A recent study found that 66 percent of the US population takes at least one prescription medication. That is 131 million Americans. From 2000 to 2012 the amount of Americans taking 5 or more prescription medications doubled to 15% which is 50 million Americans. This percentage increases to 42% when looking at those above the age of 65. This is a scary statistic because no pharmaceutical company is doing studies to see how their pill will interact with other companies' pills in the environment in the human body. When we look at the cost burden of pharmaceuticals in the United States it is astonishing. On average, 250 Billion dollars are spent on prescription medications a year. That is a massive amount of money and 12% of money spent on health related issues in a year. The problem is that in almost every instance medication is used as a bandage to cover up your symptoms but it is not actually addressing or fixing the problem. So damage is still occurring to the body and now we just can't feel the signaling that we should be telling us to slow down and focus on health. On top of that, medications always come with side effects because you cannot take a chemical into the body and expect it to only affect one area of function. That chemical is broken down and going to touch every system in the body in some way. So often because we are constantly hearing about medications we tend to forget that they are chemicals and harmful to the body, which we know because if you take an extreme amount of them all at once then it can kill you. As a society we should be looking for smarter and healthier choices to actually address the breakdowns that the body is warning us about. A pill is quicker and easier than exercising, eating healthy, getting adjusted, meditating, etc. The human body is an amazing device and has the best healing potential that we know of but we need to make sure that we aren't getting in the way of its ability to function properly. I refer to that as the limitation of matter which would be if we are not giving our body the building blocks that it needs to stay healthy or the proper environment then it won't be able to heal. I'm not saying that all medications are bad but as a society we need to do a way better job at sifting through the suggestions made to us and making informed decisions on what we put in our body and how the body will deal with that new stressor. They can save our life but medications were never intended to be something that we would be on our whole life when they were first created. Through time, money and marketing there has been a push to make us believe that health is created in the version of a pill but it is not. Health is taking care of and listening to our body when it is giving us signals and making lifestyle and environment changes to fix the root of the problem we are facing. Don't cover them up and let damage build.