The Heart of the Problem, the Prescribing Cascade

 

“Prescribing sickness to healthy people is a great business model. No other business makes this amount of revenue and has that much control over the lives of people.”

 

There seems to be a systematic approach to convince the public that they need to be taking pharmaceutical drugs. Pharma is not satisfied with targeting seniors; they are lowering the age by as much as 10 years to tap into a new source of income; they are reaching and using AI in the process. The thing is that medical doctors are getting it wrong. Some 92 million Americans took statin drugs in 2018 and 2019, the annual prescriptions were 818 million, the sales for 2025 were $18.6 billion and projected growth by 2031 is to rise at a rate of 16.4% per year. Now how is that for a business model! If treatment and prevention was their goal you would think they would seek a cure but how can they justify losing $18.6 billion? Think of it, lots of jobs would be lost, and shareholders would not be happy. Instead, The American Heart Association and other groups are saying in their new guidelines that some people as young as 30 should take statins. What is the total potential expansion? Well, there are roughly 65 to 70 million Americans aged 30 to 44. Prescribing sickness to healthy people is a great business model. No other business makes this amount of revenue and has that much control over the lives of people.

The prescribing cascade

According to studies there is a potential problem in prescribing cascades in clinical practice, as common medications can cause side effects doctors mistake for new health problems. A cohort study Decision-Making and Downstream Outcomes of the Gabapentinoid-Diuretic Prescribing Cascade[1] looked into a case of 120 veterans who developed leg swelling after starting gabapentin, the fifth-most-prescribed drug in the United States (in 2024 58.9 million prescriptions were written). The study states that only 4% of the veterans’ physicians recognized the medication as the cause. “The rest (96%) prescribed diuretics for what they thought was heart failure or vein problems. Those ‘water pills’ then caused dizziness, dangerous drops in potassium, and depleted sodium levels. Six patients ended up in the emergency room.”[2]

In another study[3] researchers identified 79 situations where a medication may cause a side effect that is then treated with another drug, and about 84% of these were considered potentially problematic. In roughly 62% of cases, there was strong evidence supporting this link between medications. One of the clearest examples was a heart drug (amiodarone) causing low thyroid function, which was then treated with thyroid medication. The most common scenario involved blood pressure drugs (ACE inhibitors) possibly leading to urinary tract infections treated with antibiotics, affecting the largest number of people. The study also showed that people taking multiple medications with similar side effects were more likely to experience these issues, and many of these patterns were still seen in older adults.

The medical industry is overwhelmed: there is a shortage of doctors and nurses and due to the patient volumes patients only receive 10 to 15 minutes per visit. This does not allow for a proper examination with blood tests and a follow-up to discuss the results. Instead, patients present their symptoms, and the doctors prescribe the medications they are recommended by the pharmaceutical sales rep.

The importance of detection, prevention and natural therapy

Conventional screening is more often not enough. According to a study, advanced imaging and integrative therapies can lead to cardiovascular risk reduction. “The main finding was that aggressive lipid therapy, mainly using naturally derived lipid-lowering agents, was greatly effective for achieving lipid goals. Through early detection and treatment of early-stage asymptomatic atherosclerosis, angiographic plaque regression was achieved.”[4] The study suggests that hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol) is a contributing factor to the development of atherosclerotic plaque but it is only one of many contributing factors. This is why a well-rounded, natural approach to heart health should address key lifestyle areas like diet, stress, exercise, nutrient levels, blood pressure, hormones, environmental exposures, and sleep. Even when treatment focuses on lowering cholesterol, everyone should still follow a heart-healthy lifestyle, with an emphasis on a whole-food, Mediterranean-style diet or something similar.

Other studies also suggest the importance of advances in the detection, prevention, healthy lifestyle and nutraceutical therapies can improve the quality and quantity of life. For managing elevated coronary artery calcium scores a framework recommended, among others, chelation therapy. The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) “showed a particularly large reduction in CVD events and all-cause mortality in the subgroup of patients with diabetes. An ongoing TACT2, limited to patients with heart disease and diabetic mellitus type 2, is further examining this unique therapy in the hope that it may enter the armamentarium to reduce the atherosclerotic risk of their diabetic patients.”[5]

Another problem is the traditional, sometimes misleading diagnosis. Heart attack, for example, has been historically explained with blocked arteries yet research shows that for women it is not always the case. The study Causes of Myocardial Infarction in Younger Patients[6] found that in people under 65, heart attacks are not always caused by blocked arteries, which is typically true for about two-thirds of cases. Other causes make up a large share, especially in women. In fact, more than half of heart attacks in women were due to non-traditional causes, such as stress on the body (e.g., infection or anemia), spontaneous tearing of a coronary artery (SCAD), blood clots traveling to the heart, or temporary artery spasms.

Even if the medication is wrong, the patient will believe something else is happening since they are not getting any younger. Little do they know it really is the medication, and that the side effects they are experiencing happen because they were given the wrong treatment. This happens so often and it is named the prescribing cascade. “One drug causes side-effects that doctors mistake for a new disease, triggering another prescription that creates its own problems, leaving people trapped in a sea of unnecessary and potentially harmful medications. In many cases, it can be challenging for doctors to determine whether new symptoms stem from a patient’s medications or signal an emerging health issue.”[7] It is any wonder that properly prescribed medication and medical errors are the leading cause of death!

There are natural treatments that can bring the body into a state of balance so the body can heal but those are being squeezed from the marketplace. We have written several newsletters on cholesterol and how it benefits the human body and now the medical system is lowering the age limits and the target amounts of statin drugs. Interesting.

The body’s endocrine system is responsible for health and it is under attack. If we continue to support and maintain its balance and make lifestyle changes with diet, movement and proper sleep, you can avoid being a ward of the state.

Products for consideration:

  • CLAW – By restoring good circulation to all the tissues of the body, chelation therapy can help to avoid bypass surgery, reverse gangrene, alleviate intermittent claudication (cramps) of the legs, and restore memory. Due to its ability to remove toxic metal ions, chelation therapy reduces internal inflammation caused by free radicals, and as a result can ease the discomfort and disability from degenerative diseases such as arthritis, scleroderma (a hardening that occurs in skin and certain organs), and lupus.
  • Opti-Cal/Mag Complex with K2 to replace lost minerals while on CLAW.
  • DMSO – It has been proven to be effective in pain and inflammation treatment and management; studies suggest it can reduce pain e.g. in case of interstitial cystitis (painful bladder condition) or in case of nerve pain. Evidence also show it helps with inflammatory or autoimmune conditions.

 

References:

 

 

[1] Growdon, Matthew E. et al. 2025.

[2] Drake, Kimberly. 2026.

[3] Mohammad, Atiya K. et al. 2024.

[4] Parcell, Stephen. 2026.

[5] Kahn, Joel. 2026.

[6] Raphael Claire E. et al. 2025.

[7] Drake, Kimberly. 2026.