Patients come into doctors' offices asking for something they've seen on TV. Big pharma's advertising blitz, coupled with its aggressive marketing to physicians (who all too often are readily seduced to prescribe), results in the ever-increasing number of prescriptions offered to patients.

"We want pregnant and breastfeeding women to have good information and to know that they are not alone and they don't have to sacrifice their wellbeing for their baby's health. We want to help them make good decisions with their health care providers."

People with medical conditions such as celiac, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, or food allergies should know that they may not be sensitive or allergic to the medicine to which they reacted. Rather, their reactions may have been from the food contents in the drugs.

Medications can be lifesaving and life-improving, but they often come with risks and side effects. Many people don't know how well their kidneys are functioning, so they don't realize that they may need to make modifications to their treatment regimen.

Corticosteroid treatment has been associated with many side effects. The most noted is increased loss of bone mineral density, causing a predisposition to osteoporosis.

As a Miami lawyer who sues prescription drug manufactures, I strongly urge the FDA to slow down and not allow innovation and corporate profit to outweigh consumer safety.

Millions of people believe that psychiatric medications have saved their lives, while millions of others report that their psychiatric medications were unhelpful or made things worse. All this can result in mutual disrespect for different choices.

As a hypertension specialist, I advocate healthy diet, reduction of sodium intake, and exercise, as a means to avoid or reduce medication. However, most people end up requiring medication, which is helping millions live a longer and healthier life.

When it comes to benefits, psychiatric medications hold their own when compared with general medical medications in the treatment of a great number of diseases that affect so many people.

Climate-related disasters give us little or no time to think about our medications, because we are focused on protecting our family, the property and staying safe.

Unfortunately, too-few experts offer the following advice: People can -- and should -- simply reduce the number of medications they need.

Being in a controlled trial means the participants are randomly assigned either an old drug or the new one in order to find out its benefits or risks. In the fast-changing world of medication, the FDA needs to revise the protocol.