Too Long on Temporary Meds
Many of us have taken an occasional benzodiazepine such as Valium, Xanax, or Ativan on a turbulent airplane flight or for a root canal. But slipping into daily use—though easy to do—is a mistake, and after one month’s use, you could find yourself addicted. (Most people already know this about opioids.) Not only do the drugs lose effectiveness quickly, but with daily use, you’ll likely be faced with withdrawal symptoms when you try to stop, such as personality changes, emotional instability, flu-like symptoms, and memory and sleep problems.Some sleeping pills have been linked to “sleep-driving,” and other dangerous blackout behaviors. Moreover, falls on the drugs are so common that the Mayo Clinic announced it was phasing out use of the popular sleeping pill Ambien.
SSRI antidepressants can also diminish bone mass density and increase osteoporosis risks, said Dr. James M. Ellison.
Children on Psychiatric Drugs
Epoch Times readers are no doubt familiar with the mushrooming diagnosis of “ADHD” in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an astounding 1 out of 20 children in the United States takes ADHD meds, including more than 10,000 children who are only 2 or 3 years old! Children also are given drugs for conditions that weren’t historically considered pediatric conditions, such as bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and “mixed manias.”Elderly on ‘Polypharmacy’
Because of the many chronic diseases that can come with aging—hypertension, diabetes mellitus, arthritis, renal and heart disease—the elderly are often prescribed many drugs at once, a practice called polypharmacy. In addition to the expense, there are other reasons to question the practice. Metabolic changes and reduced drug clearance in the elderly mean that adverse reactions to the drugs are more likely. And side effects from the drugs—such as decreased alertness, confusion, falls, depression, and even visual or auditory hallucinations—can be wrongly interpreted as aging or dementia when they aren’t. Dr. Harry Haroutunian, author of “Not As Prescribed,” has flagged the overmedication of the elderly and says, “I have seen my patients blossom when taken off harmful drugs and drug combinations.”Medicating the Side Effects of Medication
Polypharmacy often starts with a “prescribing cascade” which occurs, according to Public Citizen, “when an adverse drug reaction is misinterpreted as a new medical condition [and] another drug is then prescribed.”“Instead of lowering the dose of the offending drug or replacing it with a safer alternative, the physician adds a second drug to the regimen to ‘treat’ the adverse drug reaction caused by the first drug,” according to Public Citizen. It recommends that you “assume that any new symptom you develop after starting a new drug might be caused by the drug” instead of a new health problem.
‘Why Should I Take This?’
Too often patients receive a prescription from a doctor without asking, “Why do I need this medicine; what does it treat?” or “How long do I take it?” or “Could it interact with other medications I take or might take in the future or with foods?” Another great question they should ask but rarely do is, “Are there any natural treatments or lifestyle changes I could try before using this drug?”It’s understandable that people are reluctant to ask questions of busy doctors. Often we’re relieved we got an appointment at all. We don’t want to look like we doubt their judgment or seem pesky. Moreover, pharmacists will answer many medications questions in person and over the phone, and prescriptions come with information sheets.
Overusing Over-the-Counter
Just because a drug is sold without a prescription doesn’t mean it’s without risks. For example, “tens of thousands of people become ill every year from taking too much acetaminophen [Tylenol],” says Harvard Health Publishing, and a “smaller number of cases” result in death. Even a drug as familiar as acetaminophen doesn’t reveal all of its side effects quickly. It took decades to discover “prenatal exposure to acetaminophen is associated with neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders” in infants, as noted in a research review published in the Journal of Endodontics.We shouldn’t be overly fearful about prescription and over-the-counter drugs, but neither should we be overly trusting and take them without regard. It never hurts to explore the many natural treatments that exist for anxiety, sleep problems, depression, GERD, and other conditions.