This news from the CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is chilling (News Feeds, 11/01/2011).
There is a 400% increase in deaths from prescription narcotics over the past decade.
And this corresponds to the a 400% increase in the number of prescriptions written for the powerful painkillers.
The actual numbers (from 2008, the latest year for which there are statistics) report that there were 20,044 overdose deaths from prescription drugs.
14,800 were from painkillers.
Dr.
Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, says "It's astonishing.
" He explains that many addictions begin innocently, when patients are given narcotics for a minor injury that could be treated with less addictive medication.
He continues, "When I went to medical school, we were incorrectly assured - don't worry - if patients have short-term pain, they won't get hooked.
That was completely wrong, and a generation of doctors, patients and families have learned that's a tragic mistake.
" These numbers are so dramatic, they dominate the story.
And while the stats show that most of the deaths result when someone overdoses from someone else's prescription...
Maybe the real news is that doctors are now creating generations of prescription drug addicts that far outnumber illegal drug addicts, and that very sadly, the question needs to be asked: Will these skyrocketing numbers of patients eventually evidence the same diminished quality of life and early death that all addicts end up having? And maybe there are important takeaways for us within this story.
I suggest the following implications should be red flags for all of us: • The extremely potent drugs, and their toxic side-effects, of the ever increasing prescription drug barrage the pharmaceutical industry is flooding us with could be a far more lethal threat than the threat that exists from guns in our society, if it isn't already.
Drug addicts don't make rational decisions and don't act rationally.
• The effect of these drugs incapacitates and weakens the fiber and the resolve of patients.
When you are addicted and you know it, you become beholden to the supplier and the continued availability of the drugs.
All other priorities and responsibilities become far less important.
• And beyond painkiller drugs, we need to be especially alert to the prescription drugs we allow doctors to prescribe for us.
Except for end-stage terminal disease patients, does anyone need to take painkillers so powerful that they become addicted to them? Knowing that addiction is the likely outcome, shouldn't a patient's decision to accept a doctors painkiller prescription anticipate that outcome? It's not the doctor who ends up being addicted - it is the patient.
• Further, when it comes to potent prescription drugs and their side-effects, doesn't it make sense to change one's eating habits to prevent and reverse chronic disease, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Crohns, multiple sclerosis, the auto-immune diseases, etc, by changing ones diet, rather than take the blood pressure and cholesterol drugs and cancer chemo drugs, etc.
, that damage our immune system and severely shorten our lives? The latest nutritional research reveals that the reason chronic diseases have become epidemic is because our high animal fat, cholesterol and protein based, and nutritionally depleted diet has severely compromised our immunity to disease.
It wasn't this way 75 years ago.
Our eating habits have changed from a plant-based diet to an animal-based diet.
When we change our diet, our immune system can regain the power over disease it is designed to have.
Drugs are not the answer, and neither is the SAD (Standard American Diet).
Doctors don't make these decisions, we do.
I encourage you to make the right ones.
Until next time, Here's to your Incredible Health, Terry W.
"It's What You Eat That Makes You Healthy" Kent, Founder The Health and Nutrition Center
There is a 400% increase in deaths from prescription narcotics over the past decade.
And this corresponds to the a 400% increase in the number of prescriptions written for the powerful painkillers.
The actual numbers (from 2008, the latest year for which there are statistics) report that there were 20,044 overdose deaths from prescription drugs.
14,800 were from painkillers.
Dr.
Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, says "It's astonishing.
" He explains that many addictions begin innocently, when patients are given narcotics for a minor injury that could be treated with less addictive medication.
He continues, "When I went to medical school, we were incorrectly assured - don't worry - if patients have short-term pain, they won't get hooked.
That was completely wrong, and a generation of doctors, patients and families have learned that's a tragic mistake.
" These numbers are so dramatic, they dominate the story.
And while the stats show that most of the deaths result when someone overdoses from someone else's prescription...
Maybe the real news is that doctors are now creating generations of prescription drug addicts that far outnumber illegal drug addicts, and that very sadly, the question needs to be asked: Will these skyrocketing numbers of patients eventually evidence the same diminished quality of life and early death that all addicts end up having? And maybe there are important takeaways for us within this story.
I suggest the following implications should be red flags for all of us: • The extremely potent drugs, and their toxic side-effects, of the ever increasing prescription drug barrage the pharmaceutical industry is flooding us with could be a far more lethal threat than the threat that exists from guns in our society, if it isn't already.
Drug addicts don't make rational decisions and don't act rationally.
• The effect of these drugs incapacitates and weakens the fiber and the resolve of patients.
When you are addicted and you know it, you become beholden to the supplier and the continued availability of the drugs.
All other priorities and responsibilities become far less important.
• And beyond painkiller drugs, we need to be especially alert to the prescription drugs we allow doctors to prescribe for us.
Except for end-stage terminal disease patients, does anyone need to take painkillers so powerful that they become addicted to them? Knowing that addiction is the likely outcome, shouldn't a patient's decision to accept a doctors painkiller prescription anticipate that outcome? It's not the doctor who ends up being addicted - it is the patient.
• Further, when it comes to potent prescription drugs and their side-effects, doesn't it make sense to change one's eating habits to prevent and reverse chronic disease, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Crohns, multiple sclerosis, the auto-immune diseases, etc, by changing ones diet, rather than take the blood pressure and cholesterol drugs and cancer chemo drugs, etc.
, that damage our immune system and severely shorten our lives? The latest nutritional research reveals that the reason chronic diseases have become epidemic is because our high animal fat, cholesterol and protein based, and nutritionally depleted diet has severely compromised our immunity to disease.
It wasn't this way 75 years ago.
Our eating habits have changed from a plant-based diet to an animal-based diet.
When we change our diet, our immune system can regain the power over disease it is designed to have.
Drugs are not the answer, and neither is the SAD (Standard American Diet).
Doctors don't make these decisions, we do.
I encourage you to make the right ones.
Until next time, Here's to your Incredible Health, Terry W.
"It's What You Eat That Makes You Healthy" Kent, Founder The Health and Nutrition Center
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