Becoming a pill taking nation

According to today's news, Half of women in England are now regularly taking prescription drugs, according to the comprehensive Health Survey for England.

Further reading suggests that more and more people should be routinely prescribed drugs. So who is benefitting from this - the patients, the NHS, or heaven forbid, the pharmacutical companies?

Re: Becoming a pill taking nation

I vote the pharmaceutical companies, then the bonus for the Doctors and then the poor patient might get something to help them survive.
Cynical or what

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In many cases the patients, with out my meds I would have sky high blood pressure, pain all the time and shake like a leaf all the time. So I think I am benefitting from them. I only take what works for me though I have abandoned several meds that made me feel worse or didn't work.

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It worries me the amount of antibiotics handed round. Our grandchildren will have nothing left to fight infections with if it continues - can see all the old diseases coming back but as long as the pharmaceutical companies are making lots of dough, that's ok...
I know several people who demand pills for every ailment they have, not necessary half the time, I bet!!

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Any medication I take, I take it and don't give who or where it came from a thought. I take steroid inhalors and reliever inhalors every day and without them I'd be debilitated.

I do agree that some people like popping pills for the sake of it, it seems. Just like patients who hog the g.p waiting rooms, so that the rest of us don't have a chance in hell of getting an appointment.

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I guess I am a pill popper-4 for BP,3 for type 2 diabetes,1 for cholesterol and 1 or 2 for atrial fibrillation.

I really should join a gym.

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I had a minor heart attack some 20 years ago and was put on various tablets. I am still here and have had no heart trouble since then. I guess my tablets are doing some good.

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It is becoming a worry, seems there’s a pill for everything nowadays, and I’m sure taking them can become a habit whether you need them or not, and sure it’s all about the money what isn’t today.
I remember at a wedding some time ago a woman at the table tut tutting me for lowering a few pints, the wife told me later that the same women was swallowing Valium morning noon and night, look before you leap, kettle and pot.
I don’t take any type of drugs, not even aspirin for a headache and never will until I have to.

Re: Becoming a pill taking nation

Yes, Jem, there does seem to be a pill for everything. Thing is, unless it is an "illness", then sometimes things do get better of their own accord. The body is a fascinating machine, always trying to help itself, sometimes it can, sometimes it can't. There will always be people who want to pop pills. If I knew I could cure symptoms by just letting time pass then I'd be happy to do that. I don't think pills are a magic cure for everything. They help more serious conditions, but not every condition.

I'll take paracetamol for pain when I need to. I think it's a wonderful painkiller. For me, anyway.

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I'm fortunate that I don't take any prescription tablets but my husband has to take 2 for BP, 1 for blood thinning, 1 for cholesterol, for atrial fibrillation.