Lost in the World of Drugs

I recently received some statistics from a study by Mayo clinic reporting that 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription medication.  They went on to say that 50% are on at least 2 drugs and further more, 20% are on five or more medications.  This should be a shocking statistic but unfortunately it is not all that surprising to me.  It is a rare new patient that I do a consultation with that is not on at least one drug and many find it easier to just hand me a sheet of paper with all their medications on it.

These numbers speak to my heart and remind me of a patient that I had a few years back.  This patient's chief complaint was chronic pain and fatigue.  She was only 27 years old but she had spent most of those years struggling with pain and the depression that often goes along with chronic disease.  During our initial consultation, she handed me a sheet of paper, hand-written with the names of about twenty medications on it.  She reported that these were the drugs that she had been prescribed. 

To many times the response to chronic pain is to attempt to cover up the symptoms with drugs.  When that doesn't work more drugs are given or you are told that it is all in your head.  There is a cause to the pain that you are feeling.  The answer lies within your individual biochemistry and physiology.  Don't give up, keep seeking the answers.  Find a holistic, functional medicine doctor willing to search for the true cause, so that you can restore your health, naturally.