October 2011 issue of Freedom's Phoenix magazine - fr33aid

Will the Down Economy Herald the Use
of Natural Medicine?
By Dr. Mercola
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FOR the first time
in a decade or
more, U.S. consumers
are trying
to get by on fewer
prescription drugs.
As people around
the country respond
to financial
hard times, drugs
are sometimes having to wait.
The drug giant Pfizer, which makes Lipitor, the
world’s top-selling prescription medicine, said
U.S. sales of that drug were down 13 percent in
the third quarter of this year. And although the
overall decline in total prescriptions was less
than 1 percent, it represents the first downturn
after more than a decade of steady increases in
prescriptions. From 1997 to 2007, the number
of prescriptions filled increased 72 percent.
In some cases, the cutbacks might not hurt. According
to Gerard F. Anderson, a health policy
expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health, “A lot of people think there’s
probably over-prescribing in the United States.”
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
The American health care system is more than
twice as expensive as the health care system
of any other industrial country, yet premature
deaths caused by its inappropriate, and overpriced,
interventions are increasing at an exponential
rate.
Despite the fact that Americans pay $7,600 a
year per person for healthcare -- 16 percent of
the GDP – it produces remarkably poor results.
We actually rank LAST out of 19 countries for
unnecessary deaths, despite the vastly increased
use of a wide variety of “wonder drugs” and
vaccines.
How can this be?
Because Americans have been successfully
brainwashed into believing the fairytale that
prescription drugs can prevent and cure disease.
But as I reported earlier this week, fatalities
now account for 23 percent of all reported adverse
effects of prescription drugs! And overall
reports of side effects increased a whopping
38 percent in the first quarter of this year,
compared to the previous four quarters.
There is no doubt in my mind that a vast majority
of the population is severely overmedicated
with expensive and nearly always unnecessary
drugs, considering the multitude of natural therapeutic
options.
The only way to turn
this devastating situation
around is to remind the
public of the basic truths
that nearly all their ancestors
knew:
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What’s Missing in Talks About Health Care
Reform?
What’s missing in all of the debates about health
care reform for the United States is a holistic
approach.
The reason the U.S. ranks so poorly is because
our system focuses on disease mongering and
sickness care, whereas the health care systems
in most other countries rely heavier on prevention.
As a result, the people in those countries
live longer, healthier lives.
Whether or not to provide universal health care
or health insurance to every American is not the
question that needs to be answered. What we
need to ask is how to give Americans more time
to relax, exercise, cook healthy meals, and get
enough sleep and healthy doses of sunshine.
Rather than subsidizing agribusiness that produces
mostly junk food and permitting directto-consumer
drug advertising, it would be far
wiser to focus on providing Americans access
to healthy foods, and opportunity to exercise
and rest.
Escalating Drug Sales Have Plunged Americans’
Health Into State of Sickness and Premature
Death
Just 50 years ago, according to IMS Health (a
company that tracks the pharmaceutical industry),
the two biggest sellers were over-the-counter
drugs Bufferin and Geritol. At that time the
prescription drug business was microscopic.
In 1954, Johnson & Johnson had $204 million
in revenue. By 2004 it had grown to about $36
billion. Merck’s drug sales in 1954 were a minuscule
$1.5 million; by 2002, that figure was
$52 billion.
The New York Times states,
“If enough people try to save money by forgoing
drugs, controllable conditions could escalate
into major medical problems. That could
eventually raise the nation’s total health care
bill and lower the nation’s standard of living.”
I disagree, and if you don’t, I suspect you haven’t
viewed the Town of Allopath Video.
If enough people realize that they don’t need
many of the drugs they’re on, that would eventually
lower the nation’s health care bill and increase
the nation’s standard of living.
Last year, 3.8 billion prescriptions were filled.
That’s a 72 percent increase in prescriptions in
just ten years, from 1997 to 2007.
In that same period, the average number of prescriptions
filled by each person in the U.S. increased
from about 9 a year in 1997, to almost
11 in 2006, and 13 in 2007!
The average annual prescription rate for seniors
is 28 prescriptions per person.
Health has nothing to do with pills, and every-
Please understand that there is no possible way
thing to do with sensible lifestyles that include a
healthy diet, stress relief, and exercise. Continues on Page 12
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