The Berman Method

Episode 122: How Many Pharmaceuticals is Too Many?

• Jenni

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Are you tired of seeing your loved ones carry around a suitcase full of medications, many of them overlapping? Ever wonder about the reality of over-prescription in our corporate medical system? We're about to open your eyes to these critical issues in today's Berman Method Podcast. From discussing the dangers of treating symptoms over root causes to the concerning cycle of medication overuse, we delve deep into these pitfalls of modern medicine, even though it's beyond our direct professional scope. 

We also shed light on the debilitating cycle of medication use, specifically how statins typically prescribed for cholesterol could lead to treating symptoms like muscle pain, contributing to a pile-up of unnecessary medications. You'll gain insights into how your physical body might be affected by an imbalance of muscle use due to this medication cycle. Besides, we touch on the societal issue of sheltering children from life's realities and how it could potentially impact their transition into adulthood. To wrap things up, we introduce you to the comprehensive services offered by Berman Physical Therapy and Berman Health and Wellness, along with how you can access our free reports for a deeper understanding. Tune in for an informative take on the medical world's realities.

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Email us - 
drberman@bermanpt.com 
jenni@bermanwellness.com 

Check out our website -
https://www.bermanpt.com/
https://www.bermanpt.com/wellness/
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Check Us Out On Social Media -

Facebook: @bermanwellness , @physicaltherapynaples, @Berman Golf

Instagram: @berman_wellness, @bermanphysicaltherapy , @Berman Golf

Youtube: Berman Golf, Berman Physical Therapy

TikTok: Bermangolf, Bermanwellness


Email us -

drberman@bermanpt.com

jenni@bermanwellness.com


Check out our website -

www.bermanpt.com

www.bermanpt.com/wellness

www.bermangolf.com


Outro

Speaker 1

This is the Berman Method Podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.

Speaker 2

And we are back. You rolled me into this podcast room because I ate so much food for Thanksgiving and I am here to entertain again, because I'm so entertaining with the Berman Method Podcast focusing on treating problems, not symptoms. David against Goliath, going against the corporate medical system. Dr Jake Berman with my beautiful co-host.

Speaker 1

Jenny Berman, physician assistant.

Medications

Speaker 2

Jenny Berman, physician assistant. This is almost like the scary movie intro voice, right, yeah. And then the next thing you knew, we were on 15 medications, because there's not a single pharmaceutical that doesn't have at least one side effect that requires another medication to treat that side effect that comes with its own side effect, and then you need another medication to treat that side effect. Next thing you know, I need a carry-on suitcase for my medications just to travel.

Speaker 1

Sounds about right. Sounds about right.

Speaker 2

Doesn't it.

Finding the Right Pillow

Speaker 1

Mm-hmm. It's kind of sad. We have our own carry-on suitcase for pillows and snacks and everybody else has carry-on suitcase for medications. Which would you prefer Pillows and snacks or medications? How?

Speaker 2

many of you guys listening right now travel with your pillows. If you don't travel with your pillows, you're not using the right pillows, because if you go to some other foreign bed and you can just sleep on anything that's laying there, you ain't using the right pillow.

Speaker 1

That's right, we went through. How many pillows do we have in our house?

Speaker 2

I think the last time I counted I counted 73 pillows.

Speaker 1

We have so many pillows in the house because Jake used to be one of those people that would just buy a new pillow every month, searching for the right pillow. You never liked your pillow.

Speaker 2

I was like that princess in the P story. I could feel the P under 10 mattresses.

Speaker 1

Under 10 mattresses.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

What does that mean?

Speaker 2

That's how the story, the princess in the P goes.

Speaker 1

Oh, okay.

Speaker 2

You know she was a true princess because she could feel a P underneath 10 mattresses.

Speaker 1

Oh, got it.

Speaker 2

I'm pretty sure that's the way the story goes.

Speaker 1

Okay, I just think of, like Goldilocks Too hot, too cold, just right, okay. So yeah, we used to go through a ton of pillows Is?

