DISCONTINUING PRESCRIPTION MEDICAL DRUGS

by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

Well over half of the American and European populations take long-term medication, especially after the age of about 40. Many of them have serious side effects, or adverse effects, some of which are completely unpredictable.

Many drugs unnecessary. While drugs have a place, another option for many people is to follow a nutritional balancing program to slowly rebuild and restore the body. When this is done faithfully, most medications are no longer necessary. In fact, continuing your thyroid hormones or other drugs often gets in the way of deep healing of the body.

How to discontinue medication safely is the subject of this article.

Warning: The decision to stop medication must be made by you and/or your health care professional. This article can only provide general guidelines, not individual recommendations. It is not meant as a prescription or treatment for any illness or health condition.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR STOPPING DRUG MEDICATION

1. Nutritional balancing practitioners do not take people off drug medication, unless the practitioner is a licensed medical doctor.

Ideally, work with your doctor to discontinue medication. If your doctor will not help you with this, it may be time to find a new doctor.

2. Some drugs are easier to discontinue than others. Also, some people have an easier time discontinuing drugs than others. Also, each case is different. These topics are discussed at length below.

3. Most drugs can be discontinued if you follow a nutritional balancing program. It is always wise to be on a complete nutritional balancing program for at least a month or more before attempting to discontinue a drug.

In some cases, several years on a program may be needed before a drug can be discontinued.

4. It is almost always safer to reduce drugs slowly.

5. Two common blocks to discontinuing drug use are fear and ignorance. Fear is usually born of ignorance.

Most doctors are conditioned to prescribe drugs, and know little about the alternatives. Doctors can also lose their licenses if they do not follow “approved practice methods”. Please beware of this.

6. Sometimes a pharmacist knows more about a drug than does your doctor, so consider this alternative source of information.

DRUGS TO REDUCE OR QUIT ONLY WITH A LOT OF CAUTION

Some drugs are performing life-saving functions. Even if they are not the ideal method of care, they can only be stopped with great caution. These include:

1. Blood pressure medication (anti-hypertensive drugs). Stopping these can cause one’s blood pressure to rise too high, causing a heart attack or stroke. Therefore, do not stop this medication until your blood pressure is coming down. The need for anti-hypertensive drugs will usually decrease within a few months to a year if one follows a complete nutritional balancing program. To read about this condition, read High Blood Pressure on this website.

2. Insulin. This is a powerful hormone that control blood sugar. Quitting it too soon can cause blood sugar to go too high, causing severe problems or even death. The need for insulin will decrease if one follows a complete nutritional balancing program. For details, read Diabetes on this site.

3. Anti-depressants. While I do not like this class of drugs, they may prevent a person from committing suicide, for example. Therefore, please be very careful about reducing these drugs. They are usually easy to stop if one follows a complete nutritional balancing program. For more on this important subject, read Depression on this site.

4. Other psychiatric medications. Some of these are not so easy to quit quickly, and caution must be used to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms.

5. Drugs used to handle hyperthyroidism or Grave’s disease such as Inderal and methimazole. Hyperthyroidism can be a very serious condition. Do not quit these drugs without caution. In most cases, they will be needed for only about six months or less if one follows a complete nutritional balancing program. For more on this subject, read Grave’s disease or Hyperthyroidism on this site.

6. Drugs used in surgery such as anesthesia are still needed, although they are quite toxic and should be avoided as much as possible. Always try to have local anesthesia instead of general anesthesia.

Similarly, drugs used in trauma care such as Adrenalin and others are needed in emergencies.

DRUGS THAT ARE HARMFUL AND MAY HAVE LITTLE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS, AND THEREFORE ARE BEST TO STOP AT ONCE

1. All vaccinations and flu shots. While touted as being wonderful, vaccination is about the most dangerous procedure in modern medical care. I do not recommend any vaccines. All of them contain stray viruses, and toxins such as aluminum, mercury and others. For more, please read Vaccination on this website.

