Earl Mindell - Prescription Alternatives: Hundreds of Safe, Natural, Prescription-Free Remedies to Restore and Maintain Your Health

Hundreds of Safe, Natural, Prescription-Free Remedies to Restore & Maintain Your Health

EARL L. MINDELL, R.Ph., Ph.D. AND VIRGINIA HOPKINS, M.A.

Copyright 2009 by Earl L. Mindell and Virginia Hopkins. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-160032-3

MHID: 0-07-160032-9

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If you have this book, youre probably taking at least two prescription drugs or you know somebody who is. If you or someone you love is taking any type of medication, from an allergy medicine to a beta-blocker, youll want to know how the medicine affects the body and how to stay healthy while on it. Well give you that information in this book, but were also going to tell you how you can solve your health problems without the drugs. Ultimately we hope that this book inspires you to get off your prescription drugs and keep yourself healthy primarily through lifestyle, wholesome foods, and natural remedies. We have found that almost everyone taking a long-term prescription drug can wean him- or herself off drugs and create good healthoften vibrant, radiant good healthusing simple, safe, natural remedies with no side effects.

As a general rule, prescription drugs cause imbalances in the body, ranging from depletion of vitamins and minerals to constipation and lowered immune function. They can also cause more serious problems, including death. Prescription Alternatives gives you a tool for easily and immediately accessing information about how the drugs you are taking affect your body, the steps you can take to counteract these imbalances, and what alternative treatments are available.

Most books sell well for a few years and then decline in sales. Sales of this book have increased over the years, as more and more people realize the need to find better ways to stay healthy. In this fourth edition we have added new drugs and their side effects, new research about drugs and natural remedies, and new natural remedies that have proven themselves over time. In particular youll find a lot of helpful new information in the chapter on heart disease, as research on the underlying causes of heart disease has expanded greatly over the past few years. There is also a good deal of new information about prostate health and impotence drugs, as well as important new research about conventional hormone replacement therapy, which has sent millions of women to their doctors looking for natural alternatives. Well give valuable insights for both men and women on how to achieve hormone balance.

There is no possible way we could cover every drug available or every problem with every drug. We have tried to cover the most commonly used drugs in detail, but we also urge you to take responsibility for any drug use by consulting with your pharmacist and reading the drug insert. Knowledge of the side effects and interactions of drugs is changing every day. It is our goal to teach you how to be a knowledgeable and discriminating drug consumer who knows how to ask the right questions and get the necessary information to stay healthy.

The United States and New Zealand are currently the only countries in the world that allow drug companies to advertise prescription drugs directly to the consumer. It used to be that prescription drugs could be touted only to physicians. But now consumer ads on TV tantalize you with great promises of health and well-being, skim through the side effects as quickly as possible, and then suggest you contact your physician or a drug company hotline for more information. The drug companies are also responsible for the expensive, slick, four-color ads you now see in consumer magazines and newspapers. You are bombarded with more than $3 billion worth of advertising for prescription and over-the-counter drugs every year. That should give you an idea of how valuable you are as a drug consumer and how staggering the profits are that drug companies rake in every year.