The Reigning of Drug Mania
“In the United States over 3 billion prescriptions were written in 2001, that is ten prescriptions for every man, woman and child, per year. Americans paid US$150 billion dollars for these drugs, as prescription costs are about US$50, on average. . . . The side-effects of prescription drugs are now the fourth most common cause of death” (p. 20). (Ref: American Medical Journal of the AMA, 15 April 1998).
“In Britain the health service spends around 7.25 million pounds a year helping people get better after experiencing adverse incidents or errors, and that does not include human cost to patients” (pp. 21-22). (Ref: Deaths in England due to Medical Errors, Audit Commission, by N Mapstone, Report 2001).
“Data available on prescribed pharmaceuticals in New Zealand comes from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and this information is not available for release without the direct permission of the Ministry of Health” (p. 23). (Ref: Drug Statistics Revised, 1992).
“Yet every week about one million pharmaceuticals are sold in New Zealand and the current size of the New Zealand pharmaceutical market is $811 million” (p. 23).
These eye-opening statistics and others abound in Our Health at Risk: What’s going wrong in our health system? by Dr. Janice-Ann Priest published by Herbal Limited, PO Box 6041, Tauranga, NZ greenpharmasy.co.nz
Warning of the Overprescribing and Overmedicating
Nan Kathryn Fuchs, PhD, Editor of Women’s Health Letter, Susan M. Lark, MD, Editor of The Lark Letter, Julian Whitaker, MD, Editor of Health & Healing Newsletter, and Dr. David G. Williams, Editor of Alternatives: For the Health-Conscious Individual newsletter, to name only a few, have warned of pharmaceutical pitfalls.
In Julian Whitaker’s cover story that appeared in a special edition of American Health Journal, a vehicle used to invite readers to subscribe to his monthly Health & Healing Newsletter, for example,“Is Modern Medicine Making Us ‘Sick’?”, he cited “Making Us Nearly Sick,” The Washington Post, February 10, 2004, p. F1, and he discussed how changing cholesterol guidelines two years ago “tripled the number of potential customers for drug companies. . . and (earned) the drug companies US$12.5 billion.”
Then Whitaker went on to say that “This marketing scheme worked so well, they tried it again last year by raising the bar for acceptable blood pressure.
Nearly 45 million Americans who once had healthy blood pressure were told they have a medical condition called ‘pre-hypertension’ and needed drug treatment.”
Whitaker laments that average medical doctors are not interested in lifestyle changes and “do not know what works” because “they have little or no training in helping people make behavioral changes. And they’re really not interested because the healthcare system won’t reimburse them for this approach.”
Looking Beyond Cold Statistics — Seeing Damage to Real People
While you may feel that you can escape the reign of drug mania and that you will not get involved in the overprescribing and overmedicating, beware, for even the most cautious and dedicated health enthusiasts, who exercise regularly, eat healthfully, and meditate, can be swept into this medical abyss.
My friend, Bridget Arthur, wishes she had learned of these warnings long before her ordeal so that she could have been apprised and armed to have prevented becoming a statistic in the drug mania so prevalent in our society today.
In 2004, when Bridget went in for her routine annual physical examination, she happily received excellent “In-Range” results on all categories of all her medical tests—lipid panel, complete blood count, cardiopulmonary risk profile—to name just a few.
An exercise and health food enthusiast, her weight was fine, too. She was the same trim size she was at sweet sixteen, four decades ago.
Having been called by the medical office and asked if she could come to her appointment a couple of hours early, she thoughtfully accommodated their needs, stepped up the pace of her work at her computer, jumped into the shower for a quick scrub, ate a nutritious salad of veggies and cottage cheese, and away she drove in hectic traffic to her appointment.
She arrived promptly, and the nurse took her in even more promptly and checked her blood pressure prior to her physical exam and blood taking for tests.
