Death by Prescription: The Shocking Truth Behind an Overmedicated Nation Book

This is a balanced and well researched book about how medications can sometimes do more harm than good. I’m emphasizing that this book is balanced because I have seen many books that either glorify all medications or vehemently deny the effectiveness and use of anything medically. As with many things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Obviously, many medications save lives and have done so for decades. On the other hand, several medications have gone through the FDA approval process, only to be withdrawn because they killed people and did not do their jobs properly.
Another feature of this book that I especially appreciate is that the author doesn’t stop at explaining what’s wrong or broken with our FDA approval system. He teaches patients how to read package inserts to understand what our medications do and gives us tools and possible questions to support conversations with our doctors to make sure we’re getting the medications we need. He also reminds us that we are a vital part of our medical team and that we can choose not to take a medicine if we believe it is not in our best interest. I have done this with Staten drugs because there is a side effect causing wasting of muscle tissue that I have had after trying four different drugs. I am choosing to live with mildly elevated cholesterol, understanding that the risk of statins for me are higher than the risk of heart attack because of clogged arteries. Cholesterol is only one contributing factor to heart disease, and I get regular echo cardio gram’s of my heart to check for problems.
One of the things few of us think about is how drugs interact with each other, especially if we take more than five medications a day. One of the things a person can do is schedule an appointment with a pharmacist to sit down and go through each medication, looking to see if there are problematic drug interactions. Just like doctors, pharmacist can be a vital part of our medical support team. They have much more training and understanding about how drugs work and how they are eliminated from the body. For example, if you have kidney disease or poor liver function, there are several types of medications that can build up to toxic levels in your system because they’re not excreted properly. These types of medications can be spotted more easily by a pharmacist. People who are 65 years old or older, especially those with diabetes, may have reduced kidney function. So this could be something that could save a life, something that runs under our normal radar. That’s why am taking the time to review this book and suggest that you make the time to read it if you, like me, take five or more medications a day.