Is this the reason so many Americans are suddenly dying?

Is today’s deadly drug crisis killing even more Americans than we’ve been told?

Some shocking findings to that effect just came out of a big study released by the University of California, San Francisco.

For three years, UCSF researchers analyzed the details surrounding the sudden deaths of more than 900 people in San Francisco. Their death certificates all stated that they had succumbed to cardiac arrest.

But that wasn’t exactly true.

Because when these investigators looked further, they found that a substantial number were really caused by “hidden” drug overdoses, but there was never anything at the scene to indicate that people were even taking drugs, let alone taking enough to have caused their deaths.

The bottom line is that prescription drugs – especially opioids – are more dangerous than you could ever imagine. And we now know that they’re killing many more people than we’ve been led to believe.

All of this makes it more urgent than ever that you realize the huge risks involved in filling that Rx, even when following your doctor’s instructions to a T.

Prescriptions for tragedy

If you thought the drug crisis couldn’t get any worse – well, it just did.

The CDC was reporting a daily death toll of 115 Americans from opioids… but we’re now hearing that could just be the tip of the iceberg.

UCSF researchers analyzed hundreds of sudden, out-of-hospital deaths by performing autopsies and lab tests on the victims.

All of these unexpected tragedies were presumed to be from sudden cardiac arrest, which is most often triggered by a potentially deadly abnormal heart rhythm called an arrhythmia.

But the truth only came out when toxicology testing was done: 1 in 7 deaths said to be caused by heart disease were actually a result of “hidden” drug overdoses.

And opioids were involved in over half.

These people didn’t intentionally OD or appear to be taking “street” drugs. In fact, the paramedics who rushed to the scene also labeled the deaths as cases of cardiac arrest.

Prescription drugs – even when taken as directed – are killing at least 128,000 Americans a year. And that’s probably a low-ball estimate. Unless a wealthy celebrity is involved or someone dies under suspicious circumstances, toxicology tests and autopsies aren’t routinely done.

As this new study clearly shows, we really have no idea how many people are unexpectedly dropping dead due to Rx drugs.

Of course, for many now addicted to opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin, it all began innocently enough… with an accident, injury, or surgery that put them in pain.

And despite all we know about the risks, far too many patients — especially seniors – are being put on the fast track to addiction. A couple of years ago, we told you how Stanford University School of Medicine researchers analyzed the drug records for over 500,000 surgical patients and discovered that a handful of common operations can put you smack in the crosshairs for an opioid addiction.

For example, undergoing a total hip or knee replacement, a keyhole gallbladder removal, an appendectomy, or another “ordinary” procedure appears to be riskier after the fact – when you’re sent home with a big bottle of pills to instantly take away your pain.

But you don’t have to undergo surgery to be handed a hazardous Rx med. Many doctors are more than happy to prescribe an opioid for backaches, arthritis, IBD – anything at all!

And when you add highly dangerous non-opioid meds to that, you’ve got the perfect storm for tragedy.

Truth is, we can no longer blindly accept a prescription without knowing exactly what drug we’ve been given, what it’s for, and how risky a med it might be.

There are non-drug therapies that can be used in place of plenty of pharmaceuticals, especially opioids. Effective alternative treatments for pain include acupuncture, topical creams like arnica or capsicum (especially good for arthritis), massage, and physical therapy.

We really don’t need any more research to tell us that the time has come to just say “no thanks” more often than not when it comes to dangerous prescription drugs.

“When the heart stops, drugs often to blame” Robert Preidt, June 20, 2018, WebMD, webmd.com