Are Your Prescriptions Killing You?: How to Prevent Dangerous Interactions, Avoid Deadly Side Effects, and Be Healthier With Fewer Drugs - Hardcover

Neel, Armon B., Jr.; Hogan, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 145160839X ISBN 13: 9781451608397

Publisher: Atria Books, 2012

Synopsis

An award-winning pharmacist and an investigative journalist team up to uncover the dangers behind prescription drugs, showing how and why the elderly are at high risk, and explain what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones.

In an epidemic of overmedication, who can you turn to for help?

You most certainly know someone whose life depends on the prescription drugs they take: it may be your husband, who takes sleeping pills to counteract the anxiety his heart medications cause him, or it may be your aging father, who takes upwards of twenty pills a day for everything from arthritis to high blood pressure. But we’ve all read the headlines: prescription drugs can kill you. If that’s the case, why are so many Americans, particularly those sixty and older, given so many pills, with no regard to how they interact with one another?

Fifth-generation pharmacist Armon B. Neel, Jr., is on a mission to help patients understand how the medications they take can affect them—for better or worse. As a consulting pharmacist, he visits hospitals and nursing homes daily and counsels patients on how their prescriptions may be interacting dangerously with one another, and how they can reduce the number of medications they’re taking. Armon’s recommendations have been estimated to save $2.5 million a year in health-care costs, and more important, he’s saved thousands of lives. In 2010, the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists gave Armon its annual achievement award. The organization then announced that Neel so personified excellence in the field that the award would be renamed for him.

In Are Your Prescriptions Killing You?, Armon reveals what you and your loved ones need to know about the risks, dangers, and benefits of prescription drugs. He explains what needs to be taken into account when prescribing medication to older patients and the catastrophic results that can occur when they’re not. Writing with veteran journalist Bill Hogan, Armon gives you the information you need to be certain that you’re getting the right dosage of the right medicine, and he arms you with the most effective questions to ask doctors.

Armon also provides his own prescription for changing what he sees as the broken health-care system in the United States. Rich with real-life case studies, this groundbreaking book offers older people, who are most at risk—and the boomers who often care for them—a road map to better health. This gripping narrative provides essential information for anyone who depends on prescription medications, and reading it may save a loved one’s life.

About this title

Review

"If anything can make you hoist yourself out of that beach chair and go find a pen, this is the book that will do it." --"New York Times

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"[This book] could not be more timely or important." -"Library Journal

""An eye opener, both for caregivers, and for baby boomers approaching older age." --"Boston.com

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"In our pursuit of healing, doctors sometimes overlook the fundamental rule to 'first do no harm.' Armon Neel's book is an important reminder - for doctors and patients alike - that medications can be a double edged sword. We may be swinging at the disease but we can accidentally slash the patient along the way." -Lisa Sanders, M.D., author of "Every Patient Tells a Story

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"It's becoming increasingly clear that medical historians will judge the last 50 years as the 'dark age of drug therapy.' Though there are many advances in modern pharmacy, the truth is that many drugs produce a desired effect only to create many more that are unwanted. Armon Neel's book provides concrete evidence that the problems with many prescription medications are known today. Fortunately, he also provides some practical guidance to help navigate the land mines of drug therapy." --Michael T. Murray, N.D., author of "What the Drug Companies Won't Tell You and Your Doctor Doesn't Know

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"[Armon Neel's] expertise in the pharmaceutical management of patients is unparalleled." -James Gore, MD, and George Capo, DO

"Armon Neel literally saved my life. I was bedridden because I was being overprescribed medications by my doctor. But in a few short weeks on Dr. Neel's 'new' regimen, I was back to my old self." -Carla Moore

"My family and I appreciate your help for our mother. I took down everything you told me concerning her medications and typed it up for the doctor. He followed everything you advised and my mother came out of renal failure." -Marilyn Lipper

"In my 32 years as a practicing geriatrician, I have not met a healthcare professional who better understands the pathophysiological principles behind the use of medications for the elderly." --Zaheer Khan, MD, MRCP, founder and preside

"The book provides needed information to be certain you're getting the right dosage of the right medication as well as questions to ask prescribing physicians."

About the Author

Armon B. Neel, Jr., whose work has been featured in the AARP Bulletin, Prevention magazine, and Reader’s Digest, is a board-certified pharmacist whose medial career spans four decades. He lives in Georgia.
Bill Hogan is an award-winning investigative journalist in Washington, D.C. He has worked as a writer and consulting editor for the AARP Bulletin and as a consultant to CBS News.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 145160839X
• ISBN 13: 9781451608397
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 273