How many pills do you take a day?

[dmoore19]

It's useless statistics/a foolish poll. Taking vitamins( the right ones) is part of geting the food we should be able to get at grocery stores but can't due to factory farms and the poor quality of food America is becoming infamous for( try eating on the Amalfi Coast of Italy some time). Taking Vitamins is proactive, and required due to the need each of us has for "complete foods".

On the other hand, the handfulls of prescription pills taken by most 60 somethings and older is an indictment of a culture that allows an evil pharmaceutical industry and it's enforcment arm ( the FDA) to prosper....They have implemented a system where ignoring causes and selling pills for symptoms is the norm, and Doctors that desire to fight this do so at extreme risk to malpractice or worse.

Your poll lumps the two together.... You should pull it down and start again.

It has been around for a couple of years. It was recently revived for what ever reason. If you don't like it, don't post on it.

 

[DandyDon]

A handful for me - A cholesterol Rx, Claritin, baby aspirin, 3 fish oil, multivitamin, niacin - has been one of the inconveniences of aging but am in the best shape of last 25 years

You can drop the fish oil. Fish Oil Fizzles for Fighting Heart Attack, Stroke

It is amazing what Claritin sells for in stores! Here's a year's supply for $7: Amazon.com: Kirkland Signature AllerClear Non-Drowsy*: Health & Personal Care

I'm leery of cholesterol meds.

 

[dmoore19]

You can drop the fish oil. Fish Oil Fizzles for Fighting Heart Attack, Stroke

It is amazing what Claritin sells for in stores! Here's a year's supply for $7: Amazon.com: Kirkland Signature AllerClear Non-Drowsy*: Health & Personal Care

I'm leery of cholesterol meds.

We buy almost all of our meds both OTC and Prescription at Costco.

My wife has a couple of Asthma meds she takes and her BP meds. The OTC stuff works well for us but you can get the brand name stuff there at a reasonable price too. Ibuprophen, allergy relief etc. Hell, I can buy the Kirkland jeans for 13.99/pair there. That kind of stuff helps keep my blood pressure down.

 

[ncgator]

Thanks Don. I buy generic Claritin at Sam's club here for about $16 for 300 I think, do not too bad. Have the fish oil bit on my list to talk with my doc about too.

 

[dmoore19]

I don't take anything daily but on occasion allergy relief or some relief from a headache or muscle aches is necessary. I would make a terrible example for drug companies, I hate taking pills of any kind.

The Costco brand of Zyrtec is a pretty good buy too. Especially now with the current discount.

Kirkland Signature

 

[Nemrod]

None--0. Made out of steel and some titanium, don't need no stink'n BC and don't need no stink'n pills. Best thing you can do is stay away from doctors, hospitals and pills, those things or any combination of them will kill you, a lot sooner than scuba without a poodle jacket.

N

 

[Reck Diver]

On the other hand, the handfulls of prescription pills taken by most 60 somethings and older is an indictment of a culture that allows an evil pharmaceutical industry and it's enforcment arm ( the FDA) to prosper....They have implemented a system where ignoring causes and selling pills for symptoms is the norm, and Doctors that desire to fight this do so at extreme risk to malpractice or worse.

DV, I have to it to you. Yours is one of the most eye opening posts I have read on SB. Those pharmaceutical industries!!.... Imagine developing those Tamoxifen pills. What right do they think they have increasing survival rates of women with breast cancer. And can you imagine they have gone even further with an intravenous poison called Rituxan which has added years to the lives of those suffering from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

And that wasn't good enough for Big Pharma and their FDA and toadies....they didn't stop at fighting malignancies, they have continued to make new and improved antibiotics. I will stand at your side when you call to ban them, so those in the 60+ crowd will be unable to fight off a pneumonia. If we can thin out that herd, it would certainly end the medicare crisis.

 

[danvolker]

DV, I have to it to you. Yours is one of the most eye opening posts I have read on SB. Those pharmaceutical industries!!.... Imagine developing those Tamoxifen pills. What right do they think they have increasing survival rates of women with breast cancer. And can you imagine they have gone even further with an intravenous poison called Rituxan which has added years to the lives of those suffering from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

And that wasn't good enough for Big Pharma and their FDA and toadies....they didn't stop at fighting malignancies, they have continued to make new and improved antibiotics. I will stand at your side when you call to ban them, so those in the 60+ crowd will be unable to fight off a pneumonia. If we can thin out that herd, it would certainly end the medicare crisis.

Reck diver, I am surprised at how gullible you are.....

Try this by Mercola:
Tamoxifen is a drug that binds to your estrogen receptors. Therefore it was thought that it could prevent excess estrogen binding, hence halting cancer from forming.

It is generally prescribed to high-risk women to prevent breast cancer, and is usually taken for five years.
However, Tamoxifen has been found to cause cancer instead. According to a study published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer, the treatment of breast cancer with tamoxifen results in an increased risk of uterine cancer incidence and mortality.
This is just one in a growing line of studies published, raising serious concerns about the increased risk of uterine cancer for women who take tamoxifen as a cancer preventive drug.
Despite these concerns, tamoxifen is still on the market.
Sources:
International Journal of Gynecological Cancer 2007

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, let’s spread some real cancer awareness. Western medicine’s approach to cancer treatment is based on profit, not safety and effectiveness.
Let’s recap just a handful of the numerous deadly conventional cancer drugs on the market, and then I’ll share with you the best cancer-avoidance techniques I know.
Cancer Drugs – All Hype, Very Little Substance
Prices for new cancer therapies have skyrocketed. Cancer drug costs rose nearly 16 percent in 2006, while other prescription drugs averaged a 3 percent price increase.
But are they worth it? The fact is, these expensive medications often give patients just a few more months of life – and sometimes they kill people prematurely.
Take a look at these examples.

