TY  - BOOK
AU  - Le Fanu,James
TI  - Too many pills: how too much medicine is endangering our health and what we can do about it 
SN  - 9781408709771
AV  - RM302.5 .L44 2018
PY  - 2018///
CY  - Great Britain
PB  - Little, Brown
KW  - Drugs
KW  - Popular works
KW  - Overdose
KW  - Side effects
N1  - Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-288) and index
N2  - Over the past fifteen years the number of prescriptions has increased threefold - an additional 300 million annually - so it is now not unusual for those in their seventies to be taking half a dozen (or more) different drugs. This might be justified were it driven by a flood of new, effective treatments for the relief of common medical conditions - but that is not the case. There has been a fundamental shift in the rationale of drug treatment - we no longer only treat symptoms, we aim to control more aspects of physiology than ever before: blood pressure, glucose levels and cholesterol must all be brought within 'normal' levels in order to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Drugs, however, are not without side effects, and one in four acute admissions to hospitals are now caused by adverse reactions to medication. Drawing on fifty years' experience in medical practice, James Le Fanu reveals the truth about medicine's metamorphosis from modest beginnings in alleviating pain to the massive global phenomenon it is today, sounds the alarm about the dangers of over-medication, and shows us how the future of medicine can be if we'd just stop taking the pills
ER  -