50% of Americans take prescription drugs: An annual report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveals that approximately half of all Americans take one or more prescription drugs and one in ten people take over four. The report also revealed that “pharmaceutical companies aren’t relying on doctors to sell their pills. Spending on direct-to-consumer advertising for all drugs more than tripled between 1996 and 2005 to $4.2 billion, according to the report.” However, the report did contain one particularly promising piece of news: “Doctors are prescribing fewer useless antibiotics. Antibiotics prescribed during medical visits for cold symptoms declined 39% between 1995-96 and 2009-10.

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