"O" zone
The real cost of drugs.

The True cost of drugs! What is it? You decide. I think there are a couple of points that must be considered.

1. Drugs do help some people. How many do they really help, and how many do they really hurt?

2. From last weeks news we hear about the death of Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel was caused by a lethal combination of methadone, Zoloft and Lexapro, according to pathologist Cyril Wecht. He was taking three common medications. The combination of the medications are completely unstudied. We should always be careful with taking more than one medication at a time.

3. Consider the following thoughts from a former Drug company executive: �Prescription drugs have no consumer or client. A 'normal consumer' is someone who selects, pays for and consumes a product. In [America] and other parts of the world, Rx drugs are selected by one person (the doctor) paid for by another (society) and consumed by a third (the patient or consumer). The dynamics of pharmaceutical economics are a totally irrational contradiction of supply/demand logic. Patients cannot choose or influence their own consumption or choose a brand between equal products. Nor can the patient influence the price, which has been fixed by negotiations between industry and the authorities. The patient generally does not actually care, either, since he or she is not paying. This dysfunction amongst market forces is the 'normal' business logic for the pharmaceuticals industry. They don�t have to please a client, nor does the user need to care how much the product cost. That is a recipe for high prices.

4. Then let�s look at the notion that drugs treat conditions and not humans. We have our life experiences which results in physiological reactions. When we don�t like our physiology, we take drugs to change the effects. Let me use an example. When we are under chronic stress, our body secretes excess cortisol. This has many effects. A couple of them are, increased blood flow to our muscles and bones and a decreased blood flow to our vital internal organs, like our lungs, kidneys, liver and heart. The longer we are under stress, the less the nutrient rich blood nurtures the organs and the more toxins accumulate in our vital organs. The greater the toxicity, the less the oxygen and the more the poison that remains in the vital organs. They begin to get old, dry and less flexible. As the organ tissues age rapidly, the body craves a solution. One possible solution is to increase the blood pressure to allow more blood into the organs so the nutrient can be delivered and the toxins can be removed. As our blood pressure goes up, instead of dealing with underlying cause, the stress, we visit the Medical practitioner who simply gives a drug that lowers the blood pressure and denies the body's heroic attempt to salvage a higher level of health. Ouch. We have defeated an age old attempt of the body to regain vital function by creating a common adaptation. By treating a condition instead of a person we actually defeat a potential life saving adaptation and normalize the blood pressure at the expense of the vital organs.

5. This is a letter to the Mercola web site: Thanks to Anne Boone for sharing the following information with us!__It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why there appears to be a Walgreen's on every corner..................__On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo..... three thousand percent!__So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs and, usually, rightfully so. But perhaps, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20 What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!__At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.__I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled! Just to give you one example, from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS.__I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89 For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57 I could have gotten 150 at Costco for $28.08 I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.__I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and pasting it into your own e-mail, and sending it to everyone you know with an e-mail address. Let's support change at the grassroots!

6. The predicted danger in taking Pharmaceuticals is probably the greatest cost. The tragedy of Vioxx, the drug that killed over 56,000 people from heart attacks, is now followed by a cousin drig that seems to be just as dangerous: Arcoxia. Be extra wary of medications. Estimates are that over 100,000 people and as many as 175,000 die per year from expected side effects of medications. The benefits we receive are indeed a high cost; 175,000 lives.

Medications can be life saving, and they can be life stealing. Preserve your good health. Honor your potential by choosing to exercise, eat well and get the help you need to keep your spine aligned and your energy system balanced.