Going to the doctor may be the single greatest threat to elderly people. According to the the Annals of Family Medicine, researchers from New Zealand studied accident insurance data that provides coverage for treatment and rehabilitation costs for all personal injuries, including those caused by treatment, regardless of severity or fault.

“Treatment injury is defined as a personal injury suffered by a person seeking treatment or receiving treatment,” they wrote.

The most common cause of serious injury was medication use. Antibiotics topped the list of medications causing serious injury. Next in line were the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen and aspirin.

This study confirmed that the number one cause of injury to the elderly in primary care is medication use. And for most medication injuries, there was no suggestion of error or mismanagement in taking the medicine. The medications were taken as prescribed.

The authors concluded, “. . . the greatest threat to older patients’ safety in primary care [is not error], the risk posed by treatment itself.”

The president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians was not surprised. She said that the picture the researchers paint is “probably quite accurate here.”

I see far too many patients, including the elderly, who take too many medications. And all those medications have interactions. Unfortunately, there have been very few studies looking at drug-to-drug interactions.

The elderly are the most susceptible to adverse effects from medications because their bodies do not process medications as well as younger people. Giving an elderly patient a cocktail of medications is a recipe for disaster.

What can you do? Find a healthcare practitioner who is knowledgeable about natural therapies that treat the underlying cause of illnesses. A true holistic practitioner will try to limit your exposure to toxic medications.