2. Cholesterol-lowering “statin” drugs. This class of drugs can cause severe adverse effects, including heart disease, the very disease they are supposed to protect against. I would never recommend taking them.

Mild elevated cholesterol is not a problem. If cholesterol is very high, I suggest taking red rice yeast, a natural product that contains compounds similar to the statin drugs, but without the side effects of these drugs. For more, read Cholesterol-phobia on this site.

3. Oral anti-diabetic drugs. These drugs stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin, and they do nothing to stop the progress of diabetes. They are not usually helpful drugs at all. A nutritional balancing program will usually lower blood sugar permanently and much more healthfully than these drugs. For more, read Diabetes on this site.

4. Propecia and related drugs to grow hair. The ADVERSE EFFECTS OF THIS DRUG ARE TERRIBLE. They include sexual side effects, weakness, and others. The dangers far outweigh the benefits, in my view. I would stop them immediately.

5. Accutane. This drug is used for acne, but it seems to build up in the liver and can cause severe problems. It is much better to use methods such as vitamin A, and the best is often a reddish heat lamp used on the face for only five to ten minutes several times daily. For more, read Skin Diseases on this site.

6. Birth control pills or patches or the birth control IUD (Mirena). These have so many horrific side effects it is surprising they are used at all. Side effects include strokes, heart attacks and cancer. Please use mechanical methods of birth control instead such as condoms, diaphrams, rhythm methods and spermicidal gels. For more, read Contraception on this site.

7. All Antibiotics, especially long-term use. While these were once hailed as miracle drugs, the newer one, in particular, build up in the body and are among the most toxic drugs. Natural alternatives work excellently in most cases. Exceptions are topical antibiotic ointment and antibiotic eye drops, which are not too bad. For more, read Beyond Antibiotics on this site.

8. Hormones such as levothyroxine, Armour thyroid, Naturethroid, estrogen, DHEA, pregnenelone, testosterone, estrogens, and progestins. I find, in general, that hormone replacement is not necessary if one follows a complete nutritional balancing program. This program will slowly restore the body’s own ability to produce its hormones, unless the hormone-producing gland(s) have been surgically removed or destroyed in some other way.

Note that restoring natural hormone production can take a few years, in some cases. Also, one cannot just stop taking some hormones, especially insulin for diabetes, and in many cases cortisone and related products.

One may have to taper off many hormones slowly, including thyroid and adrenal hormones. They are very powerful drugs and quitting them rapidly may cause fatigue or other symptoms. For more on this subject, read Hormone Replacement Therapy and Diabetes on this site.

9. Iron. This is often not needed or not too helpful because the real cause of anemia is a copper imbalance or too much lead, or some other problem. Only a hair mineral test can ascertain these other causes of anemia, in most cases, and what to do about them.

Iron is toxic, even if it makes you feel better. If you must take it, substitute a few desiccated liver tablets daily for the prescription iron pills.

10. Homeopathic remedies, all chelation products, and most herbs. These are all harmful, as well, in my experience, even if they provide symptomatic relief.

WAYS TO STOP DRUG MEDICATION

I usually recommend that a person first begin a nutritional balancing program before stopping most medication. The program will stabilize the body and can help greatly.

Options for stopping a drug include:

1. One can go back to the doctor who prescribed the drug and ask that the drug be stopped. This option is often best, provided the doctor is willing to work with you. Depending on the drug, it can often just be stopped, or the doctor will explain how to reduce it slowly until you are off it completely.

2. Reduce the amount of the drug slowly until you are off it completely. This is definitely a more gentle and safer way to stop most drugs. It usually does not cause severe withdrawal symptoms, and you have time to check yourself to see if you have done the right thing in many cases. Stopping drugs slowly is not necessary in all cases, and I suggest researching your drugs, to learn more about each one.

