By Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D.
Partial Reprint from drhyman.com
IF ALL DOCTORS followed the latest cholesterol treatment guidelines, and all their patients took their prescribed statin medication, there would be 3.5 million more diabetics in America. But wait! There is another pill (injection actually) that has been shown to reduce the risk of diabetes. And it’s only about $50,000 per year per patient. Let’s see 3.5 million times $50,000. What does that bring us to?
Pharmageddon!
We are stuck in an absurd cultural habit of thinking that medication will save us from lifestyle and social diseases.
Two separate studies in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) underscore that we have come to the end of an era of being saved by medication. Antibiotics and vaccines were a huge advance in medicine in the 20th century. But the single pill for the single ill just doesn’t work for 21st century chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.