Top ten drugs in Florida for Medicare Patients

[BarryRX]

I found this interesting, but I'm a pharmacist. These are the top ten drugs (in order) prescribed in Florida to Medicare patients.

Simvastatin - cholesterol
Lisinopril - blood pressure
Omeprazole - GERD, heartburn
Amlodipine - blood pressure and angina
Levothyroxine - thyroid
furosemide - blood pressure and edema
Metoprolol - blood pressure and angina
Metformin - Type 2 diabetes
Plavix - anti platelet agent.

[B767drvr]

I found this interesting, but I'm a pharmacist. These are the top ten drugs (in order) prescribed in Florida to Medicare patients.

Simvastatin - cholesterol
Lisinopril - blood pressure
Omeprazole - GERD, heartburn
Amlodipine - blood pressure and angina
Levothyroxine - thyroid
furosemide - blood pressure and edema
Metoprolol - blood pressure and angina
Metformin - Type 2 diabetes
Plavix - blood thinner.

I went to public school, but I only count nine. :shrug:

Interesting that 6 of the 9 drugs relate to heart disease.

[gomoho]

I'm not a pharmacist and also am not surprised by this list at all - interesting.

[BarryRX]

I went to public school, but I only count nine. :shrug:

Interesting that 6 of the 9 drugs relate to heart disease.

oops...top 9

[buzzy]

ten is probably Viagra

[jimbo2012]

I found this interesting, but I'm a pharmacist. These are the top ten drugs (in order) prescribed in Florida to Medicare patients.

Simvastatin - cholesterol
Lisinopril - blood pressure
Omeprazole - GERD, heartburn
Amlodipine - blood pressure and angina
Levothyroxine - thyroid
furosemide - blood pressure and edema
Metoprolol - blood pressure and angina
Metformin - Type 2 diabetes
Plavix - blood thinner.

Food for thought!

More interesting simply changing to a Vegan diet would likely eliminate the need for all of them except Plavix.

:mmmm:

[KayakerNC]

Food for thought!

More interesting simply changing to a Vegan diet would likely eliminate the need for all of them except Plavix.

Or...maybe not.
Saturated fat not as bad as we thought after all, claims 'The Big Fat Surprise' : LIFE : Tech Times (http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8156/20140607/saturated-fat-bad-claims-big-surprise.htm)

[2BNTV]

I thought that maybe naprosan, (Alleve), would be # 10 with all the aches and pains, of an active community. :smiley:

Only take one of the 9 listed.

Interesting that 3 are for blood pressure.

81mg of asprin, (once per dya), reduces the risk of a heart attack and stroke, by 50%, according to a heart specialist.

[Cedwards38]

Is beer a drug?

[alwann]

Isn't Plavix a brand name? I'm surprised Coumadin/Wafarin don't rank higher.

[BarryRX]

Isn't Plavix a brand name? I'm surprised Coumadin/Wafarin don't rank higher.

I was surprised also. I think it came in at number 14.

[billethkid]

f the list were categorized by condition being treated there would be MAYBE two?

Heart disease and diabetes?

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Isn't Plavix a brand name? I'm surprised Coumadin/Wafarin don't rank higher.

Plavix is a brand name for Clopidogrel. It actually isn't a blood thinner. What it does is prevent the platelets from sticking together. In other words, it makes you blood cells slippery. Most people are under the mistaken impression that it is a blood thinner. Like 2BNTV says, aspirin can be just as effective in most cases as coumadin or warfarin if you need a blood thinner which is probably why they're not prescribed as often as clopidogrel. Clopidogrel is most often prescribed for people who have stents placed in their coronary arteries. It prevent the blood from clotting around the stents which the body tends to sense as an injury.

I stopped taking a statin a while ago. My cardiologist didn't appear that upset when I discussed the reasons why, but my PVP didn't like the idea.

Studies that I've read show that there was no difference in deaths resulting from heart issues between people on statins and not on statins. The side effects include things like muscle atrophy, diabetes and early onset dementia. I'm not sure I'd rather die from those things.

The other issue with me, and I am not giving out medical advice here, only relating what I decided for myself, is that my cholesterol is extremely high. Taking a statin was reducing it to a very high level. It was dropping my cholesterol level by about four or five percent. I felt that even if high cholesterol does cause heart disease, and there are studies that say it doesn't, reducing my cholesterol a few percentage point wasn't going to do anything for me. For me, the risks outweighed the benefits by a huge amount.

[Barefoot]

81mg of asprin, (once per dya), reduces the risk of a heart attack and stroke, by 50%, according to a heart specialist.

There has been some recent "new thinking" on the debate about taking daily aspirin.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Written by Dr. Julie Chen

In recent months, there has been some conflicting information in the news about aspirin -- whether it prevents cancer or whether it doesn't, and whether it actually puts people at higher risk of bleeding unnecessarily or not. Let's take a moment and try to get some important take-away points from these review studies so that we can safely use the information to our health benefit.

Let's start with the discussions that started in January of 2012, when studies suggested that using aspirin for heart disease or cancer prevention in otherwise healthy individuals unnecessarily puts these people at higher risk for bleeding. The concern was -- and is -- that aspirin, when used for disease prevention, may unnecessarily be putting people at risk for bleeding. However, aspirin is seen to be beneficial for those with strong history concerning for heart or vascular disease or cancers. So, should aspirin be used for prevention or not, and does it actually put people at higher risk for bleeding unnecessarily?

Then, in more recent months, some review studies looked at prior studies and concluded that daily aspirin therapy has a significant benefit for prevention of cancers, including colorectal cancer and esophageal cancer -- not to mention the cardio-protective effects of aspirin on top of that. These studies suggest that the bleeding risk is mitigated with long-term low-dosage daily use and becomes less of an issue with regular long-term use in the appropriate individuals and that bleeding from daily low-dose aspirin therapy is not a major consistent concern for most people.

