Four Drugs Cause Most Hospitalizations in Older Adults.

[elleng]

Just four medications or medication groups — used alone or together — were responsible for two-thirds of emergency hospitalizations among older Americans, according to the report. At the top of the list was warfarin, also known as Coumadin, a blood thinner. It accounted for 33 percent of emergency hospital visits. Insulin injections were next on the list, accounting for 14 percent of emergency visits.

Aspirin, clopidogrel and other antiplatelet drugs that help prevent blood clotting were involved in 13 percent of emergency visits. And just behind them were diabetes drugs taken by mouth, called oral hypoglycemic agents, which were implicated in 11 percent of hospitalizations.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/four-drugs-cause-most-hospitalizations-in-older-adults/?hp

[johnd83]

1. They have made the blood sugar and blood pressure tolerances so tight now

that most Americans have "high blood sugar" or "high blood pressure". In a lot of ways sudden the epidemic is one of definition, not of anything that actually changed. These medicines have really severe side effects that in many ways are worse than a slightly off blood sugar or blood pressure number.

Edit: also the drugs to treat these conditions tend to be very profitable for the pharma industry.

[Alameda]

+++ ----->>> profitable for the pharma industry.

[Alameda]

2. +++ ----->>> profitable for the pharma industry.

[Warpy]

3. Many type II diabetics have a hard time tolerating a "normal" blood glucose

level of 80-90. While keeping them that low can forestall complications of diabetes a little longer, it makes them feel like hell. Unfortunately, docs have been focused on stopping the complications, not on how their patients feel.

The same goes for people with hypertension. While that 110/60 looks great on paper, it doesn't translate into living a particularly comfy life as dizziness and near fainting episodes can be common.

The poor patient, desperate to feel decent, starts skipping the drugs completely and ends up in the hospital with a crisis that could have been prevented by listening to him and loosening the control just a little bit.

That's what I saw in years of practice, the "oops, I must have forgotten to take the stuff for a few days." It didn't fool any nurse but it seems to have fooled the numbers obsessed doctors who stabilized them again at the unrealistically low numbers and sent them back out to do it again--and they invariably do and boomerang back in a few weeks.

The pharma people aren't the problem here. It's the docs who are focused more on long term outcomes than patient tolerance.

[uppityperson]

4. I've been 110/60 all my adult life and it is perfectly comfy. No dizziness/near fainting episodes

for me.

[Warpy]

5. You haven't wandered around with extremely high blood pressure

and likely don't have plaque in your carotids restricting blood flow to your brain. Those make a big difference in what you can tolerate and what you can not.

I had a blood pressure of 80-90/50-60 until I was in my late 50s. Now I have trouble tolerating anything below 110/60.

Things change. You'll find out.

[uppityperson]

6. I hope I won't find out, am in my late 50's also. happy thanksgiving