Hey guys! So I was recently watching a couple of shows on T.V., most likely Roseanne, and I noticed a large amount of commercials playing were for pharmaceutical companies.

Now, I have heard someone tell me previously that Americans are on a lot of drugs and we are always taking something aka a pill for something, even as slight as a simple headache. I sort of heard this with half an ear but it stuck with me. I decided to do a little bit of my own research into this topic and the results are really disturbing and extraordinary at the same time. A study published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that seven out of ten Americans take at least one prescription drugs. That’s a heck of a lot of pills!

Now this study refers to prescription drugs not necessarily the pills we can find at a local store or pharmacy because even though, they may not be prescription, they are still drugs.

Considering the results of this study, I looked at my own family and we have a huge jug of Advil sitting on our kitchen counter; that’s not to say we go through a jug a week but just the fact that we have so many shows  a couple of things. It shows that we feel we consume a decent amount of painkillers that we decided to buy in bulk, pharmaceutical companies also feel as though their consumers want to buy painkillers in bulk because of our high level of consumption thus, the packaging expanded.

The Mayo Clinic Study also found that the drugs with the highest amount of prescriptions were antibiotics coming in at 17%, antidepressants were second with 13% and finally opioids were the third most common with 13% as well.

Now usually when people see statistics like these they feel invincible to a certain extent that this study does not apply to them. We should really take a thorough look at our lives, myself included, and search for methods that can prevent such high levels of prescription drugs going into our bodies.

I know that not everything can be cured and some need help from medication but we can also prevent certain things by changing our diet and exercising just a little bit more each day.