What Prescription Drugs are Stealing From Your Body

Drugs deplete naturally occurring nutrients

You can’t turn on the T.V. without seeing commercials for some prescription medication and its long list of side-effects that are going to kill you.  Like reality T.V., we continue to watch it so they keep filming more of these (ludicrous) shows.  I think it’s the same with prescription medications, we’re told what the medicine can do, then we visit the doctor and demand that medication.  But watch and wait…here come the side-effects.  I don’t know about your doctor but my doctor would never simply prescribe something just because I said I wanted it.  Either we don’t have doctors that care about our health or, we have more influence on them than we thought.  The point is, if our demands were not met, the drug companies wouldn’t be making the commercials-so it must be working for them.

On the flip side, we are all familiar with the list of disclaimers from all the side effects.  Late night talk show hosts have no shortage of material thanks to “…may cause loss of hearing, anal leakage, or death.” Nice-and that’s just the condensed version. I’ve heard

paragraphs of disclaimers. Seriously, whoever heard of “anal leakage” before these commercials? Did you even know there was such a thing? I don’t think it needs an explanation.

Those of us drawn to the world of so-called “alternative health,” (the numbers are rapidly rising), believe that treating symptoms and not the underlying cause of disease, is how the drug companies, over-burdened doctors, and a corrupt medical system perpetuate the cycle. But with the side effects, the potential for addiction, and all the other issues, one important thing is being overlooked: drug induced nutrient depletions. Most drugs steal something from our biochemistry.

For example, have you ever wondered what the subtler “side-effects” of taking statin drugs for cholesterol lowering are?  You might have heard that taking Lipitor and other cholesterol lowering medications can cause muscle aches. Well, why is that? Of course, “we” don’t know. The most current research has shown that muscle aches associated with statin drug use are being “turned on” by a gene that recently has been identified although no one knows how or why this happens. But we do know that statin drugs deplete coenyzme Q10 (CoQ10.) This nutrient is present in every cell in the body and is critical for cellular energy.  It acts as an anti-oxidant, and helps to support the general health of a cell. Statin drugs have been proven to deplete the body of this critical nutrient yet the public is rarely informed of this except by the most savvy of pharmacists or medical professionals.  In fact, statin drugs are not to be sold in Canada without purchasing a CoQ10 supplement as well.  But what do the Canadians know?

We mistakenly assume that these types of side-effects are just something we have to live with that ultimately, the benefits do outweigh the risks, especially when stopping the medication can result in death. But that isn’t the whole story. 

Many people believe that the body is equipped with an innate intelligence and knows how to heal itself when given what it needs. There are “natural” ways of fighting diseases or conditions that western medicine simply ignores or laughs at.  The basis for many of these treatments begins with a body that is in a state of homeostasis; body systems balanced, energy abundant.  Good health stems from this. A naturopathic doctor or other natural practitioner works to balance body systems and quite often, the disease or condition disappears.  The absence of this type of balance is where disease states can often originate.

 

It is often said that no drug, not even aspirin, is without side effects.  This is true. By knowing the nutrients that are often depleted, we can be proactive and protect our bodies through supplementation.  Nutrient depletions create a whole other set of problems for our biochemistry and again, when our systems are not in balance, disease states can and do become evident.  We cannot always control as much about our health as we’d like.  But knowing what nutrients are depleted by the most common classes of drugs is a very important start.

Consider supplementing depleted nutrients with products from a professional supplement line available through your alternative medicine practitioner. The examples below shows many of the nutrients depleted by the most common classes of drugs: