We’re Good Starting Drugs, Poor Ending Them
15 Feb 2019
Over 50 percent of North Americans take an average of four prescription drugs a day! And according to the journal, “Annals of Family Medicine”, a survey of 50,000 Canadians revealed that nearly half take certain drugs longer than recommended. Dr. Dee Mangin, professor of family medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada says, “Our whole medical system is geared to starting things, but completely invisible in the prescribing system is a setup for stopping things.”
As we age, this can cause side-effects such as interacting negatively with other medication. Or, taking a common medication too long, such as PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors) to treat heartburn, can have serious side-effects. These drugs should be used intermittently or daily, but not longer than three months. If they are, they increase the risk of serious intestinal infection, and have also been linked to kidney failure. There is one exception. Patients who have gastrointestinal reflux disease, (GERD), an inflammation of the lower end of the food pipe, may require longer treatment. If so, doctors should use the lowest possible dose. Others should ask their doctor if they can gradually taper off the dose.
So let’s start to learn how to stop taking drugs.
