Big Pharma's version of "five a day"
Have you had your five a day? Five pills, that is.
I sure hope not. But the odds are not in your favor. In fact, a new study shows that over half of the folks in this country are on several medications for chronic diseases.
The number of prescriptions many seniors are on borders on the criminal: 28 percent of women and 22 percent of men are taking five—or more—meds.
Incredibly, the president of the American Heart Association finds a silver lining in this cloud of medicinal misery: he applauds the researchers efforts in turning these old fatal diseases into the new chronic ones. After all, you can now live for several years with the heart disease that would have killed you quickly a generation ago. I guess that qualifies as progress, in a sideways, upside-down, inverse-universe sort of way, but wouldn't it be better if our progress was coming from lifestyle changes—and not handfuls of pills with dangerous side effects?
But Big Pharma didn't become a multi-billion dollar industry from pushing lifestyle changes, for heaven's sake.
But here's the icing on the cake—a promise to the next generation. An expert on pediatric medicines notes that more children than ever are on prescription meds for adult diseases because the drug companies have conveniently made child- sized doses available.
If Big Pharma has its way, these children will be on 10 pills of more by the time they become seniors. In business, they call that market share growth. In medicine, I call it an outrage.
