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By Woodson Merrell, M.D.
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal (online) raised nightmarish questions about sleeping pills. The careful work that was done on this study demonstrates a strong link between sleeping pills and mortality (medical lingo for death), particularly from cancer. The study was meticulously designed (building on two dozen previous studies and taking into account pre-existing illnesses) and conducted by three physicians at Scripps Clinic, part of the University of California at San Diego and one of the nations' leading medical research centers.
People who took just three sleeping pills every two months tripled their risk of cancer.
More research is urgently needed to understand the trends uncovered by the Scripps researchers, but there is enough information in this five year retrospective study (meaning the researchers were analyzing existing data) to warrant much more caution in the use of sleeping pills than is exercised by most doctors and patients. Currently 10% of the adult population--tens of millions of people--are taking sleeping pills that may be exposing them to unnecessary cancer risk.