"Doing nothing except terminating some of the most egregious prescriptions… resulted in a 23% reduction in their death rate," explained a doctor regarding a 2007 study.
AMA journal reported that 23% of patients were incorrectly diagnosed or experienced delays in diagnosis. In 1975, medical "treatments" caused more than 10x as many deaths as illegal drugs.
“What is wrong with our focus on the ‘drug war’ when 200,000 die each year from prescription drugs [vs.] 20,000 who die as a result of illegal drug use?”
From this 1995 study done by pharmacists in an attempt to curb the high number of prescription drug deaths, they found that every year approximately 200,000 die from prescription drug reactions when taking medications “as prescribed”. That is as many deaths every week as we suffered on 9/11 and America went to war for over a decade… Where is that kind of outcry for these deaths?! (And if the rate was that high two decades ago, just how much of an increase has there been since then?) And another 80,000 die from medical malpractice… Everyone is asking, “Where is the FDA?” Busy approving another new drug? And how many more will die from that one? A two-year Los Angeles Times investigation published in December 2000 found that the seven medications approved since 1993 have been withdrawn after reports of deaths and severe side effects. In the article written by Times Staff Writer David Willam, it states, “The FDA approved each of those drugs while disregarding danger signs or blunt warnings from its own specialists. Then, after receiving reports of significant harm to patients, the agency was slow to seek withdrawals…
What do you know about the medication you are currently taking?
What do you know about the dangers of taking the drugs you are taking in combination with one another?
Even more frightening to ask is “What does your doctor know or not know about the answers to these questions?”
“Doing nothing except terminating some of the most egregious prescriptions… resulted in a 23% reduction in their death rate.”
This situation is even worse for the elderly, who have more time to be put on an increasing number of medications, and due to their altered physiology, are also the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of those medications. For example, from 2009-2016, after two billion office visits were assessed, it was found that for adults over 65, 65.1% were on two or more drugs, 48.9% were on four or more, and 36.8% were on more than five (with the highest use occurring in the oldest Americans). One of the best illustrations of the problem came from a study that compared 119 disabled elderly adults living in nursing homes to 71 matching controls. These patients (on average, were on 7.09 medications) were screened for which of their medications clearly met the existing criteria for being discontinued (on average 2.8 per patient). After those medications were discontinued in the test group, when compared to the controls who remained on all of their existing prescriptions, it was found that: The death rate dropped by 53% (in one year, 45% of the control group died, whereas 21% of the test subjects died). The annual rate of hospital referrals dropped by 60.7% (30% of the controls vs. 11.8% of the study)… In short, doing nothing except terminating some of the most egregious prescriptions for our elders (who often lack the autonomy to refuse their prescriptions) resulted in a 23% reduction in their death rate. When you consider that many of these drugs… frequently have a variety of other concerning side effects (e.g., triggering dementia), the absurdity of this situation (e.g., that this pivotal study never changed how we practice medicine) becomes apparent.
A Midwestern Doctor + 2007 study link
Contents
Pharmaceuticals & Diagnostics, Generally + Overprescription: Evidence of Harm
Harms by Specific Drug Type
Context: See how this subject fits in the bigger picture, and get links to related topics
Pharmaceuticals & Diagnostics, Generally + Overprescription: Evidence of Harm
“Prescription Drugs Are the Leading Cause of Death: And psychiatric drugs are the third leading cause of death” (2024) — “Overtreatment with drugs kills many people, and the death rate is increasing. It is therefore strange that we have allowed this long-lasting drug pandemic to continue, and even more so because most of the drug deaths are easily preventable.” See also: Examining the Legacy: Prescription Drugs and Mortality in the US; “Given Peter Gøtzsche’s background… his critique of the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on science and healthcare practices gives weight to scrutinizing drug safety and efficacy. This highlights the importance of ongoing scrutiny, transparency, and accountability by all citizens in response to big pharma, which we know has a giant clutch on world healthcare.” See also: ‘Prescription Drugs Are the Leading Cause of Death’ according to Peter Gotzsche, Co-Founder of the Cochrane Collaboration; “Peter Gotzsche was named Professor of Clinical Research Design and Analysis at the