This article in the Pharmaceutical Daily (also known as the Wall Street Journal) turned some pill bottles last week: “So Young and So Many Pills: More than 25% of kids and teens in the U.S. take prescriptions on a regular basis.” Frightening and pathetic, but hardly news. I almost never see TV commercials except for when I am at the gym. And I note there is a consistent airing of gay-happy-overjoyed-energetic-lovely people twirling their dance partner, skipping along the beach, planting their 3-acre garden, running a marathon, or sitting by the fireplace with wine and romance, all while taking powerful drugs that have 2,972 side effects that are read off, in hushed tones, for the final 2/3 of the commercial. According to the WSJ article:

But children and teens are also taking a wide variety of other medications once considered only to be for adults, from statins to diabetes pills and sleep drugs, according to figures provided to The Wall Street Journal by IMS Health, a research firm. Prescriptions for antihypertensives in people age 19 and younger could hit 5.5 million this year if the trend though September continues, according to IMS. That would be up 17% from 2007, the earliest year available.

The problem is lazy and reprehensible parenting. Drugs are quick and easy (and cheap or free, thanks to third-party subsidies), and the action of choosing drugs relies heavily on the processes and promises of someone or something else, removing the burden of time and effort from the parent. Dr. Brownstein, of the Center for Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, Michigan (where I am now a client), who is a champion of iodine and unrefined sea salt, states in his blog,

When I look at these numbers I am not sure what to say. Does anybody really believe our society needs to medicate our children like this? Is anybody thinking about the long-term consequences of these medications? Does anybody think we are healthier because tens of millions of children are being medicated on a daily basis?

I think these numbers are an indictment on the failure of our medical system. Children were not medicated in these large numbers when I was growing up. We have been raised to look for the ‘easy fix’. Take a pill for anything. That is good advice for the Big Pharma Cartel, but I can assure you it is not good advice for our children.