Generation Rx or Herbs Demystified

Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies

Author: Greg Critser

Greg Critser's brilliantly incisive Generation Rx shows how shockingly little we know about the prescription drugs we take and the hazards they may pose to our health. Americans are prescribed more drugs today than ever before, and the pharmaceutical industry has gained tremendous financial power and political clout. Drawing on exclusive access to the strategists, scientists, and current and former heads of GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Merck, and other drug giants, Critser chronicles the transformation of big pharma from onetime lumbering medical conglomerate to media-savvy consumer enterprise. He also reveals the direct and indirect consequences for our health, among them increased incidence of damage to major organs, unprecedented medication use by the very young and very old, and the emergence of polypharmacy, in which various drugs taken together can unleash unanticipated, and often deadly, effects.

Generation Rx urges all of us to think about the price we pay, as a society and with our own bodies, for our chronic use of prescription drugs.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments     vii
Introduction     1
Unbound: The Strange and Very American Liberation of Big Pharma     10
We Love It!: How the New Pharma Used Its New Muscle to Create a New...You     111
The Full Price: What Living in Pharma's World Means for Our Bodies     170
The End of the Great Buffer?: Why We Are More Vulnerable     220
Independence for Generation Rx: What Can Be Done     239
A Brief Guide to the Art of Taking Prescription Drugs     257
Notes     261
Index     292

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Herbs Demystified: A Scientist Explains How the Most Common Herbal Remedies Really Work

Author: Holly Phaneuf

The scores of books on herbs already available generally restate old, often outdated lore about herbs. Now, Herbs Demystified does something entirely different: It is the first book to explain exactly what herbs actually do inside our bodies and how they achieve their effects. Biochemist Holly Phaneuf covers 100 of the most popular herbs-astragalus, black cohosh, chamomile, echinacea, garlic, gingko, ginseng, milk thistle, pine bark extract, saw palmetto, valerian, and many others. Phaneuf's introductory overview lays out the basic chemical principles that underlie the journey herbal molecules make in our bodies. Then, for each of the herbs, she covers its history and folklore; explains what the herb really does-its evidence of action; its good uses and not so good uses, including the forms in which it is typically available and commonly reported dosages; interesting facts and the bottom line. Like no other herb book before, Herbs Demystified allows readers to custom-fit an herb to one's own particular concern, therefore minimizing trial and error.