A Nation of Overly Medicated Consumers By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

Consumer Reports has some new information in their October issue advising people who suffer from frequent headaches to talk to their doctors before reaching into their medicine cabinets. Overuse of prescription and over-the-counter pain medications can in fact make headaches worse. They go on to say that consumers inadvertently create their own headaches. CR tells us that people tend not to think of headaches remedies, especially those they can buy without a prescription, as "serious" drugs. It even says that the headache can even be made worse and result in "medication overuse headaches," which affect up to two thirds of patients who seek help in headache treatment centers. Why is it that we are willing to spend unlimited amounts of money and lives on drugs but prevention is a foreign thought process? We truly are a nation of consumers, but at what cost? [more...]