differently from adults. Determining the correct dosage for a baby could also be difficult and infants could be more susceptible to toxic effects because of underdeveloped kidneys and livers. [END]

Give up your drugs, burn your bra, wear flowers in your hair, become a cripple but make a point.

LEV

I am on 7 scrips right now--MTX and Mobic for RA, and Folic Acid and Aciphex to combat side effects.

Ferrex because I was anemic--nothing to do with meds though.

Also Lexapro (because of RA, will soon wean off) and birth control (because of MTX).

A year ago I was on ZERO prescriptions. So I've gone from 0 to 60 so to speak. But before I was on all this I felt awful.

It's not all bad...

Nitric Oxide cell uptake is indicative of AI dysfunction - that would be all of us.

Pip

Taking Rituxan has actually helped me reduce the amount of meds I was taking......

[QUOTE=Jan Lucinda]I read that Phizer is now marketing Viagra for women taking SSRI antidepressants reported in JAMA. THey funded the study, paid the consultants and finally will be able to increase the .76 billion they made on Viagra last year. I disagree. I don't think the market was there. I think Shannon Brownlee is RIGHT ON.

Jan

[QUOTE=Jan Lucinda]I disagree. I don't think the market was there. I think Shannon Brownlee is RIGHT ON. I still think lifestyle modifications, diet, exercise can treat ED. Agree with Shannon. Smart gal.

Jan

Pip-

This is the Brownlee book. She says we need new ways to fund research.

This is pertinent to the discussion of Orencia commercials.This is a tough one. I went from 2 meds to 10 in just 2 years and a couple are for side effects of other meds. I am always trying to cut some but usually get sick as a result. I think the key is in finding the right drug, not adding more and then making changes that give optimum health with the least meds. This is a long and difficult process which is different for everyone. I think most drs don't have time to help a patient do this. I am now taking celcept which has allowed me to decrease the prednisone which is allowing me to try stopping my BP med and prilosec. I think drs are too quick to give us a new rx, but drugs improve and save lives too, they are just overused.

Laker

I have three doctors I go to. My family physicians is who I bounce everything off of. I worry about so many powerful drugs I am on, but he assures me they are necessary. He says with me it is about function. I have 3 illnesses that will not go away. I need to treat them and I need to take my meds. This past summer I took myself off my Betaseron injections, personally I couldn't tell a difference one way or another, but you would of thought I committed a crime. The Pharmacy that fills my script, ratted me to the my neurologist, the docs nurse called me, then the Betaseron nurse called me, real pressure or was it real concern?

I am back on Betaseron, I guess I should be thankful they have treatments, would like a cure though.

I take Betaseron injections: Every other day

Synthroid :daily

Plaquenil: daily

Lisinipril: daily

Vicodin 750

Ibuprofen 800

vytorin: daily

prilosec OTC

B-12

Multi-Vitamin

Activia yogurt

Gosh.......seems like a lot........it is a lot.

I talk to my family doctor, I wish I could remember how he put everything in perspective, it made me feel a lot better. I will ask him again, I see him in 6 weeks.

inflammed-

I guess everyone decides with their doctor what is right for them.

I appreciate your posting the book. It does keep another perspective on things. I question all the time am I taking to many pills? eat the right things?... etc...It is easier to just take a pill....but I will be the first to admit, You could never take my pain meds away. (unless I am pain free and I no longer need relief).

Edited: typos

inflamedOnline2008-11-30 14:38:56I've only posted a few times, but had to put my two cents worth in on this one. Before RA I took no prescription drugs, even refused to take antibiotics. I was a fanatic about health, exercise, use of probiotics(years before most people ever heard of them), and growing most of my own food. I developed RA anyway, am now taking several prescription drugs, including minocycline (by the by, don't know why most people taking it for RA don't believe in its potential toxicity). Anyway, to get to my point, I've read the book and agree with it but without the drugs I take now I wouldn't be functioning at all. There are definitely some conditions where the drugs help more than they harm. So, that said I don't really care if drugs that have the potential to help are there just because of profit or not, as long as they have the potential to help. OK enough rambling for now. Panda,

I feel like that too. I have no doubt that drugs are pushed on people when they may not be necessary - esp when a lifetyle change could help. But I know I never again want to feel the way I did before cellcept. I feel like I have gotten my life back. Also, my brother is dying of brain cancer and so I am happy to pay a higher price than the drug may actually cost to provide funding for research which could someday result in a drug that could save people like him for whom there is currently no cure.

I have 3 specialists, and like you, I have regular appointments with my primary to make sure what the others are doing makes sense. Sad to say, my gp has caught several problems/oversights with what the others are doing.

Laker

Pharmaceutical companies don't really do a lot of research. Most of it is done at universities and other think tanks. The companies just buy it. And if it's TOO good then they often suppress it. There's no profit in cures.Laker,
Sounds like you have a good GP. My family Dr probably knows less than I do about RA and I've ended up the one that catches mistakes with other Drs. Thank goodness I have an excellent RA Dr. All I can say is everyone should monitor their health care closely.

GImpy-

THe pharmaceutical companies fund the research at universities often.

Jan, I thought they only provided the drugs being researched. Is there more I am unaware of? [QUOTE=Gimpy-a-gogo]Jan, I thought they only provided the drugs being researched. Is there more I am unaware of?[/QUOTE]

They often provide cash grants to chem/biochem/pharmacology departments as well

Gimpy-

Read Our Daily Meds by Melody Peterson.

Jan, I think I will, since I was fascinated by the interview.

I had a friend involved in pharmaceutical research who would tell me things about how drugs get developed. Commerce trumps wellness in that industry, for sure, over and over. My friend died a few months ago, though, so that "inside track" is over.
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