Adverse Drug Reactions Are #1 Cause of Illness, Disability & Death Says Physician Blaming Drug Ads

  PRESCOTT, AZ - 08/29/2016 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

A one-year-old boy was prescribed antidepressants by the NHS in Scotland, as prescriptions for the drugs soared across the UK. (London Independent)

What we’re seeing is a damnable practice of prescribing drugs for almost any symptoms when most problems are not serious and may get better without any treatment, or with a simple change in diet, says  Richard Ruhling, MD who was board-certified in internal medicine before teaching Health Science at Loma Linda University.

Ruhling said the oft-quoted figure of 106,000 Adverse Drug Reaction deaths (Journal of AMA,  4-15-1998) was in hospitals, but 199,000 outpatient deaths (Western Journal of Medicine, June, 2000) brought the total to 305,000 and for every death, 550 were sick enough to see their doctor, 40 were sick enough to be admitted to the hospital and 15 were admitted to long term care--messed up for life? asks Ruhling. 

The JAMA article defined Adverse Drug Reactions, not as an overdose or a wrong Rx, but “properly prescribed and administered.” The reactions are unpredictable, like Russian Roulette, says Ruhling.

Since Congress approved drug ads in 1997, illness, disability and deaths from adverse drug reactions (then the 3^rd leading cause of death, Journal of AMA, 7-26-2000) have increased 270% to 1995. (Archives of Internal Medicine, Sept 10, 2007)

But those figures for illnesses, disability and death are grossly out of date, says Ruhling. He estimates a 10-fold increase for three reasons.

1. Annual spending on direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs tripled between 1996 and 2000, when it reached nearly $2.5 billion. (New England Journal of Medicine, 2-14-2002) The ads resulted in a tripling of spending on prescription drugs during that period of time  (Health Affairs, 8-2016)   By 2001, “Spending on Prescription Drugs Increased by Almost 19 Percent,” (NY Times, 5-8-2001) with drug sales at $132 billion. Investments of $2.5 billion in ads yielded sales of more than 50-fold.  Now we understand Big Pharma’s millions they spend on Congress!   

The Bible says, you shall “take no gift: for the gift blinds the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.” 23^rd chapter of Exodus.

2. The above data is more than a decade out of date. Drug ads still fill the commercial time on the evening news. By 2000 Adverse Drug Reactions were the #3 cause of death, (JAMA 7-26-2000)  but now they easily surpass cancer and probably heart disease for this reason, says Ruhling.

Two thirds of heart disease deaths are over the age of 75. Many, if not most, of these people are in nursing homes. The average number of prescriptions that a nursing home patient takes is 9. These people are so spaced out, they can fill their diaper and think everything is ok. And when their heart stops, their doctor signs the death certificate as “Heart Disease.”  No autopsy is done to see if a coronary artery was blocked. Autopsies aren’t fashionable now and “heart disease” on the death certificate raises no concern.

Most of the conditions in medical textbooks are of “unknown etiology,” and if they don’t know the cause, how can the drug be the cure? asks Ruhling, explaining that almost all drugs in the Physicians’ Desk Refernce (3500 pages of fine print) have a long list of conditions reportedly caused by the drug.

He adds that pharmacology evolved from toxicology which was the study of adverse effects of chemicals or drugs that kill half the rats. Not much has changed except for the greed of Congress to accept drug donations to their re-election campaign as long as they go along with “healthcare” that includes drug ads on TV and Obamacare, 20,000 pages written largely by help from drug companies.

One of the last messages in the Bible is to come out of Babylon—the confused systems of this world that include prescription drugs, “for by her sorceries [the Greek word is pharmakeia] were all nations deceived.” Revelation’s 18^th chapter.

Ruhling says getting untangled from a drug system masquerading as “healthcare” isn’t easy, but it’s possible if people make wise changes in eating because most health problems come from what we put in our mouths since we were “normal” at birth.

Dr.  Richard Ruhling offers a DVD that shows Bill Clinton’s cardiologist from the Cleveland Clinic on his website, http://RichardRuhling.com Ruhling  is author of “Why You Shouldn’t Ask Your Doctor,” and other ebooks on Amazon, with mostly four or five star reviews seen at http://amzn.to/1JTMjY9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPI7zdGdqo4