It’s 2024 and we live in a world of prescription drugs… especially in the US.
During daytime TV, there are drug commercials all day long, almost every few minutes it seems.
And they’re aimed at older people.
If you have a problem, we’ve got a drug.
Your doctor doesn’t ask about your health, lifestyle, diet, exercise, or supplements. I don’t blame them…
They learned about none of that in medical school.
It was all about drugs. How to deal with the symptoms, not the cause.
There is no such thing as “preventative”, it’s all about putting a big bandaid on a problem and over time, add more and more bandaids in the form of more and more drugs.
Don’t get me wrong – my background is in pharmacology, which is the study of drugs. They are super powerful and amazing.
But NOT to be used long-term.
They are originally designed for extreme cases and short-term use.
But hey, where’s the money on that?
There is none.
So, let’s make drugs easily prescribable and addictive – this is the way to make billions of dollars, year after year, decade after decade.
However, that’s not my philosophy.
You can fix 95% of health problems naturally — diet, exercise, stress management, and natural herbal & vitamin supplements.
With that said, today I’m going to list 5 very popular prescription drugs that cause lots of damage to your health — body and mind.
And in each category, I’ll also give natural options and alternatives.
Prednisone
Prednisone is a “corticosteroid”, a catabolic steroid related to cortisol – the STRESS hormone.
This is the exact opposite of an anabolic steroid athletes take to gain muscle, strength, and lose fat.
So, logically speaking, you can deduce that prednisone, therefore, causes the opposite effects:
- Muscle LOSS
- Strength LOSS
- And massive FAT gain, especially belly fat
But it doesn’t stop there. It also causes:
- Poor sleep
- Increased blood sugar and diabetes
- Osteoporosis and weaker bones
- Liver and kidney problems
- Eye problems
- Memory problems
- Depression and mental illness
- Anxiety
- Decreases the immune system
The list goes on and on.
Simply stated, prednisone is STRESS in a bottle.
So, why is such a toxic drug used so often?
Well, short term, it’s a powerful anti-inflammatory.
This is very important if you have some horrible allergic reaction or have breathing problems.
It can save your life.
As horrible as cortisol is, without it you’d die. So, it’s that powerful and important.
It’s important to note that Prednisone helps with pain that’s linked to inflammation.
But these days, they prescribe it for lots of things and it’s ongoing, long-term.
Which is NOT what you want.
You obviously don’t want to be swallowing STRESS all day long, week after week, month after month.
It’ll destroy your health.
As the saying goes, “stress kills”.
It’s fine to occasionally use SHORT TERM.
However, it’s much better to deal with the main problem – which is inflammation.
I’ve got links for natural ways of dealing with inflammation — which as you know if you’ve been following me for some time – I think inflammation is linked to many health problems, and the older we get, the worse the inflammation and pain.
Healthy Inflammation & Pain Relief
Proton Pump Inhibitors
Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI’s) work by reducing the amount of stomach acid the lining of your stomach produces.
Simply stated, they are prescribed for symptoms of acid reflux or GERD. Or in layman’s terms, “heartburn”
And this is when the foods or liquids you eat, move up from the stomach, back up to the esophagus or throat, and cause that burning sensation.
The most popular and common drugs are:
- Omeprazole (Prilosec), also available over-the-counter (without a prescription)
- Esomeprazole (Nexium), also available over-the-counter (without a prescription)
- Lansoprazole (Prevacid), also available over-the-counter (without a prescription)
- Rabeprazole (AcipHex)
- Pantoprazole (Protonix)
- Dexlansoprazole (Dexilant)
- Zegerid (omeprazole with sodium bicarbonate), also available over-the-counter (without a prescription)
Some of the major side effects are:
- Increased bone fractures
- Pneumonia, infections, and lowered immune system
- Iron & B12 deficiency
- 25-50% higher risk of KIDNEY DISEASE
- Bacterial overgrowth in the gut, which can lead to tons of other health problems.
- Tumor growth
- Poor absorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals
- Numerous negative interactions with other drugs.
- Increased cortisol levels and stress hormones, which will cause lots of other problems.
And yet, people are popping these drugs all the time like candy. No big deal.
Forget about improving your diet and stress levels – just pop a pill and go eat pizza.
In the old days, we used to take TUMS to help reduce stomach acid after a big meal.
TUMS is basically calcium and thus, it’s alkaline – the opposite of acid.
I’ll do another video specifically about natural ways to reduce acid reflux because there are a lot of dos and don’ts with your lifestyle.
However, most importantly, you need to reduce your stress and cortisol levels. This is a big trigger for most people.
Of course, reducing stress in our lives can be difficult. However, there are specific vitamins & herbs that help reduce stress & cortisol.
Best Vitamins To Reduce Stress Hormones
Statin Drugs
Statin drugs are used to help lower cholesterol levels. They are one of the most prescribed drugs in the world and have been for almost 20 years.
More popular drugs are:
- atorvastatin (Lipitor),
- fluvastatin (Lescol, Lescol XL),
- lovastatin (Mevacor, Altoprev),
- pravastatin (Pravachol),
- rosuvastatin (Crestor),
- simvastatin (Zocor), and.
- pitavastatin (Livalo).
These drugs were originally prescribed to both my parents a long time ago. So, I’m very familiar with their side effects, which are typically:
- Muscle pain, loss, and damage – this includes ALL muscles in the body
- Liver damage
- Increased blood sugar or type 2 diabetes
- Neurological problems with the brain – such as memory loss, confusion, etc.
- Depression
- Accelerated aging and depletion of mitochondria
- Fatigue
- Poor sleep
- Lowered hormone levels, testosterone, erectile problems, etc.
