TAKING MEDICINE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

Americans spend more than $500 billion a year on unnecessary medical care that is often harmful, contends Dr. John Abramson, author of OVERDO$SED AMERICA: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (newly reissued in paperback for $13.95). The Harvard Medical School doctor focuses on the widespread prescription of drugs to people who don't need them. As examples, he points out that painkillers such as Vioxx and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs not only have been implicated for harmful side effects, but they're often given to patients without good evidence that the patients will benefit. In other cases, he writes, lucrative drug categories such as bone-strengthening hormone-replacement and osteoporosis medications have been marketed for treating what's often a normal aging process rather than a dangerous disease.