Prescription pain and anxiety drugs now cause more deaths in USA than traffic accidents

The Los Angeles Times reports: "Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found. Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.""

A big part of the problem is that so many of these drugs are highly addictive. And of course when drugs are 'legal' drugs, and when it is legal to advertise them, people are more likely to think of them as 'safe'. But these powerful pharmaceutical drugs, which include OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma, are very clearly not safe. Pharmaceutical drugs have adverse effects/side-effects, one of which can be addiction, and another of which is premature death.

It is best to avoid prescription drugs as far as you can, and if you feel you must take them, then take them at the lowest effective dose and for the shortest necessary time. Always check out the possible side-effects and cautions and look out for these side-effects. Obesity and degenerative health conditions are often side-effects of prescription drugs: see HRT and other prescribed steroids and amitriptyline and other antidepressants.

A safe, drug-free way to reduce pain and anxiety is to optimise your nutrition and, as far as you reasonably can, cut down on salt and salty food. You will feel so much better. - Dieting is a frequent cause of ill-health, pain and depression, so avoid dieting. If you are overweight, lose excess weight the safe, easy way, without drugs or dieting.

What are the side-effects of eating less salt?

You will feel better.
If you are overweight you will lose some of that excess weight/water weight.
If you have high blood pressure it will go lower.
You will sleep better.
You will look better.
Your skin will improve.
Your nails and hair will be in better condition.
You will feel less pain.
Your risk of degenerative illness will be reduced.
Your mental alertness will improve.
You will have more energy and vitality.
You will think about food less.
Your eyes will look brighter.
You will get less tired.
You will be less likely to catch infections.
Cholesterol problems will be reduced.
And so on...

Lose weight safely, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Drug firms dodge swine flu liability

The UK government has been forced to accept legal liability for the swine flu vaccine amid concerns it could trigger life-threatening side-effects among the population at large. Ministers have taken on all the risk for the 60 million doses they have ordered from GlaxoSmithKline and the Baxter group, after both firms said they would refuse to produce it unless legally protected. A swine flu vaccine produced in America during the last recorded outbreak of the virus in 1976 was linked to a rise in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralysing muscular disorder.
Read article on the Scotland on Sunday website (Scotland/UK)

The following comment, with which I completely agree, is from the Dr Rath Foundation website, from page http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/Newsletter/archive/newsletter_2009_08_aug_14.html

Comment: A win-win for the business with disease: drug companies make massive profits from the artificial swine flu epidemic and UK taxpayers foot the bill for the life-threatening side-effects suffered by patients as a result of being vaccinated. UK taxpayers can be forgiven for wondering whether this arrangement has anything to do with the fact that Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, is a member of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s so-called “Business Council.”

I used to think I was sort-of addicted to coffee

I used to think I was sort-of addicted to coffee because I so often felt the need of a mug of it, but years later I came to realise that I had simply been abnormally thirsty. - It was prescribed medication that had made me so very thirsty.

Sometimes you are prescribed a drug and told that it may cause 'dry mouth' as a side-effect. Sometimes neither 'dry mouth' nor thirst gets a mention. - Anyway, if you are finding yourself drinking a lot more, feeling a lot more thirsty day after day than you used to, wondering, as I did, whether you are becoming addicted to coffee or tea or some other beverage, maybe you too are actually experiencing a side-effect of some medication you are taking. - If that is the case, there is a strong chance that you are gaining weight, and gaining weight quite quickly.

The weight gain is from extra fluid (salt plus the water that accompanies salt/sodium). This extra fluid is held in your blood stream, causing the veins to be a bit/lot more swollen/dilated/distended than previously. - You have become 'sensitive to salt'.

The good news is that if you avoid eating salt and salty food, you will not only lose a lot of that excess fluid and so lose weight and have more energy, and improve your health in countless other ways, but you will also find you are not feeling compelled to think about food and drink all the time, and you may stop being 'addicted to coffee'.

