Scary Prescription Use Statisitcs

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Quick Tips, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

Wow… over 50% of adult Americans are on prescription drugs for chronic conditions. That is an astounding number. And the bad part is that it is rising for children as well as young and middle aged adults too. So its not just the old folks although they are taking a ton of meds as well. That means that we can expect the next generation to be generally less healthy that this generation. Here is the pertinent data, but take the time to go and read the whole article. The stats are truly frightening since they show that Americans are suffering from chronic diseases that can be prevented in most cases by lifestyle changes. But since we live in a “give me a pill for it” culture, lifestyle change does not seem like an option to most people and doctors have no choice but to prescribe the drugs.

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For the first time, it appears that more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines regularly for chronic health problems, a study shows.

The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol — problems often linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

The numbers were gathered last year by Medco Health Solutions Inc., which manages prescription benefits for about one in five Americans.

…Medication use for chronic problems was seen in all demographic groups:

• Almost two-thirds of women 20 and older.
• One in four children and teenagers.
• 52 percent of adult men.
• Three out of four people 65 or older.

Among seniors, 28 percent of women and nearly 22 percent of men take five or more medicines regularly.

…Dr. Robert Epstein, chief medical officer at Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Medco, said he sees both bad news and good in the findings.

“Honestly, a lot of it is related to obesity,” he said. “We’ve become a couch potato culture (and) it’s a lot easier to pop a pill” than to exercise regularly or diet.

On the good side, he said, researchers have turned what used to be fatal diseases into chronic ones, including AIDS, some cancers, hemophilia and sickle-cell disease.

Yet Epstein noted the biggest jump in use of chronic medications was in the 20- to 44-year-old age group — adults in the prime of life — where it rose 20 percent over the six years. That was mainly due to more use of drugs for depression, diabetes, asthma, attention-deficit disorder and seizures.

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This does not bode well for our children who are at risk of developing these diseases and conditions because their life-styles are shaped by their generally unhealthy parents.