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Medications

Elderly patients regularly prescribed dangerous medications with severe side effects

Thursday, August 19, 2004
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
Tags: medications, elderly patients, the elderly


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A new study conducted at the Duke Clinical Research institute reveals that one in five older patients is currently receiving at least one prescription drug deemed unsafe according to a database of unsafe drugs. This study looked at prescriptions written for 765,000 patients, all over the age of 65, and compared those prescriptions against a database listing drugs that are known to be toxic to older patients (and that may result in severe side effects). It found that an astounding 21% of the patients were taking at least one drug on the list, and that half of those prescriptions were for drugs considered to have serious side effects.

What this study indicates is that even when prescription drug safety databases are published, and even when the adverse side effects of drugs are apparently well-known, doctors will continue to prescribe these drugs to elderly patients. Unfortunately, our population is increasingly dosed on prescription drugs, and this is especially true in elderly patients, where symptoms of aging are almost always masked with drugs and medications rather than lifestyle changes or nutritional approaches.

And sadly, once an elderly person gets on at least one prescription drug, it usually sets off a cascade of medications because the first drug causes side effects that have to be masked by a second drug, and the second drug causes additional side effects that have to be masked by a third drug, and so on. The cascade continues until the person is sometimes taking a dozen or more prescription drugs and their body is practically in shock trying to deal with the toxicity of the chemical cocktail.

What about deadly drug combinations? Even though this study didn't look at the danger of drug combinations, this is also a huge risk for elderly patients. Often, patients are taking so many prescription drugs that even the doctor forgets to look at the dangerous drug combinations. As a result, severe toxicity can easily creep into the equation and result in liver failure, neurological damage, or even death.

I also find it amazing that there are some drugs that even the industry itself admits are dangerous drugs. They are so dangerous that they have to be placed on a special list. It begs the question: if these drugs are so dangerous, shouldn't they be pulled off the market? And if the industry considers these drugs to be dangerous, does it automatically consider all other drugs not on the list to be safe?

What's the threshold for making this danger list, because in my studies, I've found that virtually all prescription drugs are dangerous. There is no synthetic chemical drug that does not have side effects that compromise the health of human beings taking them. In effect, all prescription drugs should be on the "dangerous" list.

My last comment on this is that I find it very sad that so many patients over 65 end up being guinea pigs for the American pharmaceutical industry (Big Pharma). They are dosed up based on shoddy recommendations from their physicians, and many of these people don't question the authority of doctor. They think doctors know best, and if the doctor recommends a prescription for joint pain, they go ahead and willingly take it. After all, they say, my doctor recommended it. That's the story with Vioxx, which has now been pulled from the market due to fatal side effects.

Prescription drugs are never the answer. People at the age of 65 shouldn't be aging as rapidly as we're seeing in the general population in the first place. The human body is designed to stay perfectly healthy up to the age of 100 and beyond. What's required to achieve that sort of longevity is, of course, lifestyle changes that include regular physical exercise, outstanding nutrition, and avoidance of all metabolic disruptors such as refined sugar, white flour, aspartame, MSG, sodium nitrite, and so on.

If you are an older person, take this to heart, because this study proves the fact that if you go to a doctor and actually believe what they're telling you, there is a 20% chance they are going to be prescribing you a drug that even the pharmaceutical industry admits is extremely dangerous and should never be prescribed to elderly patients.


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About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and Native American Indians. He's also of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In his laboratory research, Adams has made numerous food safety breakthroughs such as revealing rice protein products imported from Asia to be contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tungsten. Adams was the first food science researcher to document high levels of tungsten in superfoods. He also discovered over 11 ppm lead in imported mangosteen powder, and led an industry-wide voluntary agreement to limit heavy metals in rice protein products.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

Adams is well known for his incredibly popular consumer activism video blowing the lid on fake blueberries used throughout the food supply. He has also exposed "strange fibers" found in Chicken McNuggets, fake academic credentials of so-called health "gurus," dangerous "detox" products imported as battery acid and sold for oral consumption, fake acai berry scams, the California raw milk raids, the vaccine research fraud revealed by industry whistleblowers and many other topics.

Adams has also helped defend the rights of home gardeners and protect the medical freedom rights of parents. Adams is widely recognized to have made a remarkable global impact on issues like GMOs, vaccines, nutrition therapies, human consciousness.

In addition to his activism, Adams is an accomplished musician who has released over a dozen popular songs covering a variety of activism topics.

Click here to read a more detailed bio on Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, at HealthRanger.com.

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