Your independent, respected source for information about medications and natural therapies.
Medication side effects are the #4 leading cause of death in the U.S. annually (JAMA 1998). Yet, few people receive adequate information when medication is prescribed. This website is dedicated to providing information to help you and your doctor make informed, intelligent choices about medications and natural alternatives to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of treatment. Note: This website is free of drug company or government influence. Jay S. Cohen M.D.
A Rare Interview with Joe and Teresa Graedon of The People’s Pharmacy . Pharmacologist Joe Graedon and medical anthropologist Teresa Graedon are the authors of dozens of books and of the nationally syndicated People’s Pharmacy newspaper column. Their People’s Pharmacy radio show has won numerous awards and is carried by more than 500 radio stations. […]
When Russert, the political commentator, died suddenly at the age of 58 earlier this month, people were surprised. Unfortunately, there is nothing surprising about sudden cardiac death. “More than 300,000 people die each year in the U.S. from sudden cardiac death,” Dr. P.K. Shah noted1. “This is a very common scenario that plays out 900 […]
A man reports 95 percent improvement after finding an effective treatment 3 years after a severe reaction with Avelox (moxifloxacin). This website contains three previous articles (home page) on severe, long-lasting adverse reactions associated with the use of Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin), and other fluoroquinolone antibiotics. These reactions can involve many systems of the body […]
A New Study Reveals What Happens When Patients Complain of Statin Side Effects to Their Doctors. Patients frequently complain that doctors ignore their complaints of side effects with statin, cholesterol-lowering drugs.Joe and Teresa Graedon, the authors of the People’s Pharmacy newspaper column, have published myriad letters on this topic.Here are three examples. I have taken […]
A New Study Provides Additional Reasons to Avoid High Doses of Statin Medications In articles posted at MedicationSense.com in recent months, I discussed the findings of two major studies of maximum-dose 80-mg Lipitor (atorvastatin). Despite the authors’ claims that these studies proved the benefit of maximum-dose Lipitor for preventing heart attacks and strokes, the MedicationSense.com […]
Choosing Ethics over Drug-Company Enticements. Medical Students a Force. Will Others Follow? Revulsion is the natural response to excess. At Yale, Penn, and Stanford, enough officials apparently succumbed to the revulsion of seeing their doctors and students looking like walking billboards for the drug industry. For years, patients have felt the same queasiness at the […]
Thousands of Drug Sales Reps Are Influencing Doctors to Prescribe High-Dose Lipitor despite Ongoing Concerns about Efficacy and Safety. Does the Pharmaceutical Industry Place Sales over Safety? In 2005 and 2006, large studies were published on the use of maximum-dose 80-mg Lipitor, the top-selling cholesterol-lowering statin drug, to prevent heart attacks and strokes.1,2 The 2005 […]
Another Powerful Study Shows A Markedly Reduced Risk of Alzheimer’s with Fish Oils (Omega-3 Oils). Natural Substances or Prescription Drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease? If a drug company announced that a new drug had reduced the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease by 60% in a large, impressive study, the news would create a sensation. TV news programs […]
A new study of high-dose Lipitor for people with strokes reveals minimal benefit and unanswered questions about safety. Yet doctors are prescribing high-dose Lipitor to more patients . In August 2006, a large study was published involving the maximum 80-mg dose of Lipitor (atorvastatin) in patients with a recent stroke.1 Lipitor is the top-selling drug […]
From Lancet: Just How Tainted Has Medicine Become? Another Top Medical Journal Asks a Tough Question about Doctors-Drug Industry Conflicts of Interest. Lancet is one of the oldest and most prestigious medical journals in the world. So when a medical publication like Lancet questions the integrity of the medical profession, something is terribly wrong. […]