The Undruggist: Book One: A Tale of Modern Apothecary and Wellness
()
About this ebook
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.
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.
Related to The Undruggist
Related ebooks
The Pill Popping Syndrome: Getting Rid of the Habit of Eating Unnecessary Pills/Drugs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren and Drug Safety: Balancing Risk and Protection in Twentieth-Century America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlant Bioactives and Drug Discovery: Principles, Practice, and Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDrug Bioavailability: Estimation of Solubility, Permeability, Absorption and Bioavailability Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5CBD Oil The Gift of Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrontiers in Natural Product Chemistry: Volume 9 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChemistry and Bioactivity of Boswellic Acids and Other Terpenoids of the Genus Boswellia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedical, Genetic & Behavioral Risk Factors of the Top 13 Cat Breeds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEpitome of the Pharmacopeia of the United States and the National Formulary With Comments Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Biotechnology of Terpenoid Production from Microbial Cell Factories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHugo and Russell's Pharmaceutical Microbiology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCareers in Focus: Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, Third Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComputer-Aided Applications in Pharmaceutical Technology: Delivery Systems, Dosage Forms, and Pharmaceutical Unit Operations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHandbook of Probiotics and Prebiotics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild and Rare: Tracking Endangered Species in the Upper Midwest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnticandidal Therapeutics: Discovery and Development Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Essential Guide to Cannabis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarijuana: Medical Papers, 1839-1972 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Impact of Pesticide Residues on the Gut Microbiome and Human Health: A Food Safety Perspective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUsing Patient Reported Outcomes to Improve Health Care Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsENHANZE® Drug Delivery Technology: Advancing Subcutaneous Drug Delivery using Recombinant Human Hyaluronidase PH20 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnderage Drinking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlant Cold Hardiness and Freezing Stress: Mechanisms and Crop Implications Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMolecular Pharming: Applications, Challenges and Emerging Areas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreco-Arab and Islamic Herbal Medicine: Traditional System, Ethics, Safety, Efficacy, and Regulatory Issues Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No-Nonsense Guide to World Health Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicrobiome Therapeutics: Personalized Therapy Beyond Conventional Approaches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of Pharmaceutical Education at Howard University 1868–1981 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSolid State Characterization of Pharmaceuticals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicroneedles for Drug and Vaccine Delivery and Patient Monitoring Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wellness For You
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Book of 30-Day Challenges: 60 Habit-Forming Programs to Live an Infinitely Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thinner Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Female Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Anna Lembke's Dopamine Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Lindsay C. Gibson's Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Body Says No Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wim Hof Method: Activate Your Full Human Potential Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Happiness Makeover: Overcome Stress and Negativity to Become a Hopeful, Happy Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex Hacks: Over 100 Tricks, Shortcuts, and Secrets to Set Your Sex Life on Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Am I Doing?: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Healing Remedies Sourcebook: Over 1,000 Natural Remedies to Prevent and Cure Common Ailments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Illustrated Easy Way to Stop Drinking: Free At Last! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Undruggist
0 ratings0 reviews
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