University of Copenhagen in 2010 and was the co founder of the Cochrane Collaboration which was for a long time considered to be the world’s preeminent independent medical research organisation… We should all heed his warning that most drug deaths are preventable and most people that have died a prescribed drug death didn’t need them in the first place. Gøtzsche… has published more than 97 papers in the “big five” medical journals (JAMA, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal, and Annals of Internal Medicine) and authored books on medical issues including Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime. ‘We could easily get our drug pandemic under control,’ says Peter who says that this is the tragedy, ‘but when our politicians act, they usually make matters worse’ due to being so heavily lobbied by the drug industry which has made drug regulation ‘much more permissive than it was in the past.’” More publishers of Gotzsche’s report: The Expose and James Lyons-Weiler and Brownstone Institute See also: “Our Prescription Drugs Kill Us in Large Numbers (2014); “Prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States and Europe.” See also: Prescription Drug Dangers; a Warning from 1975; “In the 1970s, between 10% and 15% of people in hospitals were admitted due to adverse effects of drugs they had been prescribed. ‘Even though there may be growing awareness of the dangers, drugs are still misused in an alarming fashion,’ he wrote in 1975.” See also: Exposing The Flaws In Our Broken Healthcare System with Dr. Marty Makary; “I [Dr. Mark Hyman] sit down with Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and public health expert, to discuss the systemic issues plaguing our healthcare system and the urgent need for transparency and accountability. In this eye-opening conversation, you’ll learn: How industry influences have compromised medical education and practice; The dangers of over-medication and the rise of chronic diseases linked to our broken system; The critical role of the microbiome in health and how it’s being overlooked by mainstream medicine; Why the Covid-19 pandemic revealed deep flaws in our medical research and decision-making processes; The alarming rise of antibiotic-resistant infections and what it means for our future health.”
The Medical Establishment and Individual Doctors Have Taken No Responsibility for Prescribing Unimaginably Addictive Drugs, Instead Spouting Pharma Propaganda that Withdrawal Symptoms are Mild and Short-Lived — “Mark Horowitz, a Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry in the UK’s National Health Service… said doctors should not be prescribing antidepressants without warning patients about the difficulty of stopping the drugs. ‘You wouldn’t sell a car without brakes. I think the same should apply to antidepressants. The drugs should come with instructions on how to stop them safely.’ For decades, patients have been told that withdrawal symptoms are ‘mild and only last 2 to 3 weeks.’ But Horowitz said that’s not true for most people who’ve been taking the drugs long-term – and the longer you’re on them, the harder it is to stop.” See also: Harmed by Prescribed Medications: The Untold Story of Pharmaceutical Companies (1.25 hr video) Video also here; “Millions of people worldwide are physically dependent on commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs. While these drugs can provide effective short-term relief, pharmaceutical companies have hidden from both doctors and patients their dangerous side effects, addictive nature and long-term harm.” See also: In recovery — from antidepressants. How patients are helping each other withdraw. See also: 1-min video by Peter Gotzsche MD (“It’s easier to get off heroin than psych drugs.”) and 4-min video by psychiatrist Stuart Shipko MD on antidepressant withdrawal and drug toxicity and 5-min video of Dr. Andrew Weil, MD who speaks to the over-prescription of — and rebound affect of — pharmaceuticals, including antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds and anti-psychotics while noting what works for the long-term for anxiety and depression (including breathing techniques, exercise, CBD, etc). He also notes the fact that Xanax addiction is harder to kick than opioids.
It’s Business as Usual to Put Children, with their Developing Brains and Bodies, on “Cocktails of Powerful Psychotropic Drugs” — “Rates of mental illness in children are rising rapidly, with psychotropic drugs being the conventional solution… Children in the U.S. often receive cocktails of powerful psychotropic drugs that have numerous side effects and health risks, with minimal evidence of benefit in many cases. The long-term effects of polypharmacy in children remain unclear. Some experts warn these drugs alter brain development when prescribed at young ages, causing lasting changes. Alternative therapies like occupational therapy and family-based interventions are encouraged. As parents, you must advocate for your children and consider nondrug approaches to address behavioral issues.”