Because Bridget’s blood pressure read 140/90, her practitioner ordered her to track her readings randomly four times a week for the next four weeks using a supermarket blood pressure monitor, chart the readings, and then report to a partner in her medical practice.
The nurse care practitioner scolded her heartily, saying, “If you don’t get this under control, you’re going to have a real problem.” When the practitioner said she might consider acupuncture and asked if she had any special bonds to an acupuncturist,
Bridget told her that periodically she had been seeing the same Chinese acupuncturist for 18 years, and that he does not think she has hypertension. “Every time he has checked it over the past few months, it has been 120/80 or less.”
The nurse care practitioner raised her voice a bit and admonished Bridget, “Well, you can tell him that your Western doctor, apparently alluding to herself, says you do,” because her neither doctor partner in her practice knew of Bridget’s so-called “pre-hypertension,” for it had just been “discovered” or “created” at this appointment.
The charted readings—which Bridget took with a purchased blood pressure monitor for better accuracy than using random supermarket monitors—revealed a pattern of normal fluctuations except for impressive low readings after yoga—often as low as 107/67—and a significant rise to 153/90 when she watched political news, hoping for a positive change and a new and clearer thinking leader in 2004, and to 150/86 when she worked at her computer.
Even a pleasant thank-you e-mail to a friend would raise the pressure, as well. So, it was not an anticipatory problem with the use of her computer, but some other troubling elusive feelings.
Overprescribing and Overmedicating Ensued
Even though Bridget had told the physician, who followed up the case, that she absolutely did not want to take pharmaceuticals, and he had said, “Good!”, his disarming and charming manner brought her to agree to a “brief trial” on a beta blocker at low potency to see if it could be of benefit.
Keep in mind that the blood pressure reading that trapped her at her routine annual exam was done without a 30-minute rest after eating, not to mention her rushed work and rushed drive to her modified appointment time.
Mull this over.
At this four-week followup appointment, a different nurse took Bridget’s blood pressure reading of 117/78 on the left arm, and then the nurse said, “Let me take it in the right arm, too.”
Bridget defiantly blurted out as the nurse strapped on the cuff, “That seems like you want it to be high!” The nurse said, “No. I want it to be correct.” Yet, that nurse never before had read both arms—only the left arm every single appointment.
The reading from the right arm, on a now infuriated Bridget, was 130/90. It was on this same day that Bridget walked out of the office with a prescription in her hand for a beta blocker that she did not want.
Frustrated at having surrendered, she felt betrayed but tried to cooperate thinking that if she truly needed the drug then she was not a failure at having tried so hard to have good health, just that she needed some backup assistance.
Still, she would have preferred to find the cause of her “pre-hypertension” and solve rather than mask the problem.
The first few days and every morning thereafter for the 55 days while on the medication she suffered great apprehension and feelings of hopelessness near the time to take the medication. Not only that but also she experienced stomachaches and body and leg aches unlike any she had experienced ever before and disabling fatigue that grew worse every day.
Once when Bridget called their office disturbed by a reading that was higher than the one that had so captured the nurse care practitioner’s attention and trapped Bridget, the personnel told her that the reading was not high enough to worry about.
Bridget said, “Well, you can’t have it both ways. If this reading isn’t high, then why was I put on the medication for readings lower than this?” The personnel’s response was that the medication was to keep it from going higher.
A Disturbing Downward Trend Occurred
Within 40 days Bridget had gone from an exerciser who enjoyed not only yoga but also weight training with modest eight-pound weights to a person whose chest hurt if she picked up even a teapot full of water. After only 30 days on 50 mg of the beta blocker, at her next checkup with the prescriber, for some unknown reason, he upped the dosage to 100 mg to begin a couple of weeks before her next appointment at which time he would again assess her progress.
