Is the health of the nation being put at risk? - By: Nora Cross

It is strange how putting a number on something makes it seem either so much better or so much worse. The presence of a chemical causing cancer in food is scary even though only in a few parts per million. Just the thought of the risk is enough to frighten people away. So what should we make of the newly released figure showing doctors wrote more than 56 million prescriptions for sleeping pills in 2008? Keeping this in a historical context, this is 70% more prescriptions than were written in 2002. And if you are worried about the cost of the drugs to the insurance industry and your own pockets through co-payments, that is $4.5 billion. Remember, this is only talking about prescriptions and not the number of tablets. Further, remember you do not need a prescription to buy sleeping pills online so there could be millions more pills used. You just have to ask whether the use of this volume of drugs by the current population of the US is a good thing.

We need to start at the beginning. In theory, the majority of pills are distributed on the basis they should only be for short-term use. The reality is rather different. These drugs are the most heavily advertized and the most profitable to the pharmaceutical industry. As a result of this promotional effort, most sleeping pills are taken for an average of five years, i.e. there is a high degree of dependence. But, you will say, all these drugs do is help us to get a good night’s sleep. This must be a good thing. Well, sadly, the pills do not induce natural sleep. All they do is knock you out for a few hours. The argument then runs on. Insomnia is a bad thing. It has to be treated. Well, there is no clinical evidence that lack of sleep is bad for you or changes life expectancy. People sleep when they are tired and natural sleep heals the body and mind. But there is excellent medical evidence that people who use sleeping pills over any length of time are twice as likely to become depressed, to experience memory problems and to die younger. It used to be argued that many people who had cancer also smoked. Now we understand the cause and effect. People who are depressed are more likely to suffer insomnia, commit suicide or have heart attacks.

All the best medical evidence confirms you should only take ambien for short periods of time. Even though the ads for ambien cr may suggest it is safe to take it for longer periods of time, this is not supported by the evidence. Any use of sleeping pills over time is not recommended. If you find insomnia is genuinely affecting the quality of your life, the best form of treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy. This teaches you how to fall asleep naturally. In other words, you get all the advantages of taking the pills, but without exposing yourself to the risk of all the adverse side effects. So, finally, to answer the question posed in the article’s title, the nation’s health is being put at risk. While capitalism and the free market can be good for some markets, this market is actually damaging the health of the nation and government should do something to reduce the level of dependence.

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