3. Just stopping the drug on your own. This can work, but only if you research your drug so that you know if you are having an adverse reaction to quitting the drug, or if you having life-threatening symptoms because you stopped the drug too soon or too fast. Please do not stop hypertensive medication, insulin, psychiatric drugs unless you know a lot about them, or drugs for Grave’s disease or hyperthyroidism.

What if I am on several drugs? I would stop one at a time. I usually suggest that the first drug to stop is hormones such as thyroid hormones or birth control pills. These are very powerful drugs. If possible, work with someone knowledgeable to help you.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT MOST MEDICAL DRUGS ARE NOT NEEDED?

Most medical drugs are not needed because a healthy body resists all disease.

MYTHS ABOUT DRUG MEDICATION

When I began using nutritional balancing science over 30 years ago, I believed the following myths about drugs:

1. Most medical drugs are needed. Like most people who are bombarded by drug advertising every day, I believed that many medical drugs are needed to fight infections, and to alleviate many health conditions.

2. Since medical drugs are the “standard of care” used in most nations, they must be effective and necessary or they would not be used.

I did not realize that the medical industry in all Western nations is run by a cartel or monopoly that includes the companies that make medical drugs. It is a very lucrative industry.

Meanwhile, other methods of care such as the use of vitamins, diet, hydrotherapy, chiropractic and other methods are shut out of the mainstream medical care by law in the USA and throughout Europe and most of Asia. This type of monopolistic legal structure is called a cartel.

3. Drug company advertising is honest, for the most part, just helping to inform doctors and patients. This, sadly, is far from the truth. Drug companies lie or bend the truth at every turn. This is well-documented in various books and at certain websites that specialize in this area.

4. Most doctors, pharmacists and websites are well-informed about the need for, toxicity of, and honesty about marketing of drugs. Again, this is not the truth.

In fact, over the years I have learned that:

1. Most doctors, including most holistic and alternative healers such as naturopaths, are poorly informed about alternatives to the use of medical drugs.

2. Drug company advertising is not that honest or objective. In fact, their studies are often rigged to produce a favorable outcome for a lucrative drug, and the companies often don’t care about adverse reactions and other problems with their drugs.

3. The entire population of most nations is brainwashed. They have been told many times that the proper standard of care is to give often highly toxic poisons in order to heal and manage a variety of health conditions. Meanwhile, the alternatives have been suppressed in the media and in the medical journals, so one must dig deep to find them.

4. In fact, much less expensive, effective and safer ways exist to handle most health conditions. This website contains dozens of articles about a powerful natural method of healing most physical and mental/emotional health conditions.

IF MOST MEDICAL DRUGS ARE NOT NEEDED, WHY ARE THEY ADVERTISED WIDELY AND USED AROUND THE WORLD?

The most important reason is that there are forces on planet earth that do not want you healthy. They cannot control healthy people, and they need the population to be sick, tired and dependent. To read about this, read The Rogues and the section of articles about the rogues.

A second reason for drug use that I feel is not the main one, is government corruption. Basically, the drug industry bribes the government officials to allow their products to be sold, although they are often not very effective, costly, and dangerous.

The corruption occurs in part due to bad people in the government and too much government power concentrated in the regulatory agencies. Also, the profit potential for patented drugs is huge. A drug that costs pennies to produce is often sold for $50-100.00 or much more.

While it is true that money was spent on research and development, and $10-20 million dollars may be needed to get government approval for a drug, this is dwarfed by the profit potential of many drugs.

One might answer that these costly drugs must compete with much less costly options such as vitamins. However, they really do not compete. Doctors are not taught about vitamins, herbs and minerals to heal disease. In fact, doctors who prescribe these alternatives are often harassed by their medical board and some lose their licenses for using “unapproved” methods.

The medical profession in America and around the world is tightly controlled by a small group of organizations that are closely allied with the pharmaceutical industry. Real competition is not permitted. This is corruption.

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