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(NaturalNews) Elderly dementia patients are being subjected to "scandalous abuse" by being drugged with dangerous antipsychotic drugs, according to a letter by ten influential health organizations, published in The Daily Telegraph.
"[One hundred thousand] people with dementia in care homes are being inappropriately prescribed a damaging chemical cosh of antipsychotic drugs and new research suggests that there is a significant problem in hospitals too," the letter reads. "Antipsychotics should only ever be a last resort. This over prescription is abuse and it must stop. ... We cannot stand by while this scandalous abuse of vulnerable citizens continues."
Although antipsychotic drugs are intended for people with medical conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and are not approved for the treatment of dementia, studies show that nursing homes and hospitals regularly prescribe them to these patients as sedatives, in order to make them easier for doctors and nurses to handle.
Research has shown, however, that antipsychotic drugs can double a patient's risk of death if used for three years. Another study found that dementia patients are three times more likely to suffer a stroke if given antipsychotic drugs.
A 2008 report by British Minister of Parliament Paul Burstow concluded that 23,500 dementia patients are being killed every year by inappropriate prescription of antipsychotics in nursing homes. However, a recent survey by the Alzheimer's Society marks the first time that researchers have looked into the prevalence of the problem in hospitals.
The trust found that three-quarters of nurses surveyed said they had seen antipsychotics used to sedate dementia patients, while one-quarter said they had seen the drugs used inappropriately.
"The massive over prescription of antipsychotics to people with dementia is an abuse of human rights, causing serious side effects and increasing risk of death," said Neil Hunt of the Alzheimer's Society. "The government must take action to ensure that these drugs are only ever used as a last resort."
"While the Department of Health prevaricates, thousands of people are being put at risk through the misuse of antipsychotics," said Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust.
Sources for this story include: www.telegraph.co.uk.
"[One hundred thousand] people with dementia in care homes are being inappropriately prescribed a damaging chemical cosh of antipsychotic drugs and new research suggests that there is a significant problem in hospitals too," the letter reads. "Antipsychotics should only ever be a last resort. This over prescription is abuse and it must stop. ... We cannot stand by while this scandalous abuse of vulnerable citizens continues."
Although antipsychotic drugs are intended for people with medical conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and are not approved for the treatment of dementia, studies show that nursing homes and hospitals regularly prescribe them to these patients as sedatives, in order to make them easier for doctors and nurses to handle.
Research has shown, however, that antipsychotic drugs can double a patient's risk of death if used for three years. Another study found that dementia patients are three times more likely to suffer a stroke if given antipsychotic drugs.
A 2008 report by British Minister of Parliament Paul Burstow concluded that 23,500 dementia patients are being killed every year by inappropriate prescription of antipsychotics in nursing homes. However, a recent survey by the Alzheimer's Society marks the first time that researchers have looked into the prevalence of the problem in hospitals.
The trust found that three-quarters of nurses surveyed said they had seen antipsychotics used to sedate dementia patients, while one-quarter said they had seen the drugs used inappropriately.
"The massive over prescription of antipsychotics to people with dementia is an abuse of human rights, causing serious side effects and increasing risk of death," said Neil Hunt of the Alzheimer's Society. "The government must take action to ensure that these drugs are only ever used as a last resort."
"While the Department of Health prevaricates, thousands of people are being put at risk through the misuse of antipsychotics," said Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer's Research Trust.
Sources for this story include: www.telegraph.co.uk.
Source: NaturalNews.com
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Importantly, modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry both believe there is no limit to how many prescription medications you can simultaneously take. If you have ten health problems, they've got ten different pills for you. And when those pills cause twenty different dangerous side effects, they're ready for twenty more prescriptions for you to dutifully swallow.
This idea that health is achieved by taking prescription chemicals is ludicrous from the start. And yet it's the foundation of the pharmaceutical industry. Take as many pills as you "need", they insist. Don't worry: They're all FDA approved!
This is akin to believing that if it's safe to drive 65mph in your truck, and it's also safe to drive 65mph on your motorcycle, then if you load your motorcycle onto your truck, it's now safe to drive 130mph.
The fatal flaw in the theory behind pharmaceuticals
As you already guessed, there's a fatal flaw in this pharmaceutical approach to sick care: Pharmaceuticals have never been tested in combination with other drugs. So all the so-called "gold standard science" is absolutely worthless at knowing what might happen when half a dozen pharmaceutical drugs are combined in a patient's body. Brittany Murphy may have been on as many as TEN drugs!
Despite the fact that no combination testing has ever been done on pharmaceuticals, they are regularly prescribed in combination. Obviously, this creates a whole new realm of unknown risk based on the way multiple drugs might chemically interact in the human body.
