Catalyst Homeopathy
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Drug Use in the US
| Some 46% americans take at least one prescription medicine Mokdad and colleagues estimate 32000 US deaths per annum from prescription drug use, excluding suicide and accidental deaths. To put that into perspective, deaths from illicit drug abuse including crack, heroin etc in the US is 17000 and fall alcohol related deaths total 85000. (1) The prestigious scientific and clinical Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998 went further. They studied the number of deaths in hospitals attributable to the proper use of prescribed medicines (excludes clinical errors, malpractice, suicide etc) and they estimated by extrapolation from their work that across the US as many as 106,000 deaths may be attributable to prescription medicines.(2) In addition there are many other deaths in the general population. In Dec 2007, Wester and colleagues in studies in Sweden, (where there is a very well funded and universal healthcare system) estimated that as many as 5% of hospitalized patients and 3% of the general population may die from adverse effects of properly used prescription medicines including anti-clotting agents, painkillers and oral contraceptives.
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