Post: #1

A new study finds that fully 70% of Americans are on prescription drugs. Just insane and disgusting. A simultaneous indictment of our drug companies, legal system, and public.

The fattest country in the history of the world, just poppin pills on its merry way.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-5759...ion-drugs/

Post: #2

This stuff really adds a wild card to all relationships, because it makes human behavior unpredictable, irrational, and just unexplainable.

When they do studies for FDA approval, it's for one medication. How many medication users have 2, 3, or 4 prescriptions? A lot.

Post: #3

Poor nutrition is great for the health business. Enjoy your glazed donut hamburger.

Post: #4

Ironically I live near a skyscraper with a few healthcare companies HQd in it. There is no where I have been where I have seen more massively overweight women, many of them smokers, who look like they are about to keel over dead at any moment, then at 5 PM when work lets out and they exit the building. Its painful to watch.

Post: #5

Don't forget all that prescribed garbage is pissed/passed into our drinking water.

Post: #6

Soma. Huxley.

Post: #7

(06-24-2013 04:56 PM)babelfish669 Wrote:  Ironically I live near a skyscraper with a few healthcare companies HQd in it. There is no where I have been where I have seen more massively overweight women, many of them smokers, who look like they are about to keel over dead at any moment, then at 5 PM when work lets out and they exit the building. Its painful to watch.

"...where I have seen more massively overweight women..."

Are they massively overweight? Or are they so deliciously plump that you find yourself in an uncontrollable sexual frenzy?

"...who look like they are about to keel over dead at any moment..."

Do they look like they're about to keel over? Or do you really want to throw them down and make mad, passionate love to them?

"Its painful to watch."

Is it painful? Or is it so pleasurable that your head is spinning like a top?!?!

Extra points to whoever knows what classic comic scene I'm imitating there. That is comedy, by the way, unless you're a chubby chaser, in which case...well, you probably didn't have to do much actual "chasing" since she's a fatass and can't run very fast.

Post: #8

(06-25-2013 01:37 AM)A War You Cannot Win Wrote:  Soma. Huxley.

“Was and will make me ill,
I take a gram and only am."

Post: #9

(06-25-2013 01:49 AM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  Extra points to whoever knows what classic comic scene I'm imitating there. That is comedy, by the way, unless you're a chubby chaser, in which case...well, you probably didn't have to do much actual "chasing" since she's a fatass and can't run very fast.

No idea

There are fat women who waddle around all day, and then there are fat women who use all of their energy to walk from one chair to another. These fall in the latter category. Thus, the extra adjectives.

Post: #10

The category "prescription drug" is simply an artifact of government regulation and the FDA.

Put it this way - if someone said 90% of Americans take aspirin, would that be worth losing sleep over?

Well, if aspirin were invented today by a pharmaceutical company it would be forced by the FDA to go through three phases of clinical trials for safety and efficacy and would be prescription only.

Each drug should be assessed on its own terms with regards to benefits versus side-effects. There's no point in lumping them all together in such categories as "prescription drugs". And we'd be better off if the government also stopped making this distinction, but that's a separate issue.

Post: #11

The prevalence of Aderall among college kids in the US is even worse.
Everyone of my bangs in NYC this months was taking or had taken Aderall when studying.

Post: #12

(06-24-2013 04:58 PM)Kingsley Davis Wrote:  Don't forget all that prescribed garbage is pissed/passed into our drinking water.

This. I drink mineral water primarily for that reason.

Supposedly reverse osmosis gets all of the drugs out of the water. The filter is around $400 + installation.

Know anything about that?

Post: #13

(06-25-2013 02:37 PM)Therapsid Wrote:  The category "prescription drug" is simply an artifact of government regulation and the FDA.

Put it this way - if someone said 90% of Americans take aspirin, would that be worth losing sleep over?

Did you read the article?

Quote:"However, the second most common prescription was for antidepressants -- that suggests mental health is a huge issue and is something we should focus on. And the third most common drugs were opioids, which is a bit concerning considering their addicting nature."

That's hardly an aspirin.

Why don't you look at what people are actually taking?

This is the list of the 10 most common prescribed drugs.

http://www.webmd.com/news/20110420/the-1...ibed-drugs

Note that most are fattie medications.

So yes it is indeed telling that 70% of Americans are on prescription drugs.

Post: #14

Stress and unhappiness:

sex deprived men surrounded by unattractive and masculine women -

women forced into wage slavery and having to pretend to be happy with their "career"

Most are living lives of quiet desperation

Post: #15

When I first started working on Wall St in my 20's I started getting dizzy, and when I went to the Doctor they perscribed me some downers. I took them for like 3 months and I was like "wtf is this crap". Haven't taken shit since.

