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Over Dose: The Case Against the Drug Companies
How safe are the drugs you're taking? In Over Dose, a leading medical researcher shows how Americans are being overmedicated, resulting in millions of avoidable side effects, and how consumers can protect their health.
A recent headline in The New York Times read "Too Much of a Good Thing? Doctor Challenges Drug Manual." The article described Dr Jay S Cohen's new report maintaining that drug manufacturers' recommended does appearing in the Physicians' Desk Reference are too high for many people and are causing a slew of unnecessary adverse reactions, "ranging from dizziness and nausea all the way to death"
Drug reactions in hospitals are among the nations leading causes of death, killing more than 100,000 Americans a year. What's more, the "side-effect epidemic" causes many people---as high as fifty percent of those on blood pressure medication---to discontinue treatment.
The problem, reports Dr Cohen in this vital book, stems not only from poor research methods on the part of drug companies, but from a deliberate effort to create easy, one-size-fits-all dosages that both appeal to doctors and produce inflated effectiveness statistics. Drawing on his own research and on hundreds of other sources, Dr Cohen explains why most side effects occur at the very doses recommended by drug companies.
Dr Cohen also reveals how drug companies slant drug research, skew reported findings, hide unfavorable results, manipulate the publishing process, threaten researches planning to publish negative findings, and spend billions to influence doctors. He show how the FDA approves unsafe drugs and improper dosages, and why its monitoring of newly approved drugs is inadequate. The result is side-effect epidemic that has continued for decades.
Dr Cohen does more than expose these misguided policies---he shows you how to better understand what your doctor is prescribing and how to work with your health care professionals to monitor and control drug intake. He offers safety recommendations that you should raise with your doctor, and provides practical information and lower effective dosages--based on clinical studies---that your doctor can consider for some of the nation's best-selling drugs, including a wide range of anti-depressants, cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, blood pressure, and hormonal medications.
For the forty-six percent of Americans who take at least one prescription medication each day, Over Dose may literally be a lifesaver.
A recent headline in The New York Times read "Too Much of a Good Thing? Doctor Challenges Drug Manual." The article described Dr Jay S Cohen's new report maintaining that drug manufacturers' recommended does appearing in the Physicians' Desk Reference are too high for many people and are causing a slew of unnecessary adverse reactions, "ranging from dizziness and nausea all the way to death"
Drug reactions in hospitals are among the nations leading causes of death, killing more than 100,000 Americans a year. What's more, the "side-effect epidemic" causes many people---as high as fifty percent of those on blood pressure medication---to discontinue treatment.
The problem, reports Dr Cohen in this vital book, stems not only from poor research methods on the part of drug companies, but from a deliberate effort to create easy, one-size-fits-all dosages that both appeal to doctors and produce inflated effectiveness statistics. Drawing on his own research and on hundreds of other sources, Dr Cohen explains why most side effects occur at the very doses recommended by drug companies.
Dr Cohen also reveals how drug companies slant drug research, skew reported findings, hide unfavorable results, manipulate the publishing process, threaten researches planning to publish negative findings, and spend billions to influence doctors. He show how the FDA approves unsafe drugs and improper dosages, and why its monitoring of newly approved drugs is inadequate. The result is side-effect epidemic that has continued for decades.
Dr Cohen does more than expose these misguided policies---he shows you how to better understand what your doctor is prescribing and how to work with your health care professionals to monitor and control drug intake. He offers safety recommendations that you should raise with your doctor, and provides practical information and lower effective dosages--based on clinical studies---that your doctor can consider for some of the nation's best-selling drugs, including a wide range of anti-depressants, cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, blood pressure, and hormonal medications.
For the forty-six percent of Americans who take at least one prescription medication each day, Over Dose may literally be a lifesaver.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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August 23, 2017
I wish I would have found this book 15 years ago. Although is was a bit repetitious, it offers intelligent information from Dr Cohen. I will refer to this book whenever I have a new medication prescribed or decide to buy a new over the counter remedy.
I wanted to send Dr Cohen an email, so I searched the Internet. I was saddened when I saw he had passed away. RIP
I wanted to send Dr Cohen an email, so I searched the Internet. I was saddened when I saw he had passed away. RIP
Displaying 1 of 1 review