Are Your Meds Making You Sad, Overweight, and Sicker? Probably!

IMG_9068Have you ever considered that your muscle aches, brain fog, joint pain or other maladies could be caused by your medicines?  Even weight gain can be a side effect from everyday meds.   Disclaimer:  I realize that sometimes medication is absolutely necessary; my #2 daughter is epileptic. This is about the bigger picture.

Keep reading for the nitty gritty details, and to see family pics that have absolutely nothing to do with this Post:)   (Descriptions:  Shelby and I were in NYC last weekend;  Amanda started an Internship at the Epilepsy Foundation, and we celebrated Macy’s 21st birthday.)

Every year, prescription drugs cause over 81 MILLION adverse reactions and result in 2.7 million hospitalizations. 

Worse:  EVERY WEEK, prescription drugs kill more than 2,400 people. 

“This epidemic of harm from medications makes our prescription drugs the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Including hospitalizations and deaths from prescribing errors, overdosing, and self-medication, drugs move up to third place.”

Medications are the 4th leading cause of death in the US – did you know that? 

At anyone time, 70% of us are on at least 1 prescription or OTC drug.  Old, young, skinny, fat, whoever.  We take a lot of drugs in this country, and we’re having an epidemic of side effects.  

Most of the time these side effects are treated – by us and our doctors – as another disease, that needs the remedy of a drug.  It’s a viscous cycle. 

Americans take more drugs than people in every other country in the world. IMG959154952And I’m talking literal prescription numbers, not the amount spent on drugs; which is also the most in the whole world.  To say we’re highly medicated is an understatement.

It hasn’t made us healthier.  Despite 70% of the country on drugs, we have higher rates of chronic disease than almost every other country in the world, and the CDC predicts that every single disease, from heart disease to cancer to obesity, will continue to rise through 2030 at least.

We need to start drawing some common-sense correlations here.

Healthcare, which = drugs and doctors and hospitals, does NOT necessarily = healthy.

How many drugs site “ damage to the liver” on the side effect list?   More than half?  Who feels damage happening in their liver?? NO ONE.  No. One.  Statins cause damage to the liver. Auto-Immune drugs cause damage to the liver.  Pain relievers (OTC and prescription) cause damage to the liver. Tylenol is the #1 cause of liver failure in the US; we give Tylenol to babies.  

Liver damage brews for years before symptoms manifest.  

20150715_185716Most diseases take about 15 years to manifest symptoms obvious enough to pinpoint the disease.  Take diabetes T2, the diabetic doesn’t just become diabetic over night, or in a few months.  It takes years of high blood sugar and corresponding high insulin to become diabetic.

Statins carry the risk of actually CAUSING diabetes T2.  It’s on the side effect label.  It’s on the commercials.  It’s a real possibility.  From PubMed: “Statin use is associated with a rise of fasting blood glucose in patients with and without diabetes. This relationship between statin use and rise in fasting blood glucose is in-dependent of age, aspirin use, beta-blockers, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.”

Other drugs also raise blood sugar:  steroids, diuretics for high blood pressure and edema, some birth control pills, and decongestants.

Chronic high blood sugar and high insulin cause ED and glycation of the skin, aka, wrinkles and age spots.  One doc on the Heart Summit called ED the “canary in the pants”.  Consider these symptoms of Heart Disease, because they are.

Diabetes is predicted to affect about HALF our population by 2020 – that’s right around the corner.  Diabetes is DANGEROUS, and EXPENSIVE.  If we watched our carbs and meds, T2 is almost fully avoidable, and reversible.

What about Diabetes drugs, like Metformin, which force sugar into cells that have self-protectively shut? Metformin causes serious digestion issues. Gastro-paresis and GERD, here you come. Besides, God had those cell receptors shut for a reason, it’s not a mistake, it’s self protection for the cell.

What if your T2 has progressed to the point of Insulin, what then?  Insulin, in excess (it’s “excess” if you’re a T2) is a caustic hormone.  It zooms through the arteries causing inflammation and damage.  AKA, Heart Disease.

What about a life style change instead of statins or diabetes drugs?  After all, heart disease and diabetes are caused by our life style, which is our every day choices.  To reverse or avoid them, stop eating grains, sugars, and chemicals, and start eating Real Whole Foods, sleep more, move more, and practice stress management.

20150712_101243It’s a no brainer!

Let’s move to pain relievers, which we give to our babies.

Did you see the news release last week about NSAIDS and heart disease? The FDA says that NSAIDS, from Advil to Aleve to Celebrex, can cause heart attacks and stroke – even in people with NO RISK FOR HEART DISEASE AT ALL.

If you take NSAIDS, please read this link.  Apparently, the whole “COX-Inhibitor” action of the NSAID isn’t the advantage we’ve been lead to believe.  Research has discovered that the inflammation they cause is then followed by repair.  COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes unstick platelets and prevent clots.  Blocking them with Advil or Celebrex (or other NSAIDs) encourages clots.

Birth control pills also cause blood clots.  How many young women take both daily?

Back to statins:  Liver damage – check. Blood sugar increases – check.  Muscle pain – check. Testosterone depletion – check. Memory loss – check. CoQ10 depletion – check.  

Hey!  There’s a pill for all that! ( sarcasm )

Is heart disease because your body is low in statins?  Is pain because your body is low in NSAIDS?  Is diabetes because your body is low in metformin?  Nope.

We don’t get sick from a lack of drugs.  Usually, we get sick because of our actions and choices.  When soda, alcohol, bread, sugar, pasta, fast food, junk food, too little sleep and no focused attention on stress management, are a normal part of our life, of course we’re sick.  

Why do we take so many drugs?

We’re one of 2 countries IN THE WHOLE WORLD, who actually allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to us, the consumer.  In 1997, Congress revised a law allowing pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly without covering most of the possible side effects.

20150711_115653Numbers wise, seeing these advertisements has made us want drugs a whole lot more.  We actually ASK our doctors for these drugs now, which is the whole goal of advertising.

In 1997, spending on ads was $280 million; by 2002, it was $2.8 BILLION. Now, it’s $3 BILLION. On average, if you take one prescription drug you’ll be exposed to 70 potential side effects. Some of the more commonly prescribed drugs average around 100 side effects each — and some drugs even carry over 500!

Back to my beginning:  drugs can cause death and disease. Yes – sometimes they save a life, absolutely.  But when we’re talking Chronic Disease, and that’s what MOST people are taking drugs for ( 88% of all health care spending is on Life Style/Chronic Diseases), the only thing that can really REVERSE a disease, and not just manage symptoms, is a Life Style Change.  That’s it.  Life Style Change.

Real Whole Food, Moving, Sleeping, and Stress Management.  These are choices we need to make and focus on.  Choices we need to teach our children.

Our health is the result of our actions and choices and even our thoughts.  We have power over all that, let’s take it.

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