SOUTH SHORE FAMILY CHIROPRACTIC
Monthly News - May 2005

AMERICA OVER MEDICATED
The Patriot Ledger ran a story entitled “Experts Say America is Over Medicated”. The article shared some frightening and shocking statistics. First off it should not surprise you that we use and spend more on drugs than any other country. Well over 195,000 people each year admittedly die from these drugs which is the fourth leading cause of death after heart disease, cancer and stroke.

In 2004 drug sales escalated to over 250 billion dollars, up from 60 billion in 1994. Now I ask, is that a reflection of better health? Or is it a true measure of how miserably the present sick care model of health is failing. In a ten year period America has increased its drug appetite by 400%. Economists must commend all who have made this come to fruition. From the drug company C.E.O. to the marketing genius’s right down to the neighborhood pushers. It should not surprise you to learn that the 400% increase in drug use is a direct reflection of the increase in money spent on drug marketing, from 55 million in 1994 to 4 billion in 2004. How did our nation become over run by this drug addiction?

Well, I have a few thoughts. One, we have been programmed through said marketing to abandon the idea that the body has an innate self regulating and healing potential that needs no help, only no interference. Secondly, we have become a country of complacency and dependency. Our concerns are not what we can do for ourselves but what can somebody or something (drugs) do for us. Shame on the goliath pharmaceutical companies and all their worker bees. It breaks my heart to see our nation’s health being flushed down the toilet. Each night I lay my head down and thank God for being a doctor of Chiropractic.