A new osteoporosis drug

Osteoporosis drug offers women hope - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Women who are given an annual treatment for post-menopausal osteoporosis are less likely to suffer a broken hip or other fractures than those taking daily or weekly pills, according to a study to be published today.

Patients given a drip into the back of the hand of zoledronic acid, sold as Aclasta, cut the risk of hip breaks by 41 per cent and spinal breaks by 70 per cent compared to patients given a placebo.

Around half a million women in the UK take drugs such as alendronate and risedronate, known as bisphosphonates, in pill form daily or weekly to treat post-menopausal osteoporosis.

However, around half of patients stop taking the pills within a year.

The National Osteoporosis Society estimates that more than 60,000 hip and 120,000 spinal fractures take place each year in the UK.

Approximately one in five people die within three months of breaking their hip, which accounts for around 14,000 deaths annually.

Bone density is reduced in patients with osteoporosis, leading to greater risk of fractures.

Hormonal changes during the menopause put women at greater risk."

"Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, lead researcher Prof Dennis Black, of the University of California, San Francisco, said: "During a three-year period, an annual infusion of zoledronic acid significantly reduced the risk of fracture at all key osteoporotic fracture sites including vertebral and hip fractures.

"A regimen of infusions once a year appears to ensure that patients will have a full treatment effect for at least 12 months.

"In contrast, many patients who receive prescriptions for oral bisphosphonates stop treatment, and most appear to be taking less than 80 per cent of their prescribed pills by 12 months."

The researchers said the infusion reduced the risk of spinal fractures by significantly more than the daily and weekly pills currently in use. Novartis, the company that manufactures the drug, hopes it will be available in the UK by the autumn."

"However, an abnormal heart rhythm, which can increase the risk of a stroke, was nearly three times more common among the 3,889 volunteers who took the Novartis drug.

The most common side effects with Aclasta were fever, muscle pain, flu-like symptoms, headache, and bone pain."

Osteoporosis can also be caused or exacerbated by 'slimming'/dieting. Give up dieting! - Safeguard your bone density by eating good, healthy meals and cutting down on salt and salty food.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Tara and her problems with prednisolone, a prescribed steroid. - Acne, Moonface, Night Cramps, 'Buffalo Hump', Insults...

Some while back I received an email to my website address from a schoolgirl who was very distressed. - The reason for her distress was that she had been prescribed prednisolone again because of a flare-up of a serious illness she had first suffered from 2 years ago. - At that time the steroid had caused her to develop a moonface, severe night cramps in her legs which woke her, and what she describes as a 'buffalo hump' but which, I believe, is more usually referred to as Dowager's Hump. She found it very hard to sleep. She said her face was huge and she had acne and red marks on her cheeks, and because she was so swollen she didn't like to be touched. (It's extremely painful to be touched when you are very swollen. - Think of when you have a blister or a boil or an abscess!)

These are all normally considered side-effects of the steroid, but of course they are not. - They are actually side-effects of sudden massive extra fluid retention in the bloodstream and are the result of not being warned to avoid salt and salty food when taking this medication.

Her life had been made hell by the insults she had received at school because of the change in her looks, especially the moonface, and she was very unhappy at the thought of it all happening again. She had found my website and wrote to ask me for further information and help, which of course I gave her.

She is a clever, conscientious girl - and she followed my advice exactly. She read the information I sent, checked out the links, became clued up. - She made soup with fresh vegetables and lentils, her father made her low sodium bolognese, her mum bought her unsalted nuts and stuff for snacks, and so on. - When she was unsure whether a food was safe for her to eat she emailed me to check its sodium concentration.

Well she is now practically recovered from this flare-up and she hasn't gained any weight at all this time - in fact, she's been so rigorous about avoiding sodium that she has actually LOST weight! - I believe that this is so rare as to be actually unique and it proves how important it is to be warned against eating salt while on steroids. I also feel sure that the low sodium intake helped her to get over the flare-up faster.She is very grateful to me and I am so very pleased with her. - She wrote: "Thankyou for your congratulations, you have put a smile on my face."

See Prescribed Drugs that cause Obesity

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)