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Prescription Drugs and Your Health

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Americans take a lot of prescription drugs. Doctors in the USA in 2008 prescribed a total of 1,505,200,000 prescriptions for just the 50 top prescription drugs. (And they prescribed untold millions more prescriptions for the hundreds of other drugs.) The retail value of these 1.5 billion prescriptions was a whopping $53,186,000,000.00 according to the October, 2009 AARP Bulletin.

The scary thing for us is that 44 of these top 50 prescription drugs (88%) can be ototoxic and damage your ears in some way (and all of them also have numerous other side effects).

Therefore, you want to be sure that any drug that you take is absolutely necessary before you take it if you truly value your health. Drugs should be your last resort, not the first thing you turn to.

I try to keep my drug usage to a minimum. For example, in the last 30 years, I can only remember getting two prescriptions—one was an antibiotic for an infection that I couldn’t control any other way, and the other was for a bad case of sciatic pain, and even then, I only took 2 of the pills. Apart from that, the only drug I take is the pain-killer the dentist gives me before working on a live tooth. I never take over-the-counter medications either.

I use other means to stay healthy. In my opinion, most prescription drugs are not necessary. There are many alternative ways of achieving the same results without drugs and their numerous side effects. Avail yourself of the various kinds of alternative medicine practitioners—for example, naturopathic doctors, herbalists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, massage therapists and so on. These practitioners have a wealth of knowledge in helping your body get and stay healthy.

It’s tragic that we ignore the basic things that will help the most to keep us healthy such as getting lots of exercise, eating a healthy diet, watching our weight and getting plenty of rest. We refuse to do these things because they take effort and we want effortless health—hence we pop pills instead of doing those things that really make a difference.

Build some exercise into your daily routine. For example, when I take my daily trip to the post office to ship my orders, I take my dog along. Afterward, we go into the country (only a mile away) and walk for a couple of miles in the fresh air. It doesn’t take us long. We typically cover two miles in just half an hour. That gets the blood circulating again before I return to my desk.

Follow the above basic health principles, and not only will you save a bundle that you now spend on drugs, but you will likely feel ever so much better, and incidentally, you’ll never have to worry about drugs damaging your ears either.

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Hearing Loss Research & Resources

Free Visor Cards

Download your free Visor Cards for hard of hearing or deaf people here.

Loop Systems

Loop your home or meeting room. Discover how you can hear wonderfully clear sound again when listening to the TV/radio, etc, or when listening to a speaker at a meeting.

Loop systems are one of the best-kept secrets in town. To learn more about Loop Systems and what they can do for you, click here.

Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

Or get the book—Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

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Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].