Three times she called his office to plead with him just to continue at the same 50 mg dosage rather than have her fill the new prescription for the 100 mg dosage, but his nurse said that he insisted and that he was not worried about the higher dosage or getting off it. His conveyed reassurance did not reassure Bridget; and about 11 days after beginning the 100 mg dosage her blood pressure shot up to 153/90 when troubled by political news about computerized voting that seemed to foretell that a change in leadership would not be possible in 2004, and it stayed that way for some time and reached similar highs at her computer.
Bridget made an appointment to see the prescriber on the 12th day of the 100 mg dosage instead of waiting a couple more weeks until the time of the next appointed checkup. He said that increasing the dosage “had not gained anything” and immediately acquiesced to her request finally to return to the original 50 mg.
She also pressed him about getting off the medication entirely soon, but he insisted that she “stay the course,” troubling words to her ears.
The next day after that appointment, her blood pressure still higher than ever recorded before taking a beta blocker, she called their office about 9 am and told the nurse to tell the doc that he was “creating high blood pressure,” not alleviating it and asked them to consider weaning her from it. At 11 am, the nurse called back with a message from the doc to “stick with the beta blocker.”
Bridget stayed cool, because in the meantime, she had set up an appointment with a physician in a nearby city to get a second opinion, which he could easily do from her micromanaged chart.
She had at one time been a bit embarrassed about having taken so many “let’s find out what’s raising my blood pressure” readings; but now she saw her little chart as her ticket to freedom from the pharmaceutical, especially the part that recorded the zeal of the nurse, who after taking a left arm reading of 117/78 followed up with the right arm reading of 130/90, although this was not her standard reading procedure.
Who, of course, is not familiar with the “white coat syndrome” which can influence a reading and perhaps was brought into play here?
Nurse Admitting the Overprescribing
To Bridget’s surprise, as she lay on the floor doing gentle yoga relaxation exercises and trying to pretend everything was normal to try to stay cool and calm and to cope with this trap, the nurse called back only two hours later with a 12-day weaning schedule ordered by the doc and even admitted, “If you don’t really have high blood pressure, then we shouldn’t be treating you for high blood pressure.”
The nurse then mentioned valium and librium for anxious feelings the stress of this ordeal had created to which Bridget twice said, “No. I do not want to take pharmaceuticals.”
Bridget also had already told the doc, at her last appointment, that she did not want to take valium when he proposed it as a way to override the apprehension that the beta blocker had brought on each morning.
Guarding Against Being Trapped Even Further
Fortunately, Bridget was clear-headed enough this time and was not charmed into an even deeper abyss where a cocktail of pharmaceuticals are used each producing problems and symptoms that the next layered-on drugs try to control—creating a vicious endless cycle that keeps the patient returning for followup checks monthly.
Tied to physicians in this way gives the physicians job security and makes the pharmaceutical companies wealthy; however, it does not make some patients healthy.
And if you are thinking that this can happen only to those 50 or older, rest assured it can happen even if you are only 20. So be forewarned. Pay attention to every word medicos utter and avoid getting trapped like Bridget.
Nearing the end of the 55 days on the beta blocker she grew more and more apprehensive about using the pharmaceutical and even feared having her blood pressure checked and still experiences some anxiety when her pressure must be read. Never ever before had she had one iota of fear about having her blood pressure checked.
Instead of being able to be her characteristically hardworking, mentally tough, and fairly rugged self, she suffered the withdrawal with incredible nausea, weakness, and shakiness, not to mention the arrhythmia that has resulted, as well. Her heart beats a few times then seems to “kick” not only upon lifting but also upon exerting herself with moderate exercise, or a brisk walk to try to restore her strength.
Weakened and alone, it often was even difficult for her to prepare food to eat during the tapering off period.
Even now, more than ten months free of the pharmaceutical, Bridget is still working to regain her vigor and to restore her health.
To find a healthful pathway, she has undergone not only neurotransmitter testing but also adrenal stress index testing. And because a mitral valve regurgitation and insufficiency, which appears to have been created as a side effect of the beta blocker — for it had never been detected before — her new medical doctor trained not only in traditional medicine but also in nutrition and classical homeopathy had her see a cardiologist before he would diagnose and treat her.