• AVASTIN – Avastin, when used to treat colorectal cancer, sold for $50,000 per year. However, once it was approved to treat breast and lung cancer as well, Genentech announced a new price tag: $100,000 per year, even though it may extend your life by no more than a few months.
• ERBITUX – Another colorectal cancer drug, with a price tag of nearly $10,000 per month, even though there is not a single study showing it helps colorectal cancer patients live longer.
• EVISTA (Raloxifene) -- This Eli Lilly drug was found to prevent breast cancer by one-third in a study of more than 10,000 postmenopausal women. Your true cost? Trading your breast cancer prevention for a 50 percent increased risk of fatal strokes and blood clots. Ironically, Evista was once sold as an osteoporosis drug, being illegally promoted for treating cardiovascular disease back in 2002.
• GLEEVEC – Also sold under the name Glivec. This cancer drug, used to treat leukemia, unfortunately also kills heart muscle cells, which may cause fatal congestive heart failure.
• ABRAXANE – A new version of an old cancer drug, Taxol, sells for $4,200 per dose. The older version, which has similar effects, costs 25 times less.

The financial sacrifices you might make in order to afford a “miracle” cancer drug can be staggering. But what you need to know is that these exorbitantly priced drugs do not in any way, shape, or form, treat the cause of your problem, and pharmaceutical companies earn billions of dollars on this deception.
It seems that the more serious and life threatening the disease, the more expensive your drug solution is. The very vocal former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell, sums up the situation brilliantly: "It's really exploiting the desperation of people with a life-threatening illness."
So, how can they get away with charging such astronomical prices that only the very wealthy can afford? In case you were not aware of it, it’s a very specific strategy. The trick is to have your insurance company pay for it, or their main backup, YOU, through the federal government and your taxes.
This kind of behavior is the reason why the United States spends more than $2 trillion every year for healthcare, and it is ruining the American economy in the process -- all due to corporate greed.
Making matters worse, as soon as a drug company comes out with a more expensive alternative, that’s the pill they’ll promote to both you and your physician. Suddenly, they want you to believe the older drugs are virtually worthless even though just a few years prior, when they were the new kid on the block, they were being heavily promoted as your latest and greatest must-use approach.
How to Prevent Cancer
Is it possible to prevent cancer? Yes. It is possible. But not by swallowing a chemical cocktail.
A more sensible, safer, and less expensive approach is to simply make some lifestyle changes. Even the American Cancer Society – which is as traditional as medical organizations come -- now suggest you can achieve a 62 percent risk reduction with simple lifestyle changes, including:

• Make sure you get adequate sun exposure as that will not only reduce your risk of breast cancer by 50 percent, but ALL other cancers by the same amount. Remember that one million people die EVERY year due to lack of optimal sun exposure.
• Eat healthier (ideally based on your body's unique nutritional type)
• Incorporate more exercise in your daily routine
• Stop smoking today
• Perform monthly breast self-examinations

But, one of the skills my father drilled into me from early childhood was: “Never settle for second best.” Why would you settle for a meager 62 percent reduction?
I believe you can VIRTUALLY ELIMINATE your cancer risk if you follow these risk reduction strategies, even though they have not been formally "proven" yet by conservative researchers, including:

1. Control your insulin levels: Make certain that you limit your intake of processed foods and sugars as much as possible.
2. Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats and make sure you use cod liver oil if you don't have regular access to sun exposure.
3. Get appropriate exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.
4. Normalize your vitamin D levels with safe amounts of sun exposure, or use a safe tanning bed. Alternatively you could use oral vitamin D and carefully monitor blood levels to prevent overdose.
5. Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much under appreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic, this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.
6. Have a tool to permanently erase your neurological short-circuiting, which can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. Energy psychology seems to be one of the best approaches and my particular favorite tool, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.
7. Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means, eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. If you are a carb nutritional type you may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than a protein nutritional type.

Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. However, please understand that, frequently, fresh conventionally grown vegetables are still healthier than old and wilted organic ones. They are certainly better than no vegetables at all.

1. Maintain your ideal body weight.
2. Get enough high-quality sleep.
3. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners, and air pollution.
4. Boil, poach, or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

Save your health and your money. You work too hard to waste either one on man-made "miracle" drugs and cures.

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[vladimir]

Taking vitamins( the right ones) is part of geting the food we should be able to get at grocery stores but can't due to factory farms and the poor quality of food America is becoming infamous for( try eating on the Amalfi Coast of Italy some time). Taking Vitamins is proactive, and required due to the need each of us has for "complete foods".

Which vitamins do you not get in a balanced diet of American food, and which foods on the Amalfi Coast would obviate the need for supplemental vitamins? What afflictions should I expect after 50 years without supplements and ~30 years of eating food in America? I mean, assuming I'm using my emotional freedom techniques regularly.

 

[AfterDark]

1 mulit-vit/mineral, time released 4 1000 mg vit C 2 AM 2PM time released 2 aleve 1 aspirin.