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CNN Live Today
81 Percent of Adults Take Regular Medication
Aired January 16, 2002 - 10:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It seems like there is a pill for just about anything that ails you, and apparently, Americans are more than willing to give the meds a try. A new study says that more than 80 percent of adults in the country pop pills regularly.
Are we overmedicated? Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to talk about that.
Popping pills? Not you.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Not me.
KAGAN: But us, as a collective group.
GUPTA: It's probably a pretty widely held sentiment that we take a lot of medications in this country. Some researchers decided to look at the numbers. Daryn, 81 percent of people take at least one medication every week. A little more alarming, 25 percent of people take about five medications per week, and 5 percent of people take 10 medications or more per week.
The authors of the study tried to reflect on is this more a overprescribing sort of thing or more a lifestyle problem in terms of people actually becoming more dependent on these medications. Some interesting points out of the study.
KAGAN: Speaking of lifestyles and the kind of choices people make, some people could go and have a good diet, exercise, or just take a pill, and that will make me healthy. Not a good alternative, though.
GUPTA: That's right. A lot of the old golden rules are starting to get broken by some of these advancing technologies and medicines.
Let's look at the top six prescription medications. The first three aren't that surprising: hormone replacement, number one; thyroid replacement, number two; the pill, number three; but after that, you get into two blood pressure medications and a cholesterol medication. Daryn, speaking to your point, that is probably a lot to do with some of the lifestyle decisions -- not enough exercise and diet, more medication to try to achieve the same things.
KAGAN: I have a question. You were talking about this earlier here on CNN, I was surprised when you said the most prescribed medication if hormone replacement. I would have thought heart or cholesterol medication or something like that.
GUPTA: I guess menopause is that one thing that is going to be pretty standard in most women, so that's probably why. I talked to a pharmacist about that, and they said hormone replacement has probably been the most commonly medication for the last 10 years.
KAGAN: So it has been like that for awhile.
GUPTA: Yes.
KAGAN: So any problems with Americans thinking, as you go farther down that list, forget the diet and exercise, I will just take the pill?
KAGAN: I promised myself when I took this job I wouldn't do too many eat-right-and-exercise stories, but this is an important one. There's a new term to put out, and it is the metabolic syndrome. It is an important term because while people may feel healthy, not have any cardiovascular disease, not have diabetes, there are five things, and if you have three of the five of them, you are at significantly increased risk of heart risk and diabetes. They are calling 47 million people in this country right now, so that is 1/4 of the population having the metabolic syndrome.
Just run through them: abdominal obesity -- if you tend to be a man who has a waist size greater than 46 or a woman greater than 40 -- Daryn, you have nothing to worry about there; triglyceride level greater than 150; HDL, which is the good kind of cholesterol, less than 50; or a blood pressure greater than 130 over 85 -- that's the number that they're starting to get concerned about. If your blood pressure is greater than that, you may fall into this syndrome, the metabolic syndrome, and be at increased risk of these things.
KAGAN: Talk to your doctor is the bottom...
GUPTA: Always talk to your doctor about all of the medications, even the over-the-counter medications, ever herbal supplements, vitamins. We are taking a lot of them, they have all sorts of different effects on the body, check with your doctor.
KAGAN: We will do that. Dr. Gupta, thanks for letting us check with you.
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