It takes a while to mentally adjust to working with people that are boderline sheep.

I wrote a post the other day about "blue pill" illnesses and I was accused of trolling, but I really meant it.

Diseases like irritable bowel, insomnia, etc are all caused by anxiety....

People need to find a mental balance so that you can handle work, family, stress, gf's, and staying healthy.

Post: #16

(06-25-2013 08:54 PM)TheCaptainPower Wrote:  Diseases like irritable bowel, insomnia, etc are all caused by anxiety....

People need to find a mental balance so that you can handle work, family, stress, gf's, and staying healthy.

There's increasing evidence to support this. Check out the Polyvagal Theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvagal_Theory). The vagus nerve (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagus_nerve) runs all the way down to your gut and is thought to be activated during IBS episodes. It's also the primary nerve that we feel emotions through and pacemaker like devices have been used to alter its stimulation to treat depression. Mental health and physical health are intimately tied together. Drugs certainly have their place but I feel like they should be treated as a last resort rather than first lines of defense.

Post: #17

(06-25-2013 03:59 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  

(06-25-2013 02:37 PM)Therapsid Wrote:  The category "prescription drug" is simply an artifact of government regulation and the FDA.

Put it this way - if someone said 90% of Americans take aspirin, would that be worth losing sleep over?

Did you read the article?

Quote:"However, the second most common prescription was for antidepressants -- that suggests mental health is a huge issue and is something we should focus on. And the third most common drugs were opioids, which is a bit concerning considering their addicting nature."

That's hardly an aspirin.

Why don't you look at what people are actually taking?

This is the list of the 10 most common prescribed drugs.

http://www.webmd.com/news/20110420/the-1...ibed-drugs

Note that most are fattie medications.

So yes it is indeed telling that 70% of Americans are on prescription drugs.

Yet life expectancy has never been higher. As bad as the obesity epidemic is, as damning the high rates of mental disease are, etc. the fact is that people in industrialized countries are healthier and live longer than any generation in the entirety of human history.

One would think that this simple fact would take priority of place in any discussion of pharmaceuticals and modern medicine.

But no, unfortunately most of us fall prey to the cognitive bias to look for human agency in the ills that plague us. For the same reason that people worry more about terrorism like the Boston marathon bombing than about accidents like the chemical plant that blew up around the same time, people also tend to blame corporations and modern technology for cancer and other health problems instead of the myriad natural causes which modern medicine combats against. We're always ready to blame other people, modern technology, and big pharma for our health problems when they're overwhelmingly just the product of our faulty physiological makeup. The bias is always to look for ways we can do less, ways we can prevent other ostensibly bad people from hurting us, rather than to search for ways to cure and overcome the miseries that have plagued mankind since time immemorial.

The balance sheet is clear - modern medicine with all its arsenal of pharmaceuticals and expensive invasive procedures is better than the alternative. And it's not even close.

Yet some of us still yearn for halcyon days when people didn't adulterate their bodies with man-made drugs and chemicals, despite the fact that these same generations lived shorter, more miserable lives.

Science blogger Keith Kloor puts it well:

"Although our improved health and longevity are due to science, we moderns in the industrial world increasingly blame diseases (some that are wholly psychosomatic) on technologies that we owe our less-diseased, better-living lives to. What many of us are most afflicted with today are assorted fears and dreads stemming from the very advances that have made us the wealthiest, healthiest humans of all time."

Link

Post: #18

(06-25-2013 03:56 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  

(06-24-2013 04:58 PM)Kingsley Davis Wrote:  Don't forget all that prescribed garbage is pissed/passed into our drinking water.

This. I drink mineral water primarily for that reason.

Supposedly reverse osmosis gets all of the drugs out of the water. The filter is around $400 + installation.

Know anything about that?

One of those filters came with my apartment. The water tastes good (duh, Art Pimp) and the contrast in clarity to a glass of tap water was somewhat mind boggling and horrifying. I don't know anything about installation or potential maintenance as it was really just a nice bonus to me. Obviously it's not very difficult to justify spending 400 bones on clean water.

Post: #19

(06-25-2013 10:31 PM)Therapsid Wrote:  

(06-25-2013 03:59 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  

(06-25-2013 02:37 PM)Therapsid Wrote:  The category "prescription drug" is simply an artifact of government regulation and the FDA.

Put it this way - if someone said 90% of Americans take aspirin, would that be worth losing sleep over?

Did you read the article?

Quote:"However, the second most common prescription was for antidepressants -- that suggests mental health is a huge issue and is something we should focus on. And the third most common drugs were opioids, which is a bit concerning considering their addicting nature."

That's hardly an aspirin.

Why don't you look at what people are actually taking?