“The Alarming Trend of Inappropriate Prescribing for the Elderly” — Study shows half of older patients on NSAIDs, opiods and other “medications” don’t need them… The culprits? Proton pump inhibitors, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), opioid painkillers, and sedatives like benzodiazepines. ‘The high rate of deprescribing potential warrants prompt action to increase patient safety and decrease polypharmacy,’ the authors wrote, sounding the alarm on a silent epidemic of overprescription that could be jeopardizing the well-being of millions of older people.” See also: The War against Polypharmacy: A New Cost-Effective Geriatric-Palliative Approach for Improving Drug Therapy in Disabled Elderly People; “Objectives: To improve drug therapy and minimize drug intake… Application of the geriatric-palliative methodology in the disabled elderly enables simultaneous discontinuation of several medications and yields a number of benefits: reduction in mortality rates and referrals to acute care facilities, lower costs, and improved quality of living.” See also: THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!; “What would happen to your body if you were put on 48 different medications? This is the average number of medications a person takes in an assisted living home in the United States.” See also: Americans Take Prescription Drugs for Nearly Half Their Lives: Study “U.S. citizens spend around half their lives ingesting prescription drugs, with the number of people taking five or more drugs at the same time rising.” See also: Please tell anybody OVER-65 in your life: BE CAREFUL with these 5 MEDICATIONS See also: Weak Evidence Can Hurt Important Ideas; “Older patients are not the same as younger patients. The chance of harm from medicine raises with age. This occurs because older patients have more drug-drug interactions, decreased drug clearance, and less robust reflex mechanisms to maintain blood pressure when standing up…. [And] there may be more risk from low blood pressure than high blood pressure. Deprescribing, therefore, is an important concept in the care of older adults.”
Numerous Prescription and Over the Counter Drugs Contain EDCs, which are “Among the Most Destructive Chemicals” We Encounter — See also: Top Five Tips to Avoid Dangerous Chemicals; “Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are among the most destructive chemicals in our environment. Exposure to them is linked to growth, neurological and learning disabilities, obesity, diabetes, male and female reproductive dysfunction, birth defects, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.” See also: Dibutyl-phthalate exposure from mesalamine medications and serum thyroid hormones in men; “DBP is an endocrine disruptor and used in some medication coatings, such as mesalamine for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)… Some medications are considered a source of high-DBP exposure including mesalamine. These medications are prescribed with little attention given to the potential health effects from such high exposure…Thyroid hormone regulates metabolism in practically all tissues of the human body. Differences in thyroid function… have been associated with a higher risk of adverse clinical outcomes including cardiovascular disease, dementia and diabetes.” See also: Alarming Study Finds At Least 55 Chemical Elements, Including Toxic Heavy Metals, in Covid Shots; “The never-disclosed chemical elements included 11 cytotoxic lanthanides and 11 heavy metals, such as arsenic, lead, aluminum, and mercury.”
Quality Control is Lacking: “Nationwide drug recall: Injectables mislabeled, may result in overdose and death” — “Bags of IV drugs distributed nationwide are being recalled for being mislabeled as a lesser-dose than what the drugs actually are, increasing the risk for overdosing and even death, according to the FDA.” See also: One-Third of New Drugs Had Safety Problems After FDA Approval (NPR)
“Hidden Dangers of Prescription Drugs: Are Your Meds Destroying Your Body?” — “Startling statistics reveal the extent of prescription drug use, with the average American male spending nearly half their life taking medications, and most women on prescription medications by 15 years old. While prescription drugs may provide temporary relief, they often come with a hidden cost: nutrient depletion that can cause even more problems than the medication is intended to solve… You’ll hear: Surprising statistics on prescription drug use in America. Essential vitamins and minerals that common medications deplete from your body. Natural remedies and mindset shifts that can address the root causes of illness. Practical strategies to reduce your reliance on pharmaceutical drugs.”
Prescription Drugs as a Whole Have Many Negative Effects — Other side effects which are commonly noticed by patients taking prescription drugs include: confusion, hallucinations, tremors, fainting, wheezing, palpitations, blurred vision, depression, sweating, ringing in the ears and sexual problems such as frigidity and impotence.” See also: Adverse drug reactions one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality; “Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) represent a significant public health problem that is, for the most part, preventable… 2.8 billion prescriptions were filled in the year 2000. That is about 10 prescriptions for every person in the United States… The rate of ADRs increases exponentially after a patient is on 4 or more medications.” See also: 12 ‘Ancient’ Natural Alternatives Better Than Drugs; “When it comes to traditional remedies, don’t mistake ‘old’ for obsolete. In the case of these 12 natural remedies, they may be old, but they really are tried and true. In the modern digital age, information that has stood the test of time is increasingly drowned out by the latest crazes. Health trends and fad diets hawked by fitness gurus offer you endless ways to get fitter and be better than you were yesterday, but how much of their advice will actually “stick” and become multi-generational wisdom?… Read on and discover 12 natural remedies that were passed down through the ages because they actually work.” See also: 11 Things Better than Drugs or Supplements for Healing; “It is quite easy to get caught up in the allopathic model of treating surface symptoms, albeit naturally. This ‘natural allopathy,’ if you will, entices people to look for ‘natural cure’ shortcuts and Band-Aids (‘nutraceuticals’) instead of address the deeper issues associated with avoiding, limiting and addressing environmental exposures, reducing stress, and improving diet and exercise, for instance. In a culture that pops hundreds of millions of doses of drugs and supplements on a daily basis, it is increasingly difficult to break free from the powerful psychological pull to ingest something — be it a natural or synthetic “magic pill”; its effects real or imagined — instead of address the underlying problems. This is also why part of our project is to identify peer-reviewed published research from biomedical journals indicating that there are therapeutic actions, from walking to yoga, dietary changes to exercising, that are at least as effective and often superior to conventional drug-based treatments.”
