Prescription Drugs

It's one of those facts of life. As people grow older, the number of medications they take usually increases. The average senior takes five prescription drugs a day. While these potent medications make it possible for seniors to live a full life with what otherwise might be a debilitating condition, the power of these medications makes them dangerous if taken incorrectly. The more medications seniors take, the more likely they are to have an adverse drug interaction or accidental overdose.

Almost half of all prescriptions in the United States are filled by generic drugs, yet they continue to be viewed with suspicion. Generic drugs cost as much as 80 percent less than their brand-name equivalents, creating the assumption their quality and effectiveness have in some way been compromised. And quite naturally, many people resist using them simply because their HMOs and insurance companies prefer they do.

By Di Websdale-Morrissey

Those with strong steady hearts often take them for granted. But those with less reliable organs can now take heart.

In our early life, we mostly speak of our hearts in the context of love. We give our hearts to our lovers, we whisper heart-felt words of love; feel heartbreak at love's loss. For millennia, poets have spun delicate linguistic castles from the very fibres of heart muscle.