So, what are we, as the general public, supposed to think? Do we or do we not use aspirin on a daily basis for heart disease and cancer prevention? Should we or should we not worry about the increased risk of bleeding?

As you may have noticed, the phrase that keeps repeating in these news reports is the concept of "in the appropriate individuals." This is the key concept I want you to take away with you from these reports... that baby aspirin is still medicine and that daily use should be something that you decide on whether it is appropriate or not for you with your physician.

The reason is because depending on your risk factors and your other medications, daily baby aspirin may in fact be beneficial for some; while for others, it would be inappropriate. You should also keep in mind that just because baby aspirin was at one point in your life appropriate for you, it may not always be appropriate if you have new diseases or conditions, or are on new medications. So you should always double check about your medications with your physician at your yearly physical to make sure that the medications you are on are still appropriate for your medical status.

While more studies may be needed to further decide whether daily aspirin therapy is indeed appropriate for all healthy individuals for heart disease prevention and cancer prevention, there is a distinct possibility that these studies will never be done at a large enough scale to definitively quiet the naysayers, because aspirin is a relatively inexpensive generic drug and may not be able to generate the glitz and glamour of a larger-scale study in the future to give us skeptics the definitive answer.

[jimbo2012]

Or...maybe not.
Saturated fat not as bad as we thought after all, claims 'The Big Fat Surprise' : LIFE : Tech Times (http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8156/20140607/saturated-fat-bad-claims-big-surprise.htm)

I think if you do a bit more research you will find few subscribe to that theory, try reading the China study, or Dr. Esselstyn's "The Last Heart Attack, Bill Clinton turned his high risk cardio issue around.

Watch "Forks Over Knives" a real eye opener (along with your arteries)

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I think if you do a bit more research you will find few subscribe to that theory, try reading the China study, or Dr. Esselstyn's "The Last Heart Attack, Bill Clinton turned his high risk cardio issue around.

Watch "Forks Over Knives" a real eye opener (along with your arteries)

And if you did a little more research you'd find that very few subscribe to vegetarianism. Read Grain Brain, Wheat Belly and Why We Get Fat. They are real eye openers (along with your arteries)

Most people including doctors and scientist agree that man is an omnivore. It is his natural state. One problem with a vegetarian diet is that, as Dr Esselstyn's cohort Dr Ornish freely admits, it is very difficult to stay on. Man craves meat and fat and needs fat, including saturated fat in his diet to remain healthy.

I personally also have a problem with a doctor that recommends us eating pure gluten in the form of seitan when we are finding more and more people are gluten intolerant. Gluten has been shown to cause all kinds of medical problems, yet Dr Esselstyn recommends it as a meat alternative.

I don't tell anyone what to do. I simple relate what's been working for me. If I eat a lot of starchy carbs, I gain weight, a lot and very quickly. My blood pressure goes up and my triglycerides go through the roof. The only way that I had any success on Dr Esselstyn's program was to eat lettuce and celery. And Like Dr Ornish says, most people aren't going to do that.

There are more and more scientist, doctors, nutritionists and regular people accepting the low carb high fat way of thinking.

My observation is that as we've gone more and more to a low fat diet, we, as a society have gotten fatter and less healthy. In my opinion that is because the fat in our diet has been replaced by sugar which is toxic.

[Villages PL]

Most people including doctors and scientist agree that man is an omnivore. It is his natural state. One problem with a vegetarian diet is that, as Dr Esselstyn's cohort Dr Ornish freely admits, it is very difficult to stay on. Man craves meat and fat and needs fat, including saturated fat in his diet to remain healthy.

It's an interesting subject to think about. I agree that man is an omnivore. Since we live in a culture where meals mainly revolve around meat, and vegetable side-dishes are thought of as secondary in importance, it's no surprise that that most people agree. But I'm not so sure that it's our natural state.

If you go back to a time before weapons were developed, it would be difficult to catch most animals. We are not fast runners, compared to most animals. And if you did manage to catch one, what would you do without a knife to cut it up? Our teeth are not designed to tear into raw flesh and our jaws are not that powerful.

As man became more advanced and more successful at catching wild game, it was good because the main object was survival. They didn't have to worry about getting cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, etc., because they wouldn't live long enough to develop those degenerative diseases.

But now that it's been established that the maximum life span is 122+, the question is what's the best diet to carry us through our old age. Now our concern is: How can we avoid all the many degenerative diseases that cave men didn't have to worry about.

And it's up to each person to decide what their goal is: 1) Find a good middle of the road (moderation) diet. 2) Find a diet that's better than the Standard American Diet or 3) Find the best diet that will provide maximum health and longevity.

In my opinion, the Grain Brain lifestyle is better (#2 above) than the Standard American Diet, provided it is followed carefully and precisely as stated. Although, I doubt that many will follow it precisely as stated as it calls for all animal protein to be organic - grass-fed. I'm guessing that most people won't follow that rule for very long.

I choose to move beyond the "better" diet in search of the "best". And the best, in my opinion, doesn't include meat, dairy and eggs. The best diet would call for unmodified grains but would keep them to a minimum.

[blueash]

Barry
I would think this list is by number of Rx's written. Is there a top 9 for cost? I suspect that would look very different and be populated by non-generic heavily promoted drugs

[BarryRX]

Barry
I would think this list is by number of Rx's written. Is there a top 9 for cost? I suspect that would look very different and be populated by non-generic heavily promoted drugs

You are right. I thought any list by cost would skew the results towards name Brands and not reflect true usage. I'm sure such a list exists, but I didn't look for it.