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Drug shortages have reached an all-time high in the United States, pharmacists are warning.During the first three months of 2024, there were 323 active medication shortages, according to American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and Utah Drug Information Service. Previously, the record high was 320 shortages in 2014.This ASHP started tracking shortages in 2001.MORE: Patients, health care providers face shortages of critical drugs, Senate report finds"All drug classes are vulnerable to shortage," Dr. Paul Abramowitz, CEO of ASHP, said in a statement. "Some of the most worrying shortages involve generic sterile injectable medications, including cancer chemotherapy drugs and emergency medications...

In Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert shaking up the political picture switching from the 3rd Congressional District to run... US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with the tide of migrants.. A drone downed in the waters off Sevastopol in Russia's Crimea... A drone attack in Israel's Golan Heights... A deadly incident in the UK in the city of Sheffield car striking a group of people... "We are dependent on the other side of the world, the factories are not in Europe. We also don't know why drug production has come to a standstill...

For patients with chronic conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), newer drugs like biologics can be effective—but also expensive. As a result, many insurance companies have limited access to these medications—and physicians are forced to jump through hoops. According to a recent story, insurance companies sometimes have their physicians reject claims without even reading them. To address these challenges, Athos Bousvaros, MD, MPH is calling for change—and providing specialists with the tools they need to navigate an increasingly difficult approval process. In a recent paper, Bousvaros and his colleague Stacy Kahn, MD detail how complicated the approval and denial process...

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shed some new light on the health habits of Americans. According to the report, 8.2% of adults between the ages of 18 and 64 taking prescription medications reported not taking their drugs as prescribed in order to cut costs — adding up to 9.2 million affected Americans. In 2021, out-of-pocket expenses on retail drugs rose to $63 billion — a major factor in many U.S. residents’ decision to stop taking their medications. Roughly 60% of U.S. adults 18 years old or older reported taking at least one prescription medication...

My son makes YouTube videos for a living and is sponsored by a small array of advertisers. Recently he was sponsored by a company, Jase Medical, that allows one to visit an online doctor and after answering a few simple questions, you are prescribed 5 emergency antibiotics. The antibiotics treat pneumonia, bladder infections, bio-terror, Montezuma's revenge, and wound infections. I thought this was an incredible premise/service and wanted to share with you the ability to have a potentially life-saving supply on hand in case the SHTF. I filled in the short online questionnaire and received by antibiotics in the mail...

A study suggests a new way for hematologic oncologists to protect older patients from the risks of medication interactions. Researchers teamed up with hematologic-oncology investigators to look at the association between older patients with blood cancers who were taking multiple medications and their corresponding frailty. They also created a new scale based on a list of Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs) from the NCCN Guidelines for Older Adult Oncology—called the Geriatric Oncology-Potentially Inappropriate Medications (GO-PIMs) Scale—and found it to be more effective at predicting frailty than conventional methods. "A large portion of research for older adults identifies patients as 'having polypharmacy'...

… In the consolidated cases of Ruan v. United States and Kahn v. United States, the Court delivered a 9-0 opinion, written by Justice Breyer, ... Drs. Ruan and Kahn were convicted under a provision of the Controlled Substances Act (codified at 21 U. S. C. §841) which makes it a federal crime to prescribe a controlled substance, “except as authorized.” A prescription is only authorized when it is a prescribed “for a legitimate medical purpose… acting in the usual course of his professional practice.” *** … Following his conviction, Dr. Ruan was sentenced to over 20 years in prison...

Spine-related pain is increasingly common in older adults. While medications play an important role in pain management, their use has limitations in geriatric patients. Now a new review study has found acetaminophen is safe in older adults, but ibuprofen may be more effective for spine-related pain. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories should be used short-term in lower dose courses with gastrointestinal precaution while corticosteroids show the least evidence for treating non-specific back pain. Additionally, nerve pain medications (gabapentin and pregabalin) can be used in older persons, with caution to dose and kidney function. Among their findings: Pain medicines gabapentin and pregabalin may cause...

Think twice before popping these pills that shrink your brain, kill your memory and put you in the path of a deadly disease with no cure. One person made an astonishing recovery from severe dementia after quitting multiple meds – including over-the-counter products. Be very careful. Story at-a-glance Anticholinergic drugs block acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that performs important functions in your brain and peripheral and central nervous systems In your brain, acetylcholine plays a key role in attention, concentration, memory formation and consolidation, which is why anticholinergic drugs can cause symptoms identical to dementia Research assessing effects of anticholinergics found statistically...

