Pills That Work, Pills That Don't: Demanding and Getting the Best and Safest Medications for You and Your Family Book

As a new century approaches, better living through pharmacology has become a way of life. Approximately two thirds of all physician visits result in a drug prescription. In 1996 alone, physicians wrote 2.8 billion prescriptions--about eight prescriptions for every person in this country. New superdrugs and forms of treatment generate front-page coverage and have become household names, but how much do we really know about these new drugs, their effectiveness, their life-prolonging properties, and their potentially deadly interactions and side effects? How can we protect ourselves and our families, enhance our quality of life, and participate in the heal-or-harm choices that determine whether our prescribed medications will help or hinder us, whether they will add years to our life or cut it short?

With these issues in clear focus, Pills That Work, Pills That Don't is the ultimate family guide to personal pharmacology and medication use. Part medical exposé, part pharmacy home companion, this revolutionary book and information resource is the first authoritative road map to better health through better medications. First, it takes you behind the closed doors of the health care establishment and penetrates the drug-secrecy barrier, behind which critical decisions are made about your access to medications. Then, using a one-of-a-kind pill ranking system, this book presents an empowering action plan that will help you and your family get the best possible drugs in order to improve your health.

A nationally acclaimed author-developer of drug selection systems, Dr. Gideon Bosker reveals how your health is being compromised by poor drug practices that are tailspinning out of control. Step by step, he gives you the best and most convenient cures for your condition and makes specific recommendations that you, as an average health care consumer, can apply to your own medical problems and health goals, day in and day out. The 12-Week Action Plan--a unique, consumer-friendly program for drug reduction, elimination, and substitution--helps you and your physician, together, produce a sensible drug regimen that will do more with less.

As the authoritative guide to selecting the best and safest medications for yourself and your family, this book is nothing less than a prescription for a longer, safer, and more satisfying life.

The first "diet book for pills," Pills That Work, Pills That Don't:

¸ convincingly documents the treacherous epidemic of inappropriate drug prescribing in America

¸ presents a comprehensive Consumer Reports-like, pill-by-pill rating system of more than 500 brand-name and generic products, which identifies optimal medications and those you should avoid

¸ reveals the inadequate drug-treatment education that physicians receive

¸ enables you to recognize suboptimal medication use and lodge complaints and concerns with appropriate individuals in your health care plan

¸ offers a unique resource list (complete with phone numbers and addresses) of individuals, pharmacists, and physicians at nationwide health plans, which you can use if you are unhappy about the medications or medication choices available in your health care plan

¸ shows how you can constructively steer your doctor toward prescribing fewer, safer, and more effective drugs to protect you and your family's health

¸ gives step-by-step instructions on how you can work with your physicians to customize a sensible drug regimen that will do more with less

¸ provides the only Pills to Use, Pills to Avoid medication rating guide for caring and treating the most common illnesses that affect you and your family

¸ includes Recipes for Life Prolongation, a section that identifies safe, convenient, and proven medications, as well as combinations that will prevent life-threatening conditions and optimize health