One in Four Kids Take Drugs for Chronic Health Conditions

This was the finding by Medco Health Solutions' latest drug trend study. Among adolescents aged 10 to 19, the figure jumps to 30 percent. These staggering figures only take into account insured U.S. children and adolescents, so the true numbers could be even higher.
Children and adolescents should be, for the most part, at their health peak. Instead, this age group made up the leading growth



category for the pharmaceutical industry last year, with increases nearly four times higher than those seen in the rest of the population.

What is going on here?

Unhealthy Lifestyles are Making Kids Sick

Some of the largest jumps in prescriptions for kids were for drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heartburn, and acid refulx. 

Since 2001, the use of heartburn and acid reflux medications among adolescents has jumped 147 percent, while girls aged 10 to 19 taking medications for type 2 diabetes has jumped close to 200 percent in the last nine years.

Every one of these "chronic diseases" is virtually always the result of an unhealthy lifestyle, namely poor diet, lack of exercise, and stress.

What is distressing is that if a child comes into a physician's office with high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes or heartburn, they will likely leave with a drug prescription in hand.

Sadly, this is now expected.

From a very young age, sometimes even before they leave the hospital at birth, kids are given medicine. Antibiotics for colds and ear infections (even though they often don't work for this purpose), pills for indigestion, fever, headaches, the flu, and in some cases even for simply acting out.

Kids are taught that in order to "feel better" they need to go to the doctor and get medicine. Or they need to go to the corner drugstore and get some type of liquid gel-cap to "cure" them. To make matters worse, kids are exposed to TV commercials, some with animated characters and talking animals, pedaling drugs to their parents and sometimes directly to teens.

This is an atrocity, as what virtually everyone, kids and adults included, needs to treat these types of ailments is a prescription for a healthier lifestyle.

Antipsychotics for Kids Common

Drugs for what used to be considered "adult" diseases are not the only ones showing up in kids' tiny hands. Antipsychotics, potent drugs that are known for their serious side effects, are also increasingly being given to kids to treat depression, anxiety and other similar conditions.

Since 2001, the use of antipsychotics among kids has doubled (and more than doubled for girls). In 2007 alone, half a million children and teenagers were given at least one prescription for an antipsychotic, including 20,500 under the age of 6. Side effects of these drugs are often worse than the conditions for which they're prescribed.

Take Risperdal, an atypical antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia and biopolar disorder in adults, and irritability associated with autistic disorder in children. In many cases, the drug is handed out to children with attention deficit problems, as well. Side effects include:
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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/06/10/prescription-drug-use-by-us-children-on-the-rise.aspx