america’s drug culture

You ever wonder why Americans are so sick?  It’s crazy!  Our borders hold less than 5% of the world’s population, yet we use over 50% of its prescription and non-prescription medications.   If you think that this would make us healthy, you would fail this pop quiz.   In the last year that WHO (the World Health Organization) ranked countries according to their health, we came up a dismal 37th —- just ahead of Slovenia, and just behind Costa Rica.  And when we look at a class of disease called CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DEGENERATIVE DISEASE, we come in an almost unbelievable 89th (most people — self included — could not name 90 countries if you held a gun to their head).   This class of disease encompasses things like heart disease, CANCER, DIABETES, ARTHRITIS, etc, etc, etc…..

What should stats like these tell us?  Don’t fool yourselves; the problem is not that Americans do not have access to healthcare.  The truth is that no one goes to the doctor more than Americans.  The problem is that we have become an overtly sedentary nation who loves fast food and screens. 

We are not interested in taking care of our own health any more.  Oh no; that’s waaaaaaaay too difficult.  We like things that other people do for us.  That way we don’t have to exert or discipline ourselves.  And what’s more, we want someone else to pay for the consequences our lifestyle choices (the foods we eat, the CIGARETTES we smoke, the 8 hours of daily television,  etc).  But hey; that’s now the American way.   Let the government take care of me from cradle to grave (HERE). Here are the latest stats.

• Over 260 million prescriptions were written for the pediatric population in 2010 (about 75 million).

• A whopping 3.3 billion prescriptions were written for America’s adult population in 2010.  This represents an 11% increase from 2002 (population size adjustment included). 

Of these, ADHD prescriptions increased the fastest (nearly 50% in the pediatric group), but the number one prescribed drug for children is still ANTIBIOTICS.  Antibiotics accounted for over one quarter of all pediatric prescriptions in America two years ago — and this actually represented a slight decrease.  If you want to understand why antibiotics ruin your health, click the link above.  Oh; the DEPRESSION DRUGS are exploding as well.

Among the adult population, we are taking an average of ten prescriptions per person per year.  This means that for every person like myself who does not take prescription drugs, there is someone out there taking 20 prescriptions per year.  It’s not that there is not a time and a place for medicine.  It’s just that simple common sense analysis of the statistics clearly indicate that we are being lied to.  And why are we being lied to?  That’s an easiest question to answer of all.  Money.  If you still believe that today’s Corporate Medical Community and Big Pharma have your health and best interests at heart (HERE), I have this bridge in Brooklyn that I am thinking of putting on the market……..