Fortunately, for Bridget, her new doctor’s code is “Above All, Do No Harm.”
At a Heart Hospital, a cardiologist and his assistant did a health evaluation. Over a period of several days, technicians performed an EKG and an echocardiogram, attached a 24-hour Holter recorder, and finally did a HeartSaver CT scan.
The echocardiogram revealed a mild mitral valve regurgitation, and the Holter recorder showed premature atrial beats. The CT scan scored her heart at a healthy zero rating. Bridget believes that if the murmur and the premature atrial beats existed prior to the unwanted beta blocker, they were dormant. If the problems did not exist before being subjected to the pharmaceutical, then some might surmise that these problems are unpleasant side effects created by the prescribed beta blocker or from a certified nutrition counselor’s several prescribed supplements which brought together the use of 5-HTP and the herb, St. John’s Wort.
Others might conclude that the inappropriately prescribed beta blocker followed by the inappropriately prescribed 5-HTP and the herb St. John’s Wort to be used simultaneously teamed up as culprits. Michael T. Murray, ND, author of The Healing Power of Herbs, warns, that those taking St. John’s Wort should avoid taking 5-hydroxytryptophan.
Whatever the cause of these heart problems, Bridget counts herself lucky to have recognized the need to free herself from these “prescriptions.” It will be left up to Bridget and her new homeopathic doctor to find healthful, natural ways to restore her health and to deal with the heart murmur and palpitations and to help her regain her strength and stamina to work again.
Incidentally, when Bridget asked the prescriber of the pharmaceutical if she could take CoQ10 (coenzyme Q10) to help protect her heart having read that the beta blocker would deplete it, he told her it was not necessary. Such disregard troubled her. While saddened that she could play a role in this perpetrated hoax—which she had been led to believe was a one-month trial—it makes Bridget even sadder to think how many other healthy people will be caught in such a trap.
She encourages you to take note of Whitaker’s cover story cited earlier and similar warnings from other complementary health care experts.
Bridget wanted me to share that now she has learned—it is hoped not too late—that there are viable holistic natural approaches to bring blood pressure into normal limits if it has not gone on too long and still is in the high normal category (diastolic 130-139) and systolic (85-59) range or in stage one category (diastolic 140-159) and systolic (90-99) range, which should be rechecked in two months.
Or, if one does not have high blood pressure at all but wants to know ways to keep it in a healthy range.
Restoring Good Health
Like Bridget, you will want to cling to good health habits, a clean diet with thoughtful food combining and also healthful exercise of your choice if you have them already and consider adopting them if you don’t.
Currently, Bridget is working mainly with a continued excellent diet, yoga, prescribed homeopathic remedies and medically supervised supplementation, meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and focusing on the present instead of worrying about the past or looking too far into the future.
She could include other helpful avenues such as acupuncture, autogenic training (hypnotic body talking), biofeedback, chiropractic care, hypnosis, group support, massage therapies, prayer, psychotherapy, progressive muscle relaxation exercises, Reiki, relaxation training, stress avoidance, stress reduction, visualization, occupational change, keeping a dream journal, and even laughing and playing more.
Please consider Bridget’s dilemma, be armed with the information presented, and protect yourself — Don't Let This Happen to You.
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Linda Davis Kyle, MA, author of Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups: Your essential guide to family fun & good health (Revised 2005) and Change Your Life with Martial Arts: Your essential introduction to the martial arts, and principal author of The Writer’s Friend: Behind the Scenes with Editors, is a general interest, health and fitness writer whose works have been published in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Kyle also edits to help other writers make their writing dreams come true, conducts writing and editing workshops, and teaches English as a second language.
Disclaimer: This information is provided for General Reading Only. It is not offered as medical advice. The author and editor thereof shall not be held responsible or liable under any circumstances for any damages resulting from the use or inability to use the information within.