Prescription Drugs Kill

For the first time in history in the United States, drugs exceeded car accidents as a cause of death in 2009.  ( see http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-drugs-epidemic-20110918,0,3886090.story)  This increase in drug deaths is fueled mainly by an increase in deaths cause by prescription narcotics.  Some of the prescription drugs being abused the most are pain killers and drugs for anxiety.  Some of the drugs involved in the most overdose deaths are Vicodin, Oxycontin, Xanax, Soma, and Fentanyl.  According to this article in the September 17 Los Angeles Times is that “such drugs now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.”

When are we going to stop treating so many problems with drugs instead of trying to find the root cause of these problems?  Isn’t it obvious that we are overmedicating people?  Is the reason for your anxiety that you have a Xanax deficiency?  Prevention, adopting a healthy lifestyle, fitness,  stretching,  good posture, and chiropractic care are ways to reduce the need for many of these drugs, such as Vicodin and Oxycontin.  This report should be a wake-up call to change our health care system from a diagnosis and prescription model to an emphasis on prevention.