Time To Wake Up

Posted: 2/20/2012 10:34:20 AM
By: Eric Shuemake | with: 0comments

Time to Wake Up
Whitney Houston, dead at 48.  As I write this the autopsy has been completed, however, the results not released.  But the lesson already exists in my humble opinion.  NO MATTER WHAT THE AUTOPSY SHOWS.  Allow me to share.  Just take a look at the celebrities that have died from prescription drug use recently.  Realize that they are just a few of the famous ones- the vast majority are all around you.
Michael Jackson.  The pop-icon died and was on a COCKTAIL of Rx drugs.
Whitney Houston.  Police discovered a half dozen bottles of medication in Houston's room, TMZ reported, adding that family members said Houston had been taking the prescription drug Xanax, which is often used to treat anxiety.

Heath Ledger.  Australian film actor died at age 28 while taking properly prescribed psychotropic medications for his depression.
Brittany Murphy. Drug list:  Topamax (anti-seizure meds also to prevent migraines), Methylprednisolone (anti-inflammatory), Fluoxetine (depression med), Klonopin (anxiety med), Carbamazepine (treats Diabetic symptoms and is also a bipolar med), Ativan (anxiety med), Vicoprofen (pain reliever), Propranolol (hypertension, used to prevent heart attacks), Biaxin (antibiotic), Hydrocodone (pain med) and miscellaneous vitamins.  It was probably the vitamins.
AND THESE ARE JUST THE CELEBRITIES, THE ONE’S WE HEAR ABOUT ON THE NEWS!  There are hundreds of thousands of others out there!!!  People just like you and your family.  It’s clearly evident that the PROBLEM is the fact that pills are a way of life in this country. It’s a 300 BILLION DOLLAR industry in the U.S. alone!  We are 5% of the world’s population, yet we take 60% of the world’s medication!
I was invited to speak at a local middle school about the abuse of Ritalin (an ADHD drug that is one of the most abused in your child’s school) for Red Ribbon Drug Abuse Prevention week.  I was excited to do it until I asked if I could talk about natural, drug-free solutions to ADHD (there are dozens of them).  “Absolutely not!” was the answer.  They just wanted me to tell the kids to stop taking Ritalin that wasn’t prescribed to them.  Silly me, I thought a great way to combat the problem would be to STOP GIVING IT TO SO MANY KIDS IN THE FIRST PLACE!  Then it wouldn’t be so available for kids to abuse.  I’m all for educating kids on the dangers of abuse, but how about we stop making the drugs so easy to get?  According to the CDC, 1 out of 5 high school student abuse prescription drugs.  
ABC news did a story last week about moms who have lost their family due to abuse of prescription pain meds.  As I watched it my heart broke.  These are women just like you or my wife whose families have been destroyed by these drugs.  It started out innocently and turned into a nightmare in each case.  I had a 13 year old patient last week who had been prescribed Vicodin for a SPRAINED ANKLE!  Someone is clearly asleep at the wheel here.  We have become desensitized to these dangerous drugs and it’s time to wake up, for the sake of our kids if nothing else.
What would happen if people got educated on the 5 Essentials of health so we didn’t take over half of the world’s drugs anymore?   What would happen if people were empowered to take control of their health instead of putting it in the hands of the drug companies?  What people need more access to is a different system - the Maximized Living Delivery System – it’s time to EXTEND lives, not SHORTEN them.  So where do you start with such a big problem?  As always, one person at a time.
 THANK YOU to all of you that referred in a friend or loved one last week for Doctors with a Heart week last week.