Surely you at least put down your bottle of prescription medicine for a moment to read the fine details.
A recent headline shouted, Canadian seniors take 5 prescription drugs on average.
Wha...!?
I immediately thought, if this isn’t a story that entangles issues related to the Four EEEEs (Economy, Environment, Education and Entertainment) I don’t know what is.
I read the following:
The Canadian Institute of Health Information study says 67% of people over 65 take five or more types of drugs, 21% take 10 or more and 6% take 15 or more.
Public spending on prescription drugs in 2009 totalled $11.4 billion, a significant chunk of which was spent on seniors, the report says. (Mar. 20, The London Free Press)
Though I’m not 65, so the report obviously didn’t apply to me, I quickly spit out the hotdog smeared in four condiments I happened to be eating. (Usually I add five but we were out of cheddar cheese cubes).
Let’s look at this another way.
Say you walk into a fast-food restaurant and notice a group of 65-year olds tucking into cheeseburgers and fries.
2 out of 3 have 5 or more pill bottles hidden away.
1 in 5 have 10 or more bottles of pills.
And 1 in 16 has a sore shoulder from carrying 15 or more bottles of pills.
Only 1 in 3 of the seniors has four or fewer prescriptions.
I must ask: How many seniors are not taking any prescription drugs? There must obviously be very few.
Why are so many seniors taking medications?
The article says the following:
Statins, which are used to treat high cholesterol, are the most commonly prescribed drug, with 40% of seniors taking them.
Next on the list are ACE inhibitors, which 32% of seniors use to treat heart failure and high blood pressure.
The above raises more questions, doesn’t it?
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Please click here to read Part 2.
How many prescription medications are you taking?
Are there preventative measures that are just as helpful, if not more so, than prescriptive measures?
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