This is the list of the 10 most common prescribed drugs.

http://www.webmd.com/news/20110420/the-1...ibed-drugs

Note that most are fattie medications.

So yes it is indeed telling that 70% of Americans are on prescription drugs.

Yet life expectancy has never been higher. As bad as the obesity epidemic is, as damning the high rates of mental disease are, etc. the fact is that people in industrialized countries are healthier and live longer than any generation in the entirety of human history.

One would think that this simple fact would take priority of place in any discussion of pharmaceuticals and modern medicine.

But no, unfortunately most of us fall prey to the cognitive bias to look for human agency in the ills that plague us. For the same reason that people worry more about terrorism like the Boston marathon bombing than about accidents like the chemical plant that blew up around the same time, people also tend to blame corporations and modern technology for cancer and other health problems instead of the myriad natural causes which modern medicine combats against. We're always ready to blame other people, modern technology, and big pharma for our health problems when they're overwhelmingly just the product of our faulty physiological makeup. The bias is always to look for ways we can do less, ways we can prevent other ostensibly bad people from hurting us, rather than to search for ways to cure and overcome the miseries that have plagued mankind since time immemorial.

The balance sheet is clear - modern medicine with all its arsenal of pharmaceuticals and expensive invasive procedures is better than the alternative. And it's not even close.

Yet some of us still yearn for halcyon days when people didn't adulterate their bodies with man-made drugs and chemicals, despite the fact that these same generations lived shorter, more miserable lives.

Science blogger Keith Kloor puts it well:

"Although our improved health and longevity are due to science, we moderns in the industrial world increasingly blame diseases (some that are wholly psychosomatic) on technologies that we owe our less-diseased, better-living lives to. What many of us are most afflicted with today are assorted fears and dreads stemming from the very advances that have made us the wealthiest, healthiest humans of all time."

Link

(06-25-2013 10:31 PM)Therapsid Wrote:  The balance sheet is clear - modern medicine with all its arsenal of pharmaceuticals and expensive invasive procedures is better than the alternative. And it's not even close.

Yet some of us still yearn for halcyon days when people didn't adulterate their bodies with man-made drugs and chemicals, despite the fact that these same generations lived shorter, more miserable lives.

Science blogger Keith Kloor puts it well:

"Although our improved health and longevity are due to science, we moderns in the industrial world increasingly blame diseases (some that are wholly psychosomatic) on technologies that we owe our less-diseased, better-living lives to. What many of us are most afflicted with today are assorted fears and dreads stemming from the very advances that have made us the wealthiest, healthiest humans of all time."

Link

Nope, the balance sheet is not so clear.

Modern advances have led to our increased life-spans, yes.

These advances can be enumerated: better sanitation (the #1 advance, occurring a century or more ago in the West), vaccinations eliminating many childhood diseases, antibiotics for acute infection, and of course the wonderful treatments we have for accident and trauma. Add to that abundant food. Yes, it's a good time.

But that does not mean the cocktail of drugs most people are on is increasing our lifespans. I think a comparison with Japan would be instructive. The longest lifespan in the world, yet take up of statins and antidepressants and prescription medicine in general is far, far lower than in the USA.

Read my list again. Sanitation, vaccination, penicillin, some surgical techniques, good nutrition. Much of this is 100 year old tech and it accounts for the increase our lifespans today.

The happiest, longest-lived people in the world are not fat, medicated Americans but Okinawan and Sardinian peasants who vaccinate their kids, and can go to the hospital when they break a leg or get a lung infection, but otherwise rarely interact with the modern medical system.

Post: #20

Quote:unless you're a chubby chaser, in which case...well, you probably didn't have to do much actual "chasing" since she's a fatass and can't run very fast.

Completely unrelated to obesity, I'd say that this is not so much an American issue as that of development. People in developed societies are very apt to forget their priorities and work or eat themselves to death instead of living a good life, then cover it up with magic pills. With some exceptions, I would not blame the medical system for this. It only reflects the demand. As many family medicine doctors might tell you, one of their biggest problems is patient non-compliance. They tell people to eat less salt, to reduce calorie intake, to exercise, to invest in preventive health care, and they mostly get ignored. It's very sad. Heck, they are less and less successful with convincing people to be vaccinated too.

Post: #21

(06-24-2013 04:36 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  A new study finds that fully 70% of Americans are on prescription drugs. Just insane and disgusting. A simultaneous indictment of our drug companies, legal system, and public.

The fattest country in the history of the world, just poppin pills on its merry way.

I can't find the study. The research that this article is referring to does not appear to exist, or has not been finalised for publishing.

Typical journalistic sensationalist bullshitting.

Once the research is published, it will probably say something stupid like "over the course of the past ten years, 70% of the population of our country received prescription meds at least once during the entire period..."