Speaker 2

Goldilocks too hot, too cold, just right, or isn't Goldilocks? The beds, the different beds I don't know now. I'm pretty sure one of them. One bed was too hard, one bed was too soft and this one was just right.

We Hope You Enjoyed Thanksgiving!

Speaker 1

Oh, okay, you can tell how much TV I watched as a child. I don't know any of my story tales, fairy tales.

Speaker 2

So, anyways, we hope everybody had a phenomenal Thanksgiving and overindulged in calories, like we all should have, because it's our one get out of jail free card. The goal was 10,000 calories in one sitting, and I almost reached that.

Speaker 1

And then reset the next day.

Speaker 2

Reset the next day, but I was also successful in not having anything green on my plate.

Speaker 1

You're successful with that every year for Thanksgiving.

Black Friday

Speaker 2

Yes, I want to make sure that I'm consistent. Yes, but it brought-.

Speaker 1

What about Black Friday?

Speaker 2

What about it?

Speaker 1

You didn't comment on Black Friday.

Speaker 2

What do you want me to comment?

Speaker 1

All the awesome online shopping. You know people used to camp out at like midnight on Thanksgiving. Now that's really not even a thing anymore with the amount of online shopping.

Speaker 2

How do you know? It's not a thing. When was the last time you went out? At midnight?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I haven't tried it, you're right.

Speaker 2

You're right, I'm not going to comment on Black Friday.

Speaker 1

No, I choose not to Okay. Okay, all right, anyways moving on.

Speaker 2

Wow, now that we've wasted five minutes.

Speaker 1

Wasted. There's nothing wasted about this. We're entertaining people on their exercise, on their run, on their walks. I've had a lot of people tell me they're listening to us while they're exercising.

Speaker 2

That's nice. Well, go harder Right now. Go, go, go, go go, you can do it Put that resistance back on.

Speaker 1

Yeah, more resistance more reps, more cadence.

Speaker 2

Get lower on your squats. Engage your core more.

You Don't Need a Bunch of Medications

Speaker 2

I can't believe it's almost December, okay, so as you were saying, so over Thanksgiving it brought up this commonality that we spoke about a few times over the years, but I want to bring it up again because there's a lot of you listening that's going to be around extended family or family that you haven't been around in quite some time. Over the next few weeks and this upcoming month, with the holidays Christmas, hanukkah and all these things coming up and everybody has at least one of these in every family and no, I'm not talking about the one person that you can't stand being around.

Speaker 1

Right.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we're not talking about that. We're talking about the one loved one that literally required a carry-on suitcase for all their medications to travel to wherever you are Right, the one person in your family that has at least 10 pharmaceuticals and prescriptions in their purse or their suitcase or their medicine cabinet, whatever it is. And the reason why I wanted to talk about this is because I don't know that this is not really my scope of practice. This is more your scope of practice, jenny, but I don't know if there's ever been a single time where you have encountered somebody who's had that many pharmaceutical or that many prescriptions where there wasn't at least two of them that are supposed to be doing the same exact thing.

Speaker 1

Right, yes, right.

The Dangerous Cycle of Medication Use

Speaker 2

Right. So, in very layman's terms, what this alludes to is you originally started taking a blood pressure medication or actually let's use a statin right. So there's a lot of times where the first pharmaceutical prescription medication that people will take in their life is a statin Right, a cholesterol medicine, cholesterol medication to lower your cholesterol, and if you don't know this by now, statins are one of the worst medications that you could possibly ever take in the history of synthetic drugs that you're putting into your body, because there's so many bad things that result because of it. And we could literally talk for hours just on statins, but we're gonna save everybody that's listening and just say one of the most common side effects of statins is pain Right, muscle pain, aches and pains. My body is hurting right, correct, most common side effect yes. So then what results?

Speaker 1

next A muscle relaxer.

Speaker 2

A muscle relaxer because my back now hurts. I never had a back pain, but now my back's killing me, so now I'm gonna take a muscle relaxer.

