What to do when faced with life-changing decisions

Going Without Medication When Options Aren't Apparent

The cost of prescription medications continue to skyrocket. With increasing co-pays and decreasing coverage, more patients than ever are delaying or under-medicating for chronic conditions such as asthma, high cholesterol and diabetes, among others. Patients are finding ways around having to rely them a decision which, as you will see in the following report, could be seriously detrimental to their health.

Following is a breakdown of some of the most common chronic conditions that exist in the U.S.
After which we discuss some of the ways individuals are dealing with these issues when paying for their prescription medications is not an option and how these alternatives by themselves can endanger their health.

Acid Reflux
Acid reflux, a disease which is cause by stomach acids that back up into the esophagus, affects 33% of people in the U.S. It is the most expensive chronic gastrointestinal disorder with collective costs at roughly $10 billion every year. If left untreated, acid reflux can cause severe tissue damage and can even lead to cancer.

The cost of treatment, however, is for many just as painful as the disease itself. Prilosec, for instance, which is the most successful treatment for this disease, was forecasted to have an affordable generic available by 2002. That new drug, Nexium, is no better than Prilosec cost-wise, which runs patients $177 for a one-month supply.

Asthma
Affecting 7.8% of the population, asthma impedes breathing. Left untreated or undertreated, asthma can permanently change the shape of your airways, thickening and scarring the bronchial tubes. This can result in permanent damage and even death. Unfortunately, those patients suffering from moderate to severe asthma require two to three medications that can cost more than $2,000 annually.

Cholesterol
More than 30% of the population suffers from elevated cholesterol, a waxy, fatlike substance that, in abundance, can lead to a stroke or heart attack. Lipitor is seen as the preferred drug for treatment and leads in prescriptions each year with a total of $10 billion in sales. It's not hard to imagine how these sales are achieved after all, its patent-protected formula means patients pay $750 or more a year.

Diabetes
When affected by diabetes, the insulin level rises because the body is failing to use it properly or produce it at all. A vital hormone needed by the body to convert food into energy, without insulin, an individual will die. A whopping 23.6 million Americans are affected by diabetes, and many also suffer from other conditions such as heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, and nervous center disease, all of which diabetes is the underlying cause.

A drug known as Actos could be used to save the lives of those afflicted, but at a cost of $8 a day or nearly $3,000 a year, there are very few that can afford this out-of-pocket expense.
I have diabetes and no longer have insurance because I lost my job due to my medical condition. Americans shouldn't have to live like this. My blood sugar is extremely high and I should probably be on Insulin, but cannot afford it. So, I am trying to get in a comfortable mind set and resign myself to the fact that I am probably going to die before too long- Cindi of Omaha, Nebraska

Practicing Alternatives
When individuals cannot afford their prescription medications, they turn to alternatives instead. Following are some of the methods those affected are utilizing in the absence of a real medical solution.

• An increased focus on physical fitness, diet and lifestyle changes to improve overall well being. While this is always a good idea, an individual affected by asthma, however, can incur significant problems during cold weather when basic aerobic exercise can trigger attacks.
  
• Including more garlic in your diet has been shown to possibly reduce total cholesterol by a few percentage points. Prolonged use of garlic supplements, however, can produce side effects like prolonged bleeding and poor clotting.
  
• Controlled breathing exercises and relaxation techniques such as those found in yoga, can reduce stress, which increases your heart rate, breathing and blood flow by up to 400%. All these effects can lead to asthma attacks, lessened sexual desire, chronic fatigue, digestive upset, headaches, and back pain.
  
• There are many health benefits to quitting smoking including slowing the progression of osteoporosis. Reducing alcohol intake also has its benefits since it contributes to 80% of all chronic pancreatitis that leads to diabetes.

You may have read these alternatives and be thinking, ?These sound great exactly what my doctor advises I do. So, what can possibly be wrong with these home treatments? The answer is simple. When individuals suffering from chronic illness are not receiving the treatment they need in the form of the medication used to treat the illness, then while these alternatives are extremely beneficial for anyone, they will not alone help or cure these ailments. Instead, the individuals who utilize these methods alone without medication will end up in the emergency room or even dying.

The Solution
The real solution is importation working with a provider who has access to pharmacies in other regions of the world that can obtain these much-needed prescription medications at a fraction of the cost. Achieved through economies of scope and scale, the prices these pharmacies, such as Buck-A-Day Pharmacy are able to charge, means you benefit from paying only the price of the drug itself and not the dramatic mark-up for profits, marketing and advertising the large pharmaceutical companies work into the cost of their products.

Buck-A-Day Pharmacy is part of a worldwide network of licensed pharmacists that has provided pharmacy services to nearly 400,000 Americans. Our primary pharmacies are based and licensed in Mumbai, India and Istanbul, Turkey. So, ordering your prescription medications through our pharmacies, you will benefit from significant cost savings because 98% of our products will cost you less than $90 for a 3-month supply?less than $1 a day.

For additional information about Buck-A-Day, our products and our guarantee, please visit www.buckadaypharmacy.com or call us 877-271-4557.

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