The more pharmaceuticals you take, the more dangerous they become. While one pharmaceutical chemical may at first seem harmless (even though just one drug can actually kill you), when you start adding a second, third, fourth and fifth prescription on top of that, you're dealing with Acute Pharmaceutical Toxicity (APT) that's never even been tested in clinical trials.
Pharmacists are trained to help people avoid the most toxic two-drug combinations, but they rarely have any real knowledge about what happens when you combine three, four, five or more drugs. No one does. The science has simply never been done on that question. It's no wonder: With all the possible combinations and permutations of pharmaceutical toxicity, it would take literally trillions of clinical trials to test them all.
So this whole idea that you can take a drug to treat one problem, then take a second drug to treat a second problem, and a third to treat a third problem... this entire approach to health care, upon which modern medicine is largely based, is flawed from the start. In clinical trials, patients are tested for one drug at a time. Never five or six (or ten).
So all the clinical trials that have ever been conducted by the pharmaceutical industry need to be thrown out the window for patients who take more than one drug. And that's just about everybody! Ask any senior citizen which prescription drugs they take, and most of them (the ones who can still remember, anyway) will rattle off a shockingly long list of toxic chemicals that have never been tested in combination. Just because one drug in isolation seems "safe" in one trial in no way means it's going to be safe when combined with half a dozen other toxic chemicals taken by the patient at the same time.
The list of drugs taken by Brittany Murphy boggles the mind
According to information leaked to the press, Brittany Murphy was found near prescription medications of all the following drugs:
• Topamax (an anti-seizure medication) • Methylprednisolone (anti-inflammatory drug) • Fluoxetine (antidepressant) • Klonopin (anxiety medication) • Carbamazepine (bipolar medication) • Ativan (anxiety medication) • Vicoprofen (pain reliever) • Propranolol (hypertension drug) • Biaxin (an antibiotic) • Hydrocodone (pain medication)
That's a whopping ten medications that Brittany Murphy may have been swallowing all at once.
Now, you can search PubMed, the National Library of Medicine and the archives of the FDA, and you will never find a single clinical trial testing these ten drugs in combination. It's never been done (and never will be). Big Pharma, you see, isn't interested in finding out what happens when their various drugs are combined in the same patient at the same time. Why? Because they know the results would be disastrous.
The result was certainly disastrous for Brittany Murphy. Her FDA-approved, doctor-prescribed, Big Pharma-promoted combination of toxic drugs appears to have cost her her life.
How many other patients are dying from Acute Pharmaceutical Toxicity? (APT)
Brittany Murphy surely isn't the only Big Pharma customer who has been killed by Acute Pharmaceutical Toxicity. But no one knows the actual number because no one keeps track!
The FDA simply doesn't want to know. That's why reporting drug side effects and deaths to the FDA remains entirely voluntary. Big Pharma doesn't want anyone looking too closely at this issue, either. Coroners, for their part, rarely ask about pharmaceuticals as a possible cause of death. Typically, they just blame the death on whatever organ failed, calling it a "heart attack", for example, even when the heart attack might have been brought on by toxic pharmaceuticals.
Imagine if police detectives worked the same way. Investigating a crime scene where someone was thrown from a ten-story window and plunged to their death on the street below, imagine if the detective reported the cause of death as being, "Hitting the ground."
That's the way coroners work with the cause of death in patients killed by pharmaceuticals. They routinely ignore the real cause -- the chemical cause -- and just name whatever organ happened to fail first. "Liver failure" is a popular one. But what caused the liver to fail in the first place? It usually has something to do with Acute Pharmaceutical Toxicity.
Why celebrities need real nutrition
I've said it before, but celebrities lead extremely stressful lives. Being a movie star is no easy career choice -- it involves long hours, stressful travel and crazy work schedules.
Sadly, many movie stars have turned to pharmaceuticals to try to keep them functioning through the extreme stresses of a movie shoot. This inevitably leads to devastating consequences.
What professional actors need more than medication is nutrition. Only high-density nutrition can help them cope with the enormous stresses their careers demand. That's why I think more movie stars need to be drinking Boku Superfood, or Living Fuel, or Pure Synergy, or other high-quality superfoods every single day.
I continue to believe that if Brittany Murphy had ditched all those dangerous psychotropic drugs and instead turned to superfoods and high-density nutrition, she'd be alive and well today.
The bigger question in all this, though, is: Could millions of people around the world be dying right now from Acute Pharmaceutical Toxicity? If so, how would we even know?
Sources for this story include:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/6871387/Brittany-Murphy-10-different-drugs-found-at-her-bedside.html Elderly Report Rising Rates of Disability After 20-Year Decline More older Americans struggling with chronic conditions, study finds Caution Can Help Keep Elderly Safe During Winter Hazards exist both indoors and outdoors, experts say
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