Speaker 1

And one of the biggest problems is you don't correlate this new onset back pain or muscle pain to the cholesterol medicine that you're taking. Because if my doctor told me I had to take this cholesterol medicine or else I'm gonna die, I'm gonna take the cholesterol medicine and I'm not even gonna bring it up to my doctor that my back this is new onset back pain it just started hurting or all these muscles started hurting. So then there's not gonna be the correlation there that actually the statin is your issue, but instead we're just gonna add another medication to treat the symptoms that you're having of this pain.

Speaker 2

Right. So then you take a muscle relaxer or some other type of pain pill. Let's just start taking Tylenol once a day because the commercials are so amazing. One Tylenol once a day and I could live through back pain for the rest of my life. And it's just a normal thing because it's an over the counter pharmaceutical.

Speaker 1

Right.

Speaker 2

Then what happens?

Speaker 1

Well, something else is either gonna start hurting or your liver's not gonna be doing too hot. The liver thing, yes.

Speaker 2

Because Tylenol is horrible for your liver. So then your liver starts doing something funky, but you don't know. Your liver doesn't say hey, brain, I'm in distress right now. Your liver issues present as something else.

Speaker 1

Right.

Speaker 2

Right and long story short. We start getting lost, going down this rabbit hole of treating symptoms and the next thing you know, 10 years down the road, you've got over 10 pharmaceuticals that you're prescribed to and most people don't even know that at least two of them are prescribed to treat the same exact thing, because you've got multiple doctors prescribing different drugs and nobody's talking to each other.

Speaker 1

Right. And then on top of that is, these medications are causing vitamin deficiencies. So there's several medications out there in the pharmaceutical world that can cause a vitamin B12 deficiency or a magnesium deficiency. So now we're having worsening muscle cramps, we're not able to sleep at night, we have restless leg syndrome, our mind's going 100 miles an hour at night, and so now we're given a sleeping aid because we can't sleep at night, when really the other three medications you're already taking is the reason you're not sleeping, because it's causing a magnesium deficiency. With low magnesium, our body doesn't rest, our brain doesn't shut off, our muscles don't relax. So then we go on the sleeping aid.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and it just goes so on and so forth and over and over again and just keep on going until the next thing you know, you literally have a carry-on suitcase for all your pharmaceuticals and you don't even know why you're taking these anymore.

Focusing on Problems, Not Symptoms

Speaker 2

You're just taking them, you're just popping pills because your doctor told you to take them. Now, this is outside of my scope of practice. What I'm about to say next and this is no way, shape or form advice in any way at all I'm just gonna repeat what I've heard multiple doctors say over the years let's do this, let's quit taking them all and see what we're left with. So quit taking every single medication that you have, and then let's see what's left and we'll start at ground zero again. And what nine out of ten people have found at least nine out of ten, it's actually a hundred percent of the people that I've heard this story from found is that they've felt exponentially better within a week and they've gotten rid of 90% of the medications that they were on, because they were all treating symptoms that weren't even real. I mean, the symptoms were real, but they weren't the problem. They weren't treating a problem, they were treating symptoms.

Speaker 1

Right. So we go to ground zero and take the bare necessity or you know nothing or what we absolutely have to take, but then we actually target. Do we actually have any problems that we need to look at and to fix the problem and not just the symptoms? Or do all the symptoms go away because you're not taking all these medications?

Speaker 2

anymore. Exactly so, before we even started recording today, jenny brought up a concern. She goes you know, we haven't really talked about anything on the physical component of it now in quite some time and I said, oh no, we are gonna tie this one right into the physical component. Because the same thing is true when you say that you have a bad knee, you have a bad shoulder, you have a bad ankle. So you just go on through life saying that I'm not gonna do this because I have a bad knee. I'm not gonna get down on the ground and back up again using my right leg because my right knee hurt me once 13 years ago, so I'm gonna use my left leg to get up. And you just do it over and over again.

