The BMJ this week reported an enormous increase in the amount of prescribed drugs being taken by people over 60 years old in England and Wales. In 1997, this group of the population were prescribed just over 22 items a year. 10 years on they are receiving just over 42 items a year. Overall, there has been a 50% increase in the average numbers of items prescribed per person. As you might expect, costs have shot up accordingly, doubling in the same decade – from £4.4billion in 1997 to £8.4billion in 2007. Statins in particular have gone up from under 5 million prescriptions in 1997 to 45 million last year.
Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said that the increase in the number of prescriptions was probably due to a combination of a rising number of elderly people, more people with chronic conditions, and greater use of drugs used in preventive treatment.
The second report which caused me concern was a study by a Professor of Sociology who presented a paper at the American Sociological Association. He has demonstrated that the current licensing method which relies on trials of a drug against placebo, however,
Systematic reviews indicate that one in seven new drugs is superior to existing drugs, but two in every seven new drugs result in side effects serious enough for action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including black box warnings, adverse reaction warnings, or even withdrawal of the drug.
So, he concludes, a new drug has twice as much chance of doing you harm than giving you greater benefit than the existing drugs.
Harms from prescribed medication are no small thing –
According to a 1999 report for the Institute of Medicine, adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and more than two million serious reactions occur every year.
These two reports disturb me for two reasons. One is because they make me wonder just where medicine is going. Are we defining health as what people who take drugs experience? What’s normal any more? How successful are our societies where such large proportions of the population are having to swallow so many pills? This can’t be the best way to address the issue of Public or personal Health! Secondly, because of the extent to which the balance is tipping, not in favour of safer, more effective treatments, but, apparently in favour of more dangerous, and marginally (at best) more effective treatments.
Surely we need to think more seriously about how to maintain health and how to help people with chronic illnesses without reversion to drugs?
Heroes Not Zombies 
I hope you won’t mind my buggin’ ya, but I love your blog and coming to glean from your wisdom! We have been treating scabies with tea tree oil topically with a Q-tip. It seems that somehow I have reached a toxicity level~I feel minty inside and out~LOL! I also have had some dizziness and upset stomach, shaking and very dry mouth. I went to the ER for it after calling poison control and was told it wasn’t the tea tree. Honestly, they initially thought I was NUTS, and then one doctor did believe it was caused by the tea tree. They sent me home though not knowing anything about it or how/whether to treat it.
I am improving and am no longer worried (still feel minty inside and out~especially after eating for some reason) but wondered if you might have any additional information to share on this? *THANK YOU!* for your consideration! (((((HUGS))))) sandi
btw~I’ve used tea tree for years and NEVER had a problem, but it’s definitely been put away now! WHEW!
The commonest known side effect to tea tree oil applied the way you’re doing it is allergy. The symptoms you describe don’t sound like allergic ones. Taken by mouth tea tree oil can be pretty nasty stuff causing “severe rash, reduced immune system function, abdominal pain, diarrhea, lethargy, drowsiness, inflammation of the corners of the mouth, slow or uneven walking, confusion, or coma. There have also been reports of nausea, unpleasant taste, burning sensation, and bad breath associated with tea tree oil use.”
You never quite know what an individual’s response is going to be to a medicine so although it seems very unlikely that the tea tree is the cause of your symptoms the sensible thing is to stop using it and see what happens