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    The Undruggist: Book One: A Tale of Modern Apothecary and Wellness
    The Undruggist: Book One: A Tale of Modern Apothecary and Wellness
    The Undruggist: Book One: A Tale of Modern Apothecary and Wellness
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    The Undruggist: Book One: A Tale of Modern Apothecary and Wellness

    By Larry J. Frieders

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    About this ebook

    Nobody can possibly care about your health as much as you. The sooner you realize it, the faster you can do something about it.

    Running to the doctor, and the pharmacy afterward, has become the norm for most health issues. If approached with common sense, however, many could be handled from home. Health isn't a right unless you fight for it. I'm the Un-Druggist, a pharmacist disgusted with what commonly passes for health care today in the U.S. The truth about healthy living often conflicts with those common medical beliefs.

    Truth is our only chance.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBalboa Press
    Release dateNov 2, 2010
    ISBN9781452500881
    The Undruggist: Book One: A Tale of Modern Apothecary and Wellness
    Author

    Larry J. Frieders

    "Too Many People Take Too Many Drugs". That's my motto based on over 3 decades of experience and study in pharmacy, ethics and philosophy. I sometimes refer to myself as a "recovering pharmacist", not meaning a problem with abuse. But over the years my awareness of the potential risks from drugs has increased to the point where I could never work again in a "traditional" drugstore. I retain my license to practice, but I can never bring myself to participate in a process that I know in my heart is excessive, wrong-headed, and extremely dangerous. My pharmacy is the driving force in curbing the overuse and over-prescribing of cholesterol lowering drugs in the United States. I live in Aurora, Illinois and enjoy shotgun sports, fine cigars, reading, and watching my grandchildren grow.

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      Book preview

      The Undruggist - Larry J. Frieders

      Contents

      FOREWORD BY JOEL FRIEDERS

      INTRODUCTION –

      TOO MANY PEOPLE TAKE TOO MANY DRUGS

      SECTION ONE –

      COMPOUNDING;

      ART AND SCIENCE

      SECTION TWO – HOME REMEDIES AND COMMON SENSE

      AN INTRODUCTION TO HOME REMEDIES

      CHAPTER ONE –

      URINARY CONTROL

      CHAPTER TWO –

      BAD BREATH

      CHAPTER THREE –

      UTI’S (URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS)

      CHAPTER FOUR –

      SHAVING WITHOUT TEARS

      CHAPTER FIVE –

      MY THROAT HURTS!

      CHAPTER SIX –

      WHAT?! THERE MUST BE SOMETHING

      WRONG WITH THE SCALE!

      SECTION THREE – HEALTHY CHOICES

      INTRODUCTION –

      WELLNESS IS A CHOICE

      CHAPTER ONE –

      WHAT THEY DON’T WANT YOU

      TO KNOW ABOUT VITAMINS

      CHAPTER TWO –

      SMOKING AND THE REAL

      LITTLE BLUE PILL

      CHAPTER THREE –

      COUNTING TO TEN;

      THE TEN DAY RULE

      CHAPTER FOUR –

      WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE….

      CONCLUSION

      TESTIMONIAL

      FOREWORD BY JOEL FRIEDERS

      Toss a man a fish and he'll eat for a few minutes, teach him how to use explosives and he'll be fishing in his own pond, eating fish off of diamond plates until he dies.

      -Author Unknown

      Growing up in a house with two pharmacist parents meant I didn't get away with a lot. I was only kept home from school when I was contagious or too ill to function normally. And while that didn't allow for a much desired mid-week sabbatical during high school, it did teach me an understanding of when my body was actually in need of healing or medical attention. Along with this understanding came a respect for time.

      My dad would look at what hurt, make sure it wasn't broken, bleeding or inflamed and tell me to watch it for a few days.

      Sure enough, a few days later I would either be on the road to recovery or have already forgotten about what had initially panicked me. I learned that my body was capable of healing itself in most situations, and by adding a medicine I didn't need or a doctor visit I could have avoided, I would usually make more of something than it deserved. My father was notorious for saying You're making a mountain out of a molehill! whenever one of us made a dramatic production out of something that would be gone in a day or two.

      It is this frame of mind that is missing from our society in 2010.

      Every ailment has a medicine, every body part a specialist. Every problem has a reason, and those reasons are routinely treated with chemicals that create more problems than they solve. If we operated under a guise of personal restraint and held off on forcing our way into a doctor's office every time a red bump shows up on our child's forearm to demand an antibiotic, we might learn that our bodies are in fact the miraculous organisms of science fiction.

      We've just been too busy whining to realize it.

      Health is not a result of successful doctoring or prescribing, but a cumulative result of utilizing common sense, trusted experts and above all else, patience.

      Our society needs this book now, more than ever.

      JOEL FRIEDERS

      INTRODUCTION –

      TOO MANY PEOPLE TAKE TOO MANY DRUGS

      Remember the ‘70’s? All those psychedelic swirls? All that ‘60’s hangover? The Beatles had broken up but continued to produce amazing music as individual artists. Even though The Eagles were Takin’ It Easy, as a nation we were still roiled by political and cultural debates. Our Bodies, Ourselves opened the eyes of many women – and more than a few men – to the truth about their own bodies.

      Richard Nixon was President.

      We all had more hair.

      Remember?

      I sure do. It was during the 70’s that I became a health professional. At the time, those of us who cared about the well-being of our patients were alarmed by a phenomenon called poly-pharmacy, which referred to the troubling situation in which an individual was taking multiple medications. As a pharmacist, I knew only too well that multiple medications exponentially increased the potential for adverse side effects.

      Three medications at once seemed astonishingly – and almost always, unnecessarily – risky.

      Pharmacists and health professionals were not alone in being troubled by the rise in medication overuse. My patients were concerned as well. People who had rarely taken anything stronger than the occasional aspirin tablet suddenly found multiple medicine bottles staring back at them when they opened their medicine cabinets.

      I still remember the afternoon Mrs. Goldsmith came into my pharmacy, clutching a prescription she’d just received from her doctor. At the time, she was in her late seventies, self-sufficient, opinionated and no stranger to hardship.

      What’s this, Mrs. Goldsmith? I asked as she pushed the crumpled piece of paper across the counter to me.

      Her lips tightened in an angry scowl. Doctor says I have to take it, she spat out. She shook her head as I picked up the prescription and began to read it. These darned pills. I can’t hardly keep track of them all. She rolled her eyes and then furrowed her brow. In the morning. In the evening. With food. On an empty stomach…it’s ridiculous.

      I had to agree with her. As her pharmacist, I knew she was already on a water pill for her high blood pressure and another for a thyroid condition. This additional prescription would make three medications she would have to take every day. Let me give the doctor a call and see what I can find out, I told her.

      Would you? she asked gratefully.

      Of course.

      In another sign of how the times have changed, unlike today, her doctor got right on the phone when I called. After a few brief pleasantries, I voiced my concern about how these medications might interact. He listened considerately and acknowledged the concern but remained insistent that she take all three medications. In a small concession to the potential for danger, he altered the dosage of her blood pressure medication.

      After our conversation, I hung up the phone and shook my head with the same kind of confusion I was sure Mrs. Goldsmith had felt. Three medications!

      Looking back, my outrage seems almost quaint. If you would have told me when I first began my professional career that by the beginning of the 21st century that I would be hard-pressed to find someone not on at least three medications and that it would not be uncommon for someone to be taking as many as ten or even fifteen medications regularly I would have told you that you were out of your mind.

      Heck, I’d have sworn to you that the Apocalypse would arrive first. Ten or

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