Experts Say Americans are Overmedicating
(Plymouth, MA, AP, 4/18/05)

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Americans are the top consumers of medicine, both prescription and over-the-counter—and statistics indicate that this trend is endangering their health. Recent revelations of serious safety problems with pain drugs, like Vioxx and Bextra, highlight the risk that people unwittingly take in their pursuit of wellness through medication. Moreover, every year over 125,000 Americans die from drug reactions and mistakes; all while the pharmaceutical industry uses the media to boost public enthusiasm for new medications, which are often no better than the old. Apparently the American medical industry does not see the need to balance risk and benefit as it embraces risky drugs as the first option, even though studies show that exercise and diet protect against major conditions like heart disease and diabetes just as well as drugs do.