One in Four People are Victims of Diagnostic Errors or Issues in U.S. Hospitals — “It was found that 23 percent of patients either received incorrect diagnoses or experienced delays in diagnosis. Of these cases, 17 percent resulted in temporary or permanent harm to the patient. The study’s results are published in the January edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.” See also: Is US Health Really the Best in the World? (2000); “The Institute of Medicine… [reported] an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year as a result of medical errors.“
Nearly One-Third of Diagnostic Tests Upon Hospital Admission are Wasteful & Unnecessary, Increasing Risk of Harm — “Excessive testing is… one part of… low-value health care, a term that refers to services that provide little or no benefit, cause potential harm, incur significant costs, or waste limited resources. This… comes with plenty of risks — and little reward… The study, published in The American Journal of Medicine, focused on unnecessary testing in the first 24 hours after hospital admission… The study found that, upon physician review, over 31 percent of day-of hospital admission tests were needless and did not change the course of the patient’s care. When patients have excessive diagnostic tests, the potential for errors exists. False positive or false negative test results can lead to a “diagnostic cascade” of more testing or unnecessary prescriptions and harmful side effects… The top three reasons… [for] overtesting are fear of malpractice lawsuits, patient requests or demands, and the inability to access patient records quickly… The United States health care system’s current structure rewards health care providers for providing more care, not necessarily the right care. In a fee-for-service system, providers make more money if they order more tests.”
Long Term Effectiveness & Harms form Surgeries are Rarely Acknowledged and Discussed — “Those undergoing prostatectomy, the surgical removal of all or part of the prostate, faced a more than sevenfold increase in the risk of urinary and sexual complications compared with untreated men over 12 years, according to the results.”
“Pharmaceutical Companies & Their Foot-Soldier Doctors”
In 2011, doctors wrote 4.02 billion prescriptions for drugs in America. That’s an average of roughly 13 prescriptions for each man, woman, and child. That’s about one new prescription every month for every American. The Medical News Today article concluded, “…the industry should be heartened by the growth of the number of prescriptions and spending.” Yes, I’m sure the drug industry is popping champagne corks. What are the effects of all these drugs? We are looking at a supreme Trojan Horse that is rotting out America and all other countries from the inside… debilitating and ruining and terminating lives. Many sources can be cited to confirm this assessment… The LA Times published an article by one of the best medical reporters in the business, Linda Marsa: “When Good Drugs Do Harm.” … On July 26, 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the most stunning mainstream estimate of medical-drug damage in history: “Is US health really the best in the world?” The author was Dr. Barbara Starfield, a respected public-health researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Starfield concluded that medical drugs were killing Americans at the rate of 106,000 per year. …Countries of the world are literally being assaulted by pharmaceutical companies and their foot-soldier doctors. It’s chemical warfare… We need an all-out rebellion against the Pharmacopoeia. In case anyone thinks the FDA, the single agency responsible for certifying drugs as safe and effective, has “overlooked the problem,”… [consider] the following statement on the FDA’s own site: “Over 2 MILLION serious ADRs [Adverse Drug Events] yearly; 100,000 DEATHS yearly.” The only thing missing is: “And we, the FDA, said the drugs were safe.”
Impotent Drug Regulation, Corruption of Evidence, Bribery of Doctors, and Lies in Drug Marketing
Our drug agencies are not particularly helpful, as they rely on fake fixes, which are a long list of warnings, precautions, and contraindications for each drug, although they know that no doctor can possibly master all of these. Major reasons for the many drug deaths are impotent drug regulation, widespread crime that includes corruption of the scientific evidence about drugs and bribery of doctors, and lies in drug marketing, which is as harmful as tobacco marketing and, therefore, should be banned. We should take far fewer drugs, and patients should carefully study the package inserts of the drugs their doctors prescribe for them and independent information sources about drugs… which will make it easier for them to say “no thanks”.
Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche MD, 2014
The Madness Has No Limits
I have clinical notes [while under the “care” of Dr. Joseph Biederman, chief of child psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital] from when I was 12 years old until I was 16. Within those four years alone he had me on varying combinations of 16 different medications including mood stabilizers, anti-anxiety medications, tranquilizers, anti-depressants, an anti-epileptic medication that he believed could treat bipolar, anti-psychotics, and stimulants to counteract the fatigue I experienced from the other medications. When I was 12, I experienced lithium toxicity at a dose of 1050mg per day, so he switched me to Neurontin, a drug that has since been found to halt the formation of new synapses in the brain.
Not Only Do Drugs Cause Harm, They Divert Attention Away from Learning the Underlying Issue Causing the Symptoms, and, thus, the Ability to Seek and Achieve True Healing
When I was twenty-three, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. It was not until two years later, when I stopped taking medication, that I discovered I had a mental health disorder linked to my menstrual cycles. Meditating daily has been foundational for my well-being. It helps me manage the physical expressions of anxiety and bad moods. It allows me to be more accepting of myself and grateful for the many positives in my life. But it is the awareness journey that mindfulness has paved over these last seven years that has reached so many different corners of my life. The awareness I developed from regular practice seeps into my life as a positive multiplier, pushing further progress in emotional regulation.
Harms by Specific Drug Type
Context, Organized Curation
This article is a subset of a vast resource curation on the failure and corruption of establishment medicine. See here for the entire curation, or select links below to focus on an individual subject.
Failed Health Outcomes — The U.S. spends nearly twice the per-capita amount on healthcare than the next highest spender, yet Americans are the most chronically ill, and rank 48th in life expectancy, among other countries. In addition, medical misdiagnosis causes permanent harm and death to 795,000 people every year.
Verifiably Corrupt — Establishment medicine as a system* is verifiably corrupt, serving the interests of industry — not health. (*Obviously, not every individual working in establishment medicine is unethical. Rather, the system that educated / indoctrinated them, and that sets policy, hires, pays, and promotes them is verifiably corrupted.)
Big Pharma & Biotech: Immoral Business Model — Corporations, by design, are beholden to profit above all else, acting as powerful entities that are “essentially psychopathic and without conscience.” Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are the utmost example of corporate psychopathy, demonstrating inhumanity in response to human suffering.
Regulatory & Professional Betrayal — Government agencies entrusted to regulate the field of medicine fail to do so. The majority of influential professional organizations such as the American Medical Association are corrupted by industry.
Not Evidence/Science-Based — The bulk of establishment medicine’s standard of care is not backed by unbiased, reproducible science. (We prove it here.)
Harms, by Drug & Diagnostic — Establishment medicine providers routinely utilize diagnostic testing and “treatments” that cause harm (“adverse”, “side” effects). Get verifiable evidence of the harms, organized by drug and diagnostic test (e.g. antibiotics, PPIs, CT scans, and so on).
Failed Strategies & Procedures — The philosophies, strategies, and procedures used by establishment medicine are dysfunctional and irrational, including a focus on suppressing symptoms rather than understanding them. Providers do not seek to identify and resolve the root causes of illness, and diagnosis is simply an exercise in naming groupings of symptoms, disconnected from their purpose and message.
Root Causes of Illness — With knowledge of causal factors, true healing is possible. Quickly identify drugs, vaccines, toxins, and nutrient deficiencies that cause illnesses and symptoms e.g. depression, infertility, kidney issues, cancer, seizure, etc. Quickly verify documented “side effects” and evidence of harm.
Stifling Treatments That Don’t Enrich Industry — Healing modalities that don’t benefit industry are underutilized, suppressed, and disparaged. Providers who are perceived as a threat to establishment dictates or lucrative markets are condemned, intimidated and attacked.
Suppressed Cancer Treatments — Cancer treatments that don’t benefit establishment medicine are ignored and disparaged. This curation of more than 150 clinical studies and testimonials provides quick access to documented cancer reversal and recovery successes.
The Significance of Legal Precedent — Legal precedent, breach of duty, and “standard of care” are significant factors in the state of the medical industry.
Alternatives & Considerations — Alternatives, considerations, and what you can do.
Harms by Drug & Diagnostic is organized into these categories: