Natural Alternatives to the Top 10 Most Prescribed Drugs

The top ten most prescribed drugs in the U.S. have science-backed alternative .

Are we an over-medicated nation? Let’s look at the numbers: Americans spent more than $300 billion on prescription drugs last year; nearly half of all adults have taken at least one prescription drug in the last month; nearly a third regularly use two or more; and women are more likely than men to use prescription drugs, according to the CDC.

Drugs can undoubtedly save lives, but our penchant for prescriptions can sometimes mean treating or masking symptoms—without fixing the root cause of the health. Read more

The Dangers of Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs

Statins make you sicker, says David Brownstein, MD. Sometimes, much sicker.

The FDA added two new warnings to statin drugs this week. These warnings include an increased risk of diabetes and mental confusion among statin users. The FDA report said that all statin labeling must carry warnings about increased risk of elevated blood sugar and transient memory loss and cognitive problems. Read more

10 Frightening Facts about Prescription Pain Pills

Prescription painkillers are among the most dangerous of pharmaceutical drugs. Here are ten frightening facts about prescription pain pills.

Prescription pain pills have changed the face of medicine in many good and bad ways. These powerful pills have helped many people manage their pain and increase their quality of life, yet the fact remains that painkillers have taken thousands of lives and are one of the most commonly abused and dangerous substances in the country. The rising mortality rates from prescription drug overdoses have now exceeded traffic fatalities, resulting in at least 37,485 deaths in 2009. This statistic is just one of many startling facts about prescription pain pills and the national epidemic they’ve caused. Here are 10 frightening facts about prescription pain pills: Read more

26 Reasons Why You Should NOT Take Prescription Drugs and 14 Reasons Why You SHOULD Take Natural Medicines

Bill Sardi lists 26 reasons why you should not take prescription drugs and 14 reasons why you should take natural medicines.

Prescription drugs – more than 100 million Americans take them, often without question. But why? Despite decades of studies showing Rx drugs are potentially harmful, sometimes prompting drug recalls and news reports of needless deaths, most patients never question their doctor when given a prescription for an FDA-approved drug. True, many senior Americans are forced to forego filling their prescriptions for financial reasons, but they aren’t forgoing their medications because they perceive their medicines are problematic.

Americans love to take pills. The average 75-year-old has three chronic conditions and uses five prescription drugs. Americans feel blessed they live in a country that has miracle drugs that are the envy of others all over the globe, and often feel they want the best that modern medicine has to offer. Newer drugs are often avidly preferred after hearing about them on television ads even though their safety record will not be fully known for a few years. Read more

Big Pharma's "Antidepressants" Don't Work

Pharmaceutical are usually expensive and often have side effects almost as bad as the condition they're supposed to treat, and to add insult to injury, they often don't even work.

When my American friend Bill, who'd been on SSRI antidepressants for 22 years (Prozac, followed by Paxil, Lexapro, then Celexa), read a two-part article by Dr Marcia Angell in The New York Review of Books recently about the crisis in psychiatry and the inefficacy of antidepressants, he stopped taking his meds (tapering off gradually, monitored by his doctor). "The article brought on enough doubt to push me over," he said. Since then, his moods have become more volatile – more anger, more emotion, such as crying at the end of the last Harry Potter film (he's in his 50s). But he's got his libido back after years of "muffled response" and that seems a worthwhile trade-off.

Instead of listening to Prozac, have we been listening to placebo all along? Read more