sir_eccles

I recall reading that somewhere as well. Also something about the French preferring suppositories for everything.

I think my wife is on about half a dozen and I wouldn't say any of them are optional.

jeffreyhy

As a very general statement, I agree. I expect that the pharmaceutical industry's ability to advertise their drugs is a contributing factor. There seem to be drugs that treatment anything and everything, whether or not treatment is actually required.

Regards, JEff

Speedwell

Bottom line, we in the US are paranoid about medical care. We are so scared of having a major illness that we can't afford that we rely on preventative care too much. For many people, maybe taking a pill is magical thinking, taking a more affordable pill in the hopes that something worse won't happen that would ruin their lives.

I take two pills for straightforward and demonstrable issues (slightly elevated blood sugar and slightly elevated blood pressure). However, as recently as ten years ago my levels would have been considered normal, and left unmedicated. Should I consider myself in good health and refuse the "crutch" of medication?

jeffreyhy

Maybe. Or maybe an adjustment to lifestyle and diet would bring your conditions into currently accepted norms?

In general, I think some (many?) people see medication as an alternative to a 'healthy lifestyle'. Admittedly, there are people who have conditions that could require an extreme lifestyle or diet to mitigate. And there are those people who have conditions for which there is no alternative but medication. Leaving out that last group who have no choice, of those people who do have a choice of ways to deal with what ails them some chose medication over the alternatives. The easy, if expensive, way out?

Regards, JEff

dlake02

Yes - I know !!!!

And now I can believe that you DO see 2/3 of your cub pack filing forms. I wasn't really suggesting that they didn't - I was trying to understand whether this is a nation of hypochondriacs, and the answer seem to be a resounding "YES !"

If this is the case, it makes my other observations on the need to work because work = health care and MY GOD WE'RE ALL ILL !!!!

Speedwell

Absolutely. In fact I was off those medications for a long time after having been prescribed them initially, thanks to some weight loss and a strict low-carb diet. I had to go back on them as a result of stress playing merry hell with both issues, and because the particular medications are actually protective against a couple things in my family history (breast cancer and auto-immune disorders). One of the medications is even helping me lose more weight. Both medications are in the "10 dollars for 90 days" class.

Rete

Nice generalization and I'm assuming this is not the attitude in national healthcare countries such as the UK.

Until I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes I never took prescribed meds and in fact, never had a primary doctor; only a GYN. Had to fine a primary doctor only after the age of 50 when I came down with a very bad sinus infection and ultimately went for a full medical. So now I am taking pills for the diabetes and the diabetes only; and eye drops for increased eye pressure.

In fact I find that the people I know, including family, have little to do with doctors and don't take daily meds. My husband, myself and one friend do but only because we are older and have medical issues that require meds for diabetes, heart and blood pressure issues.

Speedwell

Yup.

dlake02

Oh yeah - the French are raving hypos; no doubt about that. But a LOT of their medications are homeopathic or lifestyle based - a doctor can still prescribe a visit to a thermal bath for example. I once heard a doctor in all seriousness tell someone that he was "looking pale" and "not drinking enough red wine." Works for me....

OK - so I think this is a GREAT comment, and one that appears to apply across all of science here in a different way to UK/Europe. In the UK, we take a glass-half-empty view of science - the blind faith we put in scientists in the 60s and 70s has NOT paid off; the roads are clogged, the planet is polluted, and the guys are idiots, etc.

Here, there seems to be a view that the answer to all the worlds ills IS science of all forms, and that every problem can be solved with a new treatment/product/remedy, etc. Scientists and doctors here appear to be held up as demagogues - in a way that we stopped doing in the UK in the mid-to-late 70s...

Now there is nothing WRONG with preventative care - the UK system is geared to exception too much - but the key is to make it available to everyone.

My observation is that here there are a group of pampered pusses that are over-medicated because they have the coverage and "right" to use it to the hilt, whilst there is a rump of really acutely ill uninsured that are in desperate need of some help....

Speedwell

Given that most drugs are metabolized in the liver or kidney, and the effects are additive, I wonder if the increase in the number of drugs prescribed to a given individual isn't contributing to actual liver and kidney failures.

dlake02

In the UK, there seems to be a pervading attitude of "you shouldn't bother the doctor - he/she is very busy."

Our surgery in the UK will routinely answer the phone with "are you sure you are so ill that you need to see a doctor ?" Yes, it isn't very customer-service orientated, but it is drummed into you from birth that this is NOT another service that you pick-and-chose like a supermarket - it is a health-care service for all.

Now, some American friends that we knew in the UK got VERY annoyed about this - their attitude was "we're paying for this and we have a right to determine when we can see someone or not."

The receptionist at our surgery was polite and direct along the lines of "you are one patient out of 55 million - if the other 54,999,999 people agree that your case is more important, then of course you can see the doctor ahead of them."

So, we just don't think in monetary terms about basic healthcare. Everyone pays; everyone has equal entitlement. There is no discussion.

If you haven't lived in a country with universal healthcare, then I can fully understand why that attitude would be difficult to understand.

dlake02

You mean like this ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ion-drug-abuse

dlake02

Or this - Pharmageddon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...illers-florida

Pulaski

I don't wonder, there absolutely is a connection, and not just in organ failures, but also metabolism within the liver and filtering in the kidneys are responsible for many of the side effects.

Speedwell

Precisely like that. I've learned to triple-check with my trusted pharmacist, and back-check with my doctor if there are any questions, whether any medication is appropriate and necessary, interacts with another medication or supplement or food or condition, is better taken on a different schedule, or is cheaper and equally effective as a generic or even a different prescription. Pharmacists simply know more about drugs than doctors do.