A Muddle Of Medicines: Are You Taking Too Many Drugs?

The truth is, very few people who take prescription medicines have a clean bill of health. What’s more, the more prescription drugs a person takes, the worse their overall health will be. This may seem obvious: after all, we take prescription medicines because we’re sick. But surely if the claims of the big drug companies are true, all the healthy people would be taking their drugs, not nutritional supplements - or sometimes nothing at all. What’s more, the taking of a number of different prescritption drugs together could actually cause a number of health concerns, as well as leading to vitamin deficiency in the body.

The unwanted, and potentially harmful, concurrent use of medications is sometimes called polypharmacy - and it’s becoming an ever bigger problem in America. Are nutritional supplements and vitamins the natural answer to taking too many drugs?

The Causes of Polypharmacy

In the world of nutritional supplements, taking too many vitamins from different sources has always been a problem. Many vitamin companies are specialized in certain health concerns, or only sell one type of nutritional supplement, meaning the discerning health consumer needed to shop around and take vitamins from a number of different sources. Now, a problem that once only affected those wanting to buy nutritional supplements is causing difficulties for people being given prescription drugs. Increasingly, patients with a number of health concerns are visiting more than one doctor for treatment and consultation. Each doctor will give their own prescription without taking into account, or even knowing about, other drugs the patient is on. This can lead to certain drugs being over-prescribed, which can cause overdose, excessive depletion of vitamins, and of course unwarranted cost. One thing over prescription won’t lead to is better health(http://www.mitamins.com).

This is why it is better to develop a coherent health regimen with your doctor, and let him know of any over-the-counter drugs or nutritional supplements you may be taking to avoid adverse reactions.

Another worrying cause of polypharmacy is the aggressive marketing by pharmaceutical companies of their products. Besides the millions spent on advertising, doctors sometimes receive all sorts of free vacations, “consulting fees,” and other not-so-subtle bribes in exchange for writing prescriptions for brand-name drugs. It is certainly true that patients can be prescribed a powerful medicine (with side-effects) when the gentler approach of treatment with vitamins(http://www.mitamins.com), nutritional supplements, or a simple change in life-style might be better advised. However, we shouldn’t go around cynically thinking our doctor is an over-qualified drug-pusher. Often it is difficult for doctors to keep up with all the new products on the market, and don’t get much useful information from the pharmaceutical companies selling them, so they can all to easily prescribe a drug that could have adverse reactions with other drugs, nutritional supplements(http://www.mitamins.com), or vitamins their patient is taken. Drugs companies very rarely test whether their newest products interact with nutritional supplements, so this problem is particularly common.

Because polypharmacy is poorly understood, the risks of it going unnoticed are also great. There are several symptoms of polypharmacy that can sometimes be confused with the ageing process such as loss of appetite, decreased alertness, tiredness, depression, and decreased sexual behavior. Often, the solution given by doctors to these extra side-effects is more medication, which only compounds the problem. Fortunately it is becoming more common for doctors to advise the taking of vitamins or nutritional supplements to deal with the side-effects of medication rather than prescribing more drugs. However, while the drugs companies find profit in illness, there will always be the risk of polypharmacy. Be wary.

It is important to try and keep your health concerns in perspective. Are they causing extreme discomfort or severely limiting your quality of life? If they’re not then it may be a good idea to consider nutritional supplements or vitamins to restore optimal health, rather than going down the expensive road of numerous “heavy” medications and the side-effects involved. Nutritional supplements are often very effective and are designed to replace the vitamins and minerals that should be in any healthy body. Drugs are not meant to be in your body and although they can be effective, they often leave a trail of side-effects in their wake. Obviously, with multiple medications come multiple side-effects: some causing long-term health risks and extra problems.

With prescription medication it is best to remember that “less is more.”

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