Outliving your drug regimen

In the 'wake up, or watch out' department, a recent article posted on the MSN Health & Fitness site, "8 Drugs Doctors Would Never Take" targets a provocative list of pharmaceuticals that the MD's interviewed said were worthy of caution.

Their question to these physicians? "Which drugs would you skip?" Here's what they said:

1. Advair
2. Avandia
3. Celebrex
4. Ketek
5. Nexium
6. Prilosec
7. Visine (original)
8. Pseudoephedrine
   

The author's base recommendation for an individual using one of these formulations was to give it a second look with your health care provider for alternatives. The article does mention some other pharmaceutical options that might be topics for that second opinion conversation. And also alternative medicine options, such as investigating acupuncture as an alternative to Celebrex or long-term NSAID use.

Even if you are not a consumer of the drugs listed, here is yet another example of why the savvy individual takes the lead for their own health and well-being. Not for self-doctoring. But for keeping the primary responsibility for choices -- especially long-term ones -- squarely where the consequences are felt. On you and me!

In the press: Suddenly Sick

A recent special report by the Seattle Times, "Suddenly Sick", includes a disturbing look at the forces at work that affect your health outcomes - and your costs - when you seek treatment from the US health system.

"You walk into your doctor's office for a physical exam and step on the scale. Last year, the doctor said you were overweight. Now he says you are obese — at the same weight.

A nurse takes your blood pressure. You have hypertension — with the same previously healthy reading you've had for years.

The doctor scans your wrist bone. You have a condition called "osteopenia" — with the same bone density that was fine last time you were measured.

You mention you are not enjoying sex as much as you used to. Diagnosis: a new kind of sexual dysfunction.

You leave the office with a head full of worry and a fistful of new prescriptions, joining more than 40 percent of Americans who take one or more prescribed drugs daily in the effort to stave off more serious trouble.

You are suddenly sick, simply because the definitions of disease have changed."

While not the first time this observation has been made, this report should deepen our misgivings about how much we've allowed our health 'paradigm' to shift into something that is costing us more than it's helping us. The degree to which this is organized and in-trenched is incredible.

You've suspected this was happening. Get this perspective on how far it's gone, and let's push back. There is a better, safer, more cost-effective way. 

See the Seattle Times web site for the full report.

Medical errors: where's the outrage?

If you haven't experienced the potential for medical errors to cost you dearly, invest a few minutes to view this recent 60 Minutes report. Dennis and Kimberly Quaid nearly lost their infant twins in November, 2007 through an accidental hospital-administered drug overdose.

Fortunately, the babies recovered and seem to be doing well now. But the experience, and subsequent discovery of how common and widespread these incidents are, had a profound effect on the couple. And they have taken legal action and initiated a public awareness effort to educate others on the potential for injury and death in even 'routine' medical procedures.

The 60 Minutes clip and additional information on this subject is also available at this NY Times news blog.

If individual examples of this are not disturbing enough, consider the scope of this problem, and that it is not a new phenomenon. In a 2004 article on Medical News Today web site, a recent study of 37 million patient records said, "An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002."

(Click here for complete article.)

As someone pointed out to me, 195,000 deaths per year would be the equivalent of two Boeing 777 aircraft crashing every single day of the year. And how many Boeing 777 crashes would it take for that model to be grounded until something was done?

You'll hear the argument raised in the 60 Minutes report that unfortunate (but by inference, unavoidable) human error was the cause of the Quaids' close brush with tragedy. Have we become so jaded to it that we dismiss that many deaths as 'normal' risk for the 'benefit' we believe we get from our current health care systems?

It's hard to believe that the entire of fleet of 777 aircraft wouldn't be immediately grounded after just a handful of crashes in a short period of time. Even if it was established that human error was ultimately the cause.

I don't see the outrage yet. But I don't think it's too far off. Watch out for your loved ones in the meantime.