Prescription Drug Side Effects

There are occasions when prescription medication are required, however things are getting out of hand.

Rarely a day goes by when I am required to assist a patient that has at least some of their symptoms are actually CAUSED BY their prescribed drug medicaiton.

Indeed some patients are killed or significantly injured by their prescription medication. And it could easily happen to you!

Be careful what you take. Each drug medication has a side effect - many are hidden. But they invariably effect the kidney, liver and other organs.

Some are highly addictive without you knowing it, while others have very little therapeutic value, being peddled by well meaning doctors bought off by multi-national drug company glossy marketing.

It is now 'normal' for my elderly patients to be on up to a dozen different drug medications. Having interacting and compounding effects that we may never know, being sold under the banner of 'good health'.

What are we doing?

Giving children paracetamol during their first year of life can increase their risk of developing asthma according to new research published in Lancet.

Currently over 2.2 million Australians have asthma and incidence has been increasing over the last 50 years but we don't exactly know why.

Security footage shows 30-year-old Mairead  Costigan walking groggily across the cycle path and climbing onto a ledge before she fell.

Her family believes it was another tragedy involving the controversial sleeping pill Stilnox.

Nurofen Plus, which contains 200 milligrams of ibuprofen and 12.8 milligrams of codeine, is thought to be used by about half of all adult Australians.

It is the strongest over-the-counter painkiller on the market and has been blamed for a spate of hospital admissions where codeine addicts have taken up to 24 tablets a day, not realising the medication's other active ingredients, ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, can cause ulcers in the stomach and duodenum.

A popular insomnia pill may cause people to eat uncontrollably while asleep, authorities have warned.

Health officials have alerted doctors to risks associated with the popular insomnia pill Stillnox after reports of drugged people eating uncontrollably while asleep.

Heath Ledger's death was accidental resulting from misuse of a cocktail of pain killers, anxiety medication and sleeping pills, the New York coroner has found.

The finding prompted an immediate statement from Ledger's family warning of the "hidden dangers" of mixing prescription drugs.