It’s a free-for-all for pharmaceutical companies these days.

An AARP Report has found that:

• Between 1986 and 2002 Americans age 45 and older reported their regular use of prescription drugs increased from 52% to 75%. That means 75% of Americans over 45 take a prescription. At 50+, the percentage of Americans taking a prescription is 85%. But it’s more than that. The average 45+ American take 4 prescriptions.
• Women over 45 are more likely than men to be on a prescription. 79% of women as opposed to 71% of men.

The question is, what are they taking?

• 55 million antidepressants
• 21.5 million Synthroid prescriptions to treat hypothyroidism
• 21.4 million Crestor prescriptions to treat high blood cholesterol and triglycerides
• 20 million Albuterol prescriptions to treat asthma
• 15 million Nexium prescriptions to treat acid reflux
• 13.7 million Advair prescriptions to treat asthma and COPD
• 11 million Lantus Solostar prescriptions to treat diabetes
• 10.4 million Vyvanse prescriptions to treat ADHD and binge-eating disorder
• 10 million Lyrica prescriptions to treat muscle and nerve pain and fibromyalgia
• 9.6 million Spiriva inhaler prescriptions to treat COPD
• 9.1 million Januvia prescriptions to treat diabetes.

Just for the purposes of condensing the information a bit: If we just talk about lung issues—namely asthma and COPD—we’ve got three of the top 10 totaling around 44 million prescriptions. And two of the top 10 are for diabetes, totaling about 20 million prescriptions. My view is we can basically just get rid of Vyvanse for ADHD and binge-eating disorder as both of these conditions are just made up.

Now most of us over 45 are taking an average of 4 medications, and my bet is that it’s often a combination of those 10. I want to address just a few of the bigger ones.

Synthroid (21.5 million prescriptions)

This is one of the biggest medical scams going on right now. It’s a synthetic replacement for the TSH hormone. TSH is the end-product of a long chain of chemical events where any number of things can go wrong. Your pituitary gland sends a signal to your thyroid gland to make T1, T2 and T3 hormones, which are then converted to TSH in the liver.

But what if your pituitary isn’t sending the signal? What if your thyroid isn’t getting the signal? What if your thyroid isn’t making T1, T2 or T3? What if you liver isn’t making the conversion? What if you’re making TSH just fine, but your cells are accepting because the receptors are fried? You have to test for all of these things and get to the cause.

What should you do instead of taking Synthroid? That’s a big question and difficult to answer without testing and knowing your specific situation. But generally, you’d eat a high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb diet and remove from your diet things like pesticides, antibiotics, and genetically modified organisms (GMO). The protein helps regenerate thyroid and liver tissue. The fat regenerates cell membranes and hormone receptors. It also is the building blocks for hormones themselves. Removing toxicity allows inflammation to go down and tissues to regenerate.

High cholesterol and triglycerides (21.4 million prescriptions)

If this is your problem, you are probably inflamed. And that probably comes from leaky gut. And that probably comes from, among other things, taking prescriptions! Yes, everything from ibuprofen to penicillin to chemotherapy causes leaky gut, which allows toxins to directly enter your bloodstream, which leads to an immune response and inflammation.

Cholesterol buildup in the blood vessels is a defense mechanism against inflammation. The walls of your blood vessels become weakened by inflammation and foreign particles. Cholesterol is like a bandage. In some cases, you should thank your lucky stars you have high cholesterol. Otherwise, you’d be dead!

So what do you do about high cholesterol and triglycerides? Well, again, you need testing. For one, there are LDL cholesterols and HDL cholesterols. HDLs are good. They actually clear out the LDLs and form the basis for a lot of necessary compounds in your body. But more importantly, it’s the size of the cholesterol particles that are important. You can have a cholesterol size test. It’s called a Lipoprotein Particle Profile (LPP).

But assuming your cholesterol and triglycerides are the bad kind and they are too high, you’re going to have to get your inflammation down. That means fixing your leaky gut—for which there are dietary protocols—and change your diet to remove things like sugars and Omega-9 fatty acids (vegetable oils).

COPD and asthma (44 million prescriptions)

COPD is easy. It is most often caused by smoking. So don’t do that and problem solved. Asthma is a different story, though. I actually had terrible, terrible asthma for my entire childhood and my early adulthood. I had to sleep every night into my 20s with what’s basically an oxygen mask.

How did I fix it? Detox protocols, dietary changes, fasting and simply stopping the meds and allowing my body to re-adjust.

It’s about attitude

So many of America’s health problems could be solved by a simple change in mindset.

The medication main objective is to manage the symptoms of something after it has happened. There are two issues with that approach.

First of all, disease was allowed to happen. The vast majority of chronic diseases are preventable by cultivating a healthy lifestyle. Obviously, that is a pointless thing to say to someone who is already suffering from any sort of preventable disease. Because as far as I know, none of us has a time machine.

But that brings us to the second problem, treating symptoms.

Cholesterol is a symptom. Asthma is a symptom. Depression, insulin resistance, low TSH are all symptoms. If you can treat the cause, you can get rid of the symptoms. And yes, that very often involved changing your lifestyle from here forward. But it also means fixing the damage. If poor diet is at the cause of your thyroid condition, then if you change your diet specifically to support thyroid health (and possibly a couple of supplements), you can heal your thyroid. No need for medications. Same goes for diabetes, Parkinson’s, even cancer.

Can we admit that our healthcare system doesn’t have a clue as to how to CURE chronic diseases? And even if they do, it’s way less profitable to do that than it is to string people out on meds for 20, 30, 40+ years.

Next, admit that there is ANOTHER WAY. People lived before medications were widespread, and when we wake up as a culture from our drug-induced daze, get rid of the monkey on our backs, people will live long, healthy lives AFTER medications WERE widespread.