Speaker 2

The next thing that you know, you've got a muscle imbalance that's creating a back issue. So you're going I've never had back pain in my life. What the heck's going on here? And then you come to me and I'm scouring around. I'm going okay, the reason why you have a back issue is because your right knee is weak as heck, and not really your knees, not really weak, it's the muscle surrounding the knees, specifically your glutes and quads and everything else. So you've got this massive imbalance. So the way we're gonna fix your left-sided back pain is we're gonna work on fixing the strength in your right leg and you're going.

Braces Can Have Detrimental Effects

Speaker 2

That doesn't even make any sense. The pain is over here on my left. Why are we working on my right? Same thing is true for shoulders, same thing is true for wrists, elbows, whatever it is. I see people all the time wearing knee braces just because once, 11 billion moons ago, their knee bothered them, and now they just wear this knee brace whenever they go play pickleball, whenever they play tennis, whenever they exercise. That's probably my favorite one. Let's wear a knee brace preventatively every time we go exercise. Do you guys understand what braces do?

Speaker 1

Right, I was just going to say not realizing the detrimental effects that a brace is having on your lower extremities.

Speaker 2

There's got to be at least one person listening to this podcast right now who wears a brace preventatively, meaning that you think you have a bad knee, you think you have a bad elbow, you think you have a bad back oh, that's the worst one. You think you have a bad back, so you're going to wear an abdominal brace or a weight belt every time you go exercise. You think you have a bad knee, so you're going to wear a knee brace before you go out and play pickleball. You have to understand the whole purpose of a brace is to support your knee, so let's use a knee brace. If you're wearing a knee brace, the whole purpose of the brace is to support your knee. If the brace is supporting your knee, that means the muscles don't have to support your knee, correct. So if you just keep down this road of doing this preventative thing because you thought you had a knee issue 43 years ago, but you really don't, you're creating a knee issue.

Speaker 1

Right, right. As we all know, if you don't use it, you lose it. So if you're not allowing the muscles surrounding the joint to activate and to work, then they are atrophying or the muscles are weakening.

Speaker 2

Yes, let's talk a little bit more about a back brace, or not really a back brace. Think of it more of a back support. Copper Fit has an amazing one that cures cancer pretty much. It's the abdominal binder. It's Velcro, it's usually made of neoprene and Velcro and you put it around your stomach whenever you're going to go out and do yard work or do some type of heavy lifting and that's supposed to quote unquote protect your back.

Speaker 2

And you just do this preventatively, precautiously, because once you had a back issue where you could not get out of bed for a week and you never want to experience that pain again. So you're doing this preventatively. What you have to understand is you're making it exponentially more likely that you are going to have an issue down the road, because when you put one of those abdominal binders on one of those neoprene Velcro back braces on your core muscles don't have to work anymore and that's their number one job is to protect your back. So the thing that I love to tell people, because it creates so much controversy, is never, ever, ever wear a back brace, unless you are in the gym and you're doing a max out squat and you're planning on lifting as much weight as you physically can, to the point of failure. When you're doing that, okay, put the back brace on, but if you're in the gym doing squats and you're doing six, eight, 10, 12 reps, you should not be wearing a back brace.

Speaker 1

You need your muscles to activate.

Speaker 2

You should be physically, consciously, cognitively, activating your core to support your back. You shouldn't be wearing a back brace. It drives me nuts Fricking copper fit and they're dag gum. Marketing is driving me nuts, copper fit and Dr Scholes. I'm pretty sure they're in bed together. They have to be in bed together and it's probably a threesome with the pharmaceutical companies. So we got Dr Scholes, copper Fit and the pharmaceutical companies. They're all in bed together, this giant Minajatois threesome going on, because their marketing is so good and they've got endless marketing dollars. Jenny's blushing right now she's going. I cannot believe we're putting this out in public.

Speaker 1

I was going to say I think I'll just edit that part out.

Speaker 2

But I'm so, I'm serious. This drives me nuts.

