Prescription drugs cause over 100,000 deaths per year and cause another 1.5 million people to experience side effects so severe they must be hospitalized. Shockingly, adverse drug reactions are now the fourth leading cause of death in the US.
This is in part due to the problem of “polypharmacy” – the taking of several drugs at once that interact in negative and sometimes unexpected ways.
Every medication carries the risk of side effects. When more than one drug at a time is taken, the risks increase exponentially. When you consider that the average 65-year-old takes 5 medications, you can imagine how widespread the problem of polypharmacy is.