Polypharmacy, or the use of multiple medications, is common in older adults. While 89 percent of people aged 65 and older take at least one prescription medication, 54 percent take four or more. Data from Merck similarly found that nearly 80 percent of older adults regularly take at least two prescription drugs, while 36 percent regularly use five or more different drugs—and this doesn’t include over-the-counter medications. Adverse effects from polypharmacy are common and may drive patients to seek out ever-more drugs to treat the side effects caused by their drug regimen. This can create a vicious cycle that’s perpetuated...

Folks - I want to buy some "prep" food for my son & his soon-to-be-bride. I want to make sure they have some stored food & the easiest way (unlike how I've done it) is to just buy some stored food from Patriot Food Supply or such. I'm curious if any Freepers have purchased & what they consider the best options, where you have purchased from or what advice you might have. Appreciate the advice!

Vaccines never tested in people with immune deficiencies While there's no clear number of how many Americans are taking medications that might prove to be a challenge for the Covid-19 vaccine, a new study can help give an estimate. In a paper published last month, Dr. Beth Wallace, a rheumatologist and her team at the University of Michigan, looked at a database of more than 3 million Americans to see how many took immunosuppressants. Based on that data, Wallace estimates that about 60 million Americans are taking immunosuppressants that could interfere with the vaccine.

I know the government would never release truthful info about this but here is my question... If you or someone you know has gotten covid, were you or them previously taking prophylactics like zinc, vitamin d, vitamin c quercetin, n-acetylcysteine, and/or of course Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin? In other words is there anyone who was diligent to take these prophylactics but STILL got covid?

A high-dose vitamin K supplement reduced calcium precipitates associated with hardening of the arteries by 37 percent in rats, scientists from The Netherlands have reported. If the results can be reproduced in humans, high-dose vitamin K could have potential clinical implications for reducing arterial calcification, which is an important independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). “High vitamin K intake not only prevents calcification, but even regresses arterial calcifications,” lead researcher Leon Schurgers said. There are two main forms of vitamin K: phylloquinone, also known as phytonadione, (vitamin K1) which is found in green leafy vegetables such...

People taking blood-thinning medications have been told in the past to limit their vitamin K intake. Some researchers now say that may not be the best advice. Patients taking blood-thinning drugs such as warfarin are told by doctors to reduce their intake of vitamin K because it’s believed too much of this vitamin can decrease the drug’s effectiveness. This is due to the belief that the vitamin interacts with the body’s clotting process and can interfere with the drug’s blood-thinning properties. But what if this advice is wrong? According to a new clinical trial, people taking these drugs should actually...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1.  Purpose.  Insulin is a critical and life-saving medication that approximately 8 million Americans rely on to manage diabetes.  Likewise, injectable epinephrine is a life‑saving medication used to stop severe allergic reactions.The price of insulin in the United States has risen dramatically over the past decade.  The list price for a single vial of insulin today is often more than $250 and most patients use at least two vials per month.  As for injectable epinephrine, recent increased...

Since the start of our national struggle against coronavirus, lines of political partisanship have shifted as lawmakers came together to pass three unprecedented relief packages totaling more than $3 trillion. The legislation wasn’t perfect, but it does offer critically needed funding for mitigating the economic impact of COVID-19. In retrospect, it's clear to see who has been hit hardest by the coronavirus, and where needed dollars will have the most impact and return. Therefore, it is incumbent on the president and Congress to ensure that future relief packages are efficient, effective and targeted at sectors of our health care economy that need...

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One of our Resistance Library readers reached out to us recently and shared a BBC article that they found interesting. They said it reminded them of our piece Prescription For Violence: The Corresponding Rise of Antidepressants, SSRIs & Mass Shootings and thought it supported some of the connections made there. They’ve been linked to road rage, pathological gambling, and complicated acts of fraud. Some make us less neurotic, and others may even shape our social relationships. It turns out many ordinary medications don’t just affect our bodies – they affect our brains. Why? And should there be warnings on...

“Patient Five” was in his late 50s when a trip to the doctors changed his life. He had diabetes, and he had signed up for a study to see if taking a “statin” – a kind of cholesterol-lowering drug – might help. So far, so normal. But soon after he began the treatment, his wife began to notice a sinister transformation. A previously reasonable man, he became explosively angry and – out of nowhere – developed a tendency for road rage. During one memorable episode, he warned his family to keep away, lest he put them in hospital. -snip- Alarmed,...