The Food and Drug Administration is toying with the idea that common ailments really don’t need to have prescriptions. These ailments include diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, and even high cholesterol. The goal is to reduce health care costs. That certainly makes sense to me, let’s reduce the costs. Writing in USA Today last week, Dr. Marc Siegel thinks this is a very bad idea. Dr. Seigel says, “Remember, medicine is an art, practiced on an individual basis. A medication that works for one person doesn’t always work for another. I am constantly changing cholesterol or high blood pressure medications for my patients because of unanticipated side effects…” For many years, I have bad mouthed the drug companies for exorbitant costs and I still believe a fair statement is they gouge the public any time they can. However, Dr. Siegel is right on target. Unmonitored complications can arise. For decades, I have taken a low dose aspirin that is considered to benefit my heart. Most doctors believe it helps but news reports state that more than 100,000 people are hospitalized from bleeding by aspirin or other over the counter anti-inflammatory pills. Dr. Siegel’s final statement in the article says it all. “Easy access to powerful drugs sounds tempting, but it will only add chaos and confusion to an already dysfunctional system.” We all want to save on health care costs but most of us don’t have the expertise to do the right kind of monitoring. Let’s keep the decisions with the people who know best, our personal physicians. Over the Counter Drugs