Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for prescription drugs.

We’ve read a lot lately about the dangers of continuing to take a prescription for years without an adjustment. As we age our bodies change so a dosage that might have been correct at age 65 is harmful at age 80. These overdoses can cause illness and false signs of Alzheimers – as well as death.

But new statistics reported on Newsmax Health today show that the problem goes far beyond a doctor’s failure to adjust prescription dosage.

In fact, poisoning from drug overdose has risen by an alarming 65% since 1999.

Interestingly, the largest class of victims are city-dwelling women between the ages of 35 and 54. Generally, the drugs involved are tranquilizers, sedatives and pain killers.

We hear a lot about the dangers of elderly people taking overdoses because they simply forget that they’ve already taken their medication and so take it again. But that doesn’t sound like a good reason why younger people are overdosing.

Perhaps they simply don’t “get” the danger, so when one pill doesn’t kill the pain or relieve the anxiety, they take another – and another.

According to the Newsmax report, “Unintentional poisoning is now the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States, and unintentional poisoning surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of unintentional injury death in 2005.”

Intentional poisonings are also on the rise – more than doubling from 1999 to 2006. These intentional poisonings may be self-inflicted attempts at suicide or pleas for attention, or attempts at murder – some of which are successful.

Are doctors too quick to pull out the prescription pad? Of course we think so, but we think the facts back our opinion.

The largest increase in poisoning from a specific drug was for methadone – a quintuple increase. Correspondingly, this drug saw a ten-fold increase in the number of times was prescribed and sold between 1997 and 2006.

Just FYI - According to a report on WebMD, Americans spend only 1.5% of their health care dollars on natural, or alternative health practices.

In 2006 this amounted to $34Billion – which seems like a lot until you compare it to the$2.2 Trillion spent on doctors, hospitals, and prescription drugs – and when you consider that all forms of alternative health together accounted for only about 1/3 of what Americans spend on prescriptions.

Kids need fun & exercise - NOT drugs!

He’s gotten a lot of money for his “research” and has been a speaker for many of the major drug companies. Now he’d like the government to fund more research – and they’re thinking about it!

Oh boy… Drug regulatory agencies know that antipsychotics and antidepressants are causing hallucinations, hostility, personality change, life-threatening diabetes, strokes, suicide and death in some patients.

Why would anyone in their right mind use these drugs for any reason but as a last resort?

Read the whole report at Health Freedom Alliance. I think you’ll be shocked, and also grateful that the U.S. has not fallen for this man’s “research.”

The FDA – charged with protecting us – was complicit in this crime.

Read this article to see how veterinarians were not informed of a September drug recall… thus putting your pets at risk.

I just read a story about a lady whose cough was so bad that she had to carry plastic bags with her in the car – because the coughing made her throw up. When she told her doctor she thought it was the medication he changed it – to another ACE inhibitor that caused the same problem. After that he said he didn’t think that was the cause.

A survey of participants on the iGuard.org web site revealed that while over 1/3 of the participants suffered from a chronic cough, only 1 in 4 had been warned by their doctor that the drug could cause coughing.

Do they not bother to learn, or do they not bother to care – as long as you keep on taking drugs?

The iGuard.org site offers personalized estimates of drug risk and interaction concerns – it might be worth you checking into if you’re taking prescription drugs.