- More and more issues.
Again, as with all drugs – Statins are very powerful and good to use if you have a genetic problem with having very high cholesterol.
Or if diet, exercise, and supplements do nothing for you – again, because of genetics and negative hormonal changes due to aging.
Needless to say, they are overprescribed and at much higher doses than what’s needed to accomplish better cholesterol levels.
I’ve also included links to natural ways to have healthy cholesterol levels. This is the exact formula that my parents have used for the past 25+ years.
Best Vitamins For Healthy Cholesterol Levels
Antidepressants & Anti-Anxiety
I was really surprised to find out that up to 25% of the population take antidepressants and/or anti-anxiety medications.
And many times, a combination of both at the same time!!!
It’s sad that it’s starting at a much younger age, in the teenage years.
They’re used more in women than men.
And they are used even more by older people, over the age of 55.
Sadly, the statistics show that the use is increasing every decade.
Some people for sure need such drugs, but the majority don’t. Certainly not long-term use, year after year.
What’s crazy is that many clinical studies show these drugs do NOT work any better than placebo, fake sugar pills.
And other clinical studies show how they are extremely addictive, especially anti-anxiety drugs.
Unfortunately, there are so many reasons or causes for having anxiety or feeling down or sad:
- Genetics
- Stress
- Diet
- Exercise
- Hormonal changes
- Bad gut bacteria
- Interpersonal issues
So, it’s very hard to really get to the root cause.
So, doctors just treat the symptoms and try to numb us all by prescribing drugs.
For example, taking 3-5 grams of fish oil daily has been clinically shown to reduce both depression and anxiety. Not to mention lots of other health benefits.
There are lots of herbs and amino acids that are super powerful and clinically validated and work for improving mindset and feelings.
Best of all, these herbs work quickly and have NONE of the drug side effects.
Best Herbs For Improving Mood & Happiness
Sleep Medications
One of the biggest used and abused drugs are sleep medications — prescription, as well as over-the-counter (OTC).
And in all honesty, this is one set of drugs that I had personally used in the past because I’ve never been a good sleeper.
Granted, part of it is genetics and a bigger part of it is my own lifestyle and poor “sleep hygiene” because of school and work.
I’ve made tremendous progress and improvements here in the past decade and I’ve created specific videos just about this topic, for free.
However, the problem with sleeping medications is that they are super addictive.
Sadly, they do NOT improve the debt or the quality of your sleep. They actually make things worse and reduce REM sleep.
The end result is that your body AND brain don’t heal, repair and grow properly during this “drug-induced” sleep.
And your hormones get much worse because of it.
Stress hormones, testosterone, melatonin, insulin, growth hormone, etc., etc.
Sleep is easily the most powerful “fix” for a healthy future, body, and mind.
Poor sleep causes muscle loss, fat gain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and worse of all – brain problems leading to memory issues.
So, I can understand why people take sleep medications – I really do…
However, the long-term side effects aren’t worth it — one of the big ones being short AND long-term memory problems… especially later in life.
Another problem is that there are all sorts of sleeping medications, such as
- Ambien, Sonata, Lunesta, etc.
- Antidepressants, such as Trazodone
- Antianxiety Benzo drugs, such as Restoril, Halcion, Xanax, etc.
- And over-the-counter ones such as Unisom, Benadryl, Tylenol PM
As I said, I’ve tried a few of these, and every time there was a massive problem.
I either didn’t feel refreshed the next day, even though I slept the entire night.
Or I felt super groggy the next day – which negatively affected work, exercise, etc.
Or I emotionally felt like crap — depressed, unmotivated, no drive, low libido, etc., etc.
However, I know how important sleep is and thus, I’ve created a bunch of free videos and articles about this topic at this site.
Additionally, there are powerful herbs that I take, that naturally help your fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Best Herbs For Youthful Deep Sleep
Stimulants
Finally, the last class of drugs that have very negative effects on your health and are heavily prescribed are stimulants or ADHD drugs or “uppers” or some kind of “amphetamine”.
These are supposed to be used by people who have Attention Deficit Disorder.
However, more than half of the prescriptions are for “off label” use, and thus, people just wanting more energy and focus.
Athletes, parents, business people, students, dieters, etc., etc., etc.
The prescription for these drugs has more than DOUBLED in the past decade.
What’s interesting is that I have a few friends who are pharmacists and whenever I ask them what their top-selling drugs are, over and over again this class of drugs is in the top 5.
And not only that, it’s heavily used by young people… as early as prepubescent and up to the age 25 is the biggest use.
Now, the more popular ones that you may have heard of are:
- Adderall
- Dexedrine
- Ritalin
- Modafinal (Provigil)
The problem with these drugs is that they just burn out your adrenals or nervous system. They stress the body. They cause massive hormonal imbalances.
They obviously cause heart problems, elevated blood pressure, and so forth.
The real problem is that they accelerate aging.
But the biggest issue is they cause massive sleep problems, which then cause a cascade of negative health problems, hormonal imbalances, and so on and so forth.
Not to mention, they are super addictive and very hard to come off of.
The sad irony is that these drugs cause anxiety and sleep problems as mentioned earlier and thus, more drugs are prescribed to deal with the negative side effects.
However, there is no arguing that we all want more physical energy and better mental focus. The more energy you have, the more you get done in the day and the better you feel.
Again, this is a very important topic and I’ve created free videos & articles about increasing your energy levels.
Plus, if you want fast results, take a look at the best herbs & vitamins for an immediate boost in energy & focus.
Instantly Increase Energy & Focus
Summary
So out of the 5 classes of drugs – how many are you on? Or have taken in the past?
Either way, there are always natural solutions, which I think are much safer.