Home Page Coming Soon

Too Many Pills

Author: James Le Fanu
Illustrator:
Retail Price: $32.99
Betabooks Price $26.39
ISBN: 9781408709771
Format: Paperback
Published: February 2018
Published By: Hachette Australia
Stock Availability
Titles that are READY TO SHIP will be sent from our warehouse within 2 business days while stocks last. Click here for more details.

Temporarily out of stock Available to order
Temporarily out of stock
 
SAVE $6.60  (20.0%) 
Quantity:
 

Product Description

Over the past fifteen years the number of prescriptions has increased threefold - an additional 300 million annually - so it is now not unusual for those in their seventies to be taking half a dozen (or more) different drugs. This might be justified were it driven by a flood of new, effective treatments for the relief of common medical conditions - but that is not the case.

There has been a fundamental shift in the rationale of drug treatment - we no longer only treat symptoms, we aim to control more aspects of physiology than ever before: blood pressure, glucose levels and cholesterol must all be brought within 'normal' levels in order to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Drugs, however, are not without side effects, and one in four acute admissions to hospitals are now caused by adverse reactions to medication.

Drawing on fifty years' experience in medical practice, James Le Fanu reveals the truth about medicine's metamorphosis from modest beginnings in alleviating pain to the massive global phenomenon it is today, sounds the alarm about the dangers of over-medication, and shows us how the future of medicine can be if we'd just stop taking the pills.Over the past fifteen years the number of prescriptions has increased threefold - an additional 300 million annually - so it is now not unusual for those in their seventies to be taking half a dozen (or more) different drugs. This might be justified were it driven by a flood of new, effective treatments for the relief of common medical conditions - but that is not the case.

There has been a fundamental shift in the rationale of drug treatment - we no longer only treat symptoms, we aim to control more aspects of physiology than ever before: blood pressure, glucose levels and cholesterol must all be brought within 'normal' levels in order to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Drugs, however, are not without side effects, and one in four acute admissions to hospitals are now caused by adverse reactions to medication.

Drawing on fifty years' experience in medical practice, James Le Fanu reveals the truth about medicine's metamorphosis from modest beginnings in alleviating pain to the massive global phenomenon it is today, sounds the alarm about the dangers of over-medication, and shows us how the future of medicine can be if we'd just stop taking the pills.
Dr James Le Fanu is a practising GP in south-west London and has a huge popular following for his weekly medical columns in the Daily and Sunday Telegraph as well as writing for the Spectator and GQ Magazine. He is the author of the definitive The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine.
ISBN: 9781408709771
Number of Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Reading Level:
Published Date: 27-Feb-2018
Dimensions (mm):
Publisher: Hachette Australia

New Releases