Loosing Your Independence

Speaker 1

So if you're around those family members this holiday season where you find they are on multiple medications that may not be the right thing for them, or they're utilizing different braces when they're trying to just get out and go for a family walk, leave them to this podcast and tell them to come talk to us and ask if they're doing the right thing. The other problem is then you wear these braces and the pains are then get worse. So when you're not wearing the brace and you're just walking around the house, you're starting to have pain. So then you think you can't exercise. So then you want a medication to fix the problem, quick fix, and then that's going to cause an issue. So this is just a downward spiral.

Speaker 2

A downward spiral to essentially losing your independence.

Speaker 1

Absolutely Lose the quality of life, for sure.

Tennis Elbow Brace is Making the Problem Worse

Speaker 2

Yeah, think about it. A lot of people that just heard me say those words losing your independence. You're thinking about a nursing home. That's the ultimate, worst case scenario. Losing your independence is something as simple as this. I can't do that, so I'm going to ask my grandkid to go do it for me. I can't do that, so I'm going to ask Jenny to go do it for me. I am no longer independent in doing whatever XYZ is, so I've lost my independence in that scenario, right, and then that just leads to the next one, and the next one, and the next one. So it really is that simple. If you know anybody that has more than five pharmaceuticals five prescription pharmaceuticals not necessarily over the counter, but pharmaceuticals you need a prescription for it you really should be talking with Jenny. If you know anybody that wears a back brace or a knee brace preventatively, you better be.

Speaker 1

Or a tennis elbow brace, golfers elbow brace.

Speaker 2

Elbow brace here. Look at this. All right, you got me, you got me fired up now, oh geez.

Speaker 2

The freaking tennis elbow brace is the biggest crock of shit out there, because look at what it does it puts a little bit of pressure on one of your tendons in your forearm, which takes the pain away. Right, right, what the hell is that? What are you doing right now? That's not fixing any problem. That's making the problem worse. The pain is there for a reason, and now you're taking this device and you're changing the anatomy so that you can continue doing something. Right, you're literally changing the anatomy.

Speaker 1

Instead of fixing the problem, which is coming from your neck.

Speaker 2

The tennis. Most of the time, yes, it's coming from your neck bad posture, this and the other. We can go hours on this one too, and I think we have in the past actually. Yeah, so go back and look for those episodes where I have ranted on that for a while. But the tennis elbow brace is probably one of my least favorite of all, because it literally changes the anatomy. Do you think that that's okay?

Speaker 1

Not okay.

Speaker 2

That's not okay.

Speaker 1

Our anatomy is the way it is for a reason it's efficient.

Speaker 2

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1

And then when we go and change it and try to do something abnormal for our body, it's causing other issues.

Outro

Speaker 2

Yes.

Speaker 1

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Good.

Speaker 1

Okay, awesome. Yes, hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2

Yeah, this was a good episode back. I love it. That was fun. Thanks for getting my blood pressure through the ceiling. I'm all jacked up right now. It's almost like I chugged 15 Mountain Dews. Let's do this. Let's go squat a bunch of weight without a back, brace on.

Speaker 1

You used to drink Mountain Dew.

Speaker 2

You remember that I used to drink one diet Mountain Dew when I was on a road trip. I did not drink it leisurely.

Speaker 1

We should probably have two intros into this podcast One normal and then one that says this is a PG 13 rated podcast. Plan accordingly with your children.

Speaker 2

Oh my gosh, if you can't listen to this podcast around your kids, you are sheltering them, and those kids have no chance at all once they hit high school.

Speaker 1

This is not nice.

Speaker 2

It's not nice, but it's true.

Speaker 1

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2

Life happens, shelter them all you want. If you can't listen to this episode with your kids in the room, they are not going to have a good time in high school. I mean, come on.

Speaker 1

Okay, ciao.

Speaker 2

Have a great day.

Speaker 1

Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman Method Dr Jake Berman with Berman Physical Therapy and Jenny Berman, physician Assistant, with Berman Health and Wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy, bermanptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media, facebook, instagram, and on your podcast platform, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.