More proof that medical cronyism can pay big dividends.
A new analysis in JAMA Internal Medicine has found that the number of older Americans taking at least three psychiatric drugs has more than doubled between 2004 and 2013, despite half these patients having no mental health diagnosis on record.
The research team looked at office visits for people 65 and older that resulted in the prescribing of at least three drugs from a list of psychiatric, sleep, and pain medications.
This sharp increase is almost certainly bad news. Recall that a recent study found that elderly patients were able to reduce their risk of death by 38%, simply by reducing the number of prescription drugs they were taking. We recently reported that a new study found that taking antipsychotic drugs significantly increased the likelihood of premature death for Alzheimer’s patients.
Other than increasing risk of death, antipsychotics have many other side effects, including hypotension, movement disorders, and metabolic syndrome issues. Sleeping pills come with a spooky list of side effects including sleepwalking, “abnormal thinking,” and “strange behavior.”
Let’s also not forget that many of these drugs simply do not work. Patients get the serious side effects with no benefits.
Despite the many dangers posed by taking one—let alone three or more—powerful prescription drugs, doctors are apparently firing off prescriptions at record rates. So long as the drug companies control our crony health system, this will be business as usual.
Other articles in this week’s Pulse of Natural Health:
Fake Organics Flooding US Market
Surgical Device Spreads Cancer Inside Women
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I take about 29 supplements daily in capsules, softgels or powders. My go-to supplement for sleep is soy lecithin.
For decades now, before bed or in the afternoon, I have liked taking (soaked in 4 oz water), a level tablespoon of non-GMO lecithin granules or 1 to 3 non-GMO 1200 mg lecithin softgels for sleep.
I appreciate and can vouch that that lecithin is a nervous system relaxant with it’s phosphatidylcholine content, so for me getting to sleep is much easier with lecithin, and also for getting back to sleep in the night, an effect carried through from the original afternoon lecithin dose.
Caffeine and sleep:
My chocolate and caffeine intake can however make it more difficult for me to get back to sleep in the night, so it’s a trade-off or I can hope to eat chocolate early in the day although I’m usually hungry for sugar in the afternoons.
As a small additional amount of caffeine, mornings I take a 400 mg capsule of Swanson Vitamin’s brand of green coffee bean powder (not an extract) for my eyes and retinas because of a study that showed green coffee polyphenols prevent blindness. I have noticed an especially vivid afternoon sky with it’s puffy white cumulus clouds (deeper blues and brighter whites) when taking green coffee bean, so I conclude that green coffee is acting positively upon my retinas.
As for mood and brain support, I take 4 supplements:
At 10 AM I take a 500 mg High Potency DHA from tuna from Piping Rock. Tuna has a favorable 5 to 1 ratio of DHA to EPA, the same approximate ratio found in many body organs. I notice that DHA increases my perception and well-being.
Also at 10 AM, two 500 mg plankton capsules from Phytoplankton Source, a Netherlands company that ships to the U.S. although it can take 3 weeks to arrive. Plankton has RNA which can increase breath. I noticed that plankton increased my verbal fluency, my lung volume (breath), my verbal fluency and my muscle response to my lungs’ oxygen intake. Plankton increases my “life force.”
Also at 10 AM, 500 mg of Setria reduced glutathione (RD) because it has shown to reverse brain cell death and restart brain cell creation. In 2011, at age 56 when I began taking RD, it was like a subtle light switch had been flipped on in my brain. I turned from being a pessimist to an optimist, I would think which is consistent with the stoppage of brain cell death. For some reason, mornings seemed like the best time for me to take RD.
Also for brain and mood, a month ago I restarted taking a level teaspoon of bee pollen at 7 or 8 AM and another level teaspoon after lunch. Bee pollen is great for strength, brain function and stress.