More than half a million U.S. children yearly have bad reactions or side effects from widely used medicines that require medical treatment and sometimes hospitalization.
Children younger than age 5 are most commonly affected. Penicillin and other prescription antibiotics are among drugs causing the most problems, including rashes, stomach aches and diarrhea.
Parents should pay close attention when their children are started on medicines since “first-time medication exposures may reveal an allergic reaction,” said lead author Dr. Florence Bourgeois, a pediatrician with Children’s Hospital in Boston.
Doctors also should tell parents about possible symptoms for a new medication, she said.
Source: Associated Press and the Medical Journal Pediatrics October 2009.
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Dr. Osborne’s Comment
This study simply eludes to a much greater problem that American health care is facing. The medicine doctors give very commonly does more damage than good. A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1997 analyzed the number of deaths caused by the proper use of medicines and surgical procedures. The alarming conclusion was that more than 100,000 deaths per year were caused by the medical treatments themselves. That makes medicine the fourth leading cause of death in the United States! Looking at this scenario objectively analyze the following: Heart disease, cancer, and stroke are the top three leading causes of death in this country. Mainstream medicine treats these conditions with drugs and various other surgical procedures. Drugs and surgical procedures are the fourth leading cause of death. Do you follow the logic? How is this type of healthcare ever going to stop contributing to bankrupting the nation?
The solution to this problem is quite simple. Educate yourself about food and nutrition. Stay active to stay healthy. The central core of good health revolves around these issues. If you ignore them, you will be more predisposed to developing illnesses that lead you into mainstream medicine’s failing model of sick care.
