Pills Galore

COULD IT JUST BE POSSIBLE THAT TAKING TOO MANY PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS COULD RESULT IN ALLERGY???????


England has become a nation of pill-takers. A record 720m prescriptions were dispensed last year, a rise of 50% in the past 10 years. The figures, released by the NHS Information Centre, show that in 2005 the prescribing bill reached £7,937m.
More than half of all prescriptions were for people over the age of 65, and on average they each received 38 of them. But we all received an average 14.3 prescriptions last year and even young people under the age of 16 clocked up an average of 3.8 items each.
The vast majority of the prescriptions written are for drugs, but the figures include dressings and appliances. They reflect the trends of an age when heart disease has become the biggest killer, a top medical priority and a source of certain profit for the pharmaceutical industry.
Prescriptions for cholesterol and blood pressure-lowering medicines are up to the highest level ever. Prescriptions for blood pressure drugs, such as beta-blockers and ACE-inhibitors, have more than quadrupled from 11 million in 1995 to 43 million last year.
Cholesterol-busting drugs went from 2 million prescriptions to 36 million in the same period.
But if the prevention of heart disease is a cause for celebration, the surge in medicines for diabetes over the period is less so. Overweight and obesity means that more people are being diagnosed with diabetes.
In 1995 10 million prescriptions were dispensed but by last year that had risen to 27 million. The figures do not match the number of patients with the disease, because one patient will receive a number of prescriptions over the course of a year.
A third area on the rise is prescriptions for osteoporosis. In one year, between 2004 and 2005, there was a 21% increase in the number of prescriptions dispensed for osteoporosis drugs, from 3.8 million to 4.6 million. But over the same period the number of prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) fell by 6% because of suggestions of links with heart disease and breast cancer.



Report reveals UK's allergy epidemic

Just 33 specialists to treat more than 20 million patients with allergic conditions

Friday July 21, 2006


More than 20 million people in the UK are believed to be suffering from conditions caused by allergies and several million of them have become seriously ill, according to a government report released yesterday. The figures for the review were submitted by doctors who accused the government of failing patients needing treatment for conditions such as hay fever, eczema and allergic asthma.
The Royal College of Physicians and the patient group Allergy UK led the criticism, pointing out there are only 33 allergy specialists in the country and GPs are not trained in diagnosing allergic causes of disease. They were also infuriated that the report had been slipped out on the Department of Health's website without notice, and that it offered no central funding to tackle the growing problem.
The study was promised after a trenchant report from the health select committee of the House of Commons in November 2004.
The British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology produced a large document for the review, submitting better data than ever before about the extent of allergy-related illness. It found that 20 million people had a disease where allergy may be involved and that about 10 million needed an allergy diagnosis. With only a handful of allergy specialists in the country - and eight in training - many patients will not get beyond their GP, who is not given allergy training.
'Several million have severe or complex disease and need to see a specialist,' said Pam Ewan, consultant allergist at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge. She said yesterday's report was 'really disappointing for patients and for us in the allergy services'. Doctors and patients had expected the review to address the recommendations of the health committee. 'It has completely failed to do so.'
Though difficult to gauge, allergies are known to be on the rise - there are now 1 million people known to have a potential anaphylactic shock reponse to bee and wasp stings and a further 1 million with nut allergy. Without help, those people run a risk of death.
The review acknowledges that some people can wait three to nine months to see a consultant and that they may be passed from one specialist department to another, with different allergies affecting their respiratory system or their skin or ear, nose and throat. In a foreword, the junior health minister Ivan Lewis also accepts there is a need for more allergy specialists and a need for GP training.
But the review offers no central funding and passes responsibility to local primary care trusts which commission health services, who should 'establish levels of need' in their commmunities. It says the department will 'consider the options' for guidelines to be drawn up by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Dr Ewan says there are already guidelines, drawn up by the specialists in the field.
Allergy UK called the report very disappointing. 'Placing an added burden on an overloaded commissioning service isn't going to help,' a spokeswoman said. 'We carried out a survey of PCTs and we got a very, very definite reply from the majority saying they didn't have any plans to deal with allergies because they didn't have the funds to do so.'
Most allergies could be dealt with by GPs and practice nurses trained to do skin-prick tests, she said. Once they knew what they were allergic to, many people could then protect and treat themselves with over-the-counter medicines.