One of these, a couple of those - more and more Americans are taking multiple prescription drugs.
"The number of people using five or more medications has increased by 70 percent," according to Pharmacist Macary Marciniak of the University of North Carolina's Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
A new report from the CDC finds prescription drug use has risen for all age groups in the past decade. Pharmacists say they're not surprised.
"It confirms what we see every day in practice. Many pharmacists will tell you that they have seen this increase in prescription drug use every year," said Marciniak.
According to the report, nearly half of all Americans have taken at least one prescription drug within the past month.
Asthma medications are most commonly used by children, while drugs to control attention deficit disorder were most common among teens.
Antidepressants were given most often to middle-aged adults. And 90 percent of older Americans were on a prescription, usually cholesterol drugs.
What the study did not look at was the use of over-the-counter drugs and herbal supplements. With so many patients now taking multiple medications, Marciniak warned that the potential for harm is now even greater than before.
"The more prescription medications someone's taking or the more non-prescription medications they're taking, the more they're at risk for a medication-related problem."
Problems can range from dangerous interactions to overdoses if the same ingredients are found in more than one drug.
In a time when many medications are picked up at a drive-through window, pharmacists say the best prescription for drug safety is to get out of the car and consult with the experts directly.
Spending for prescription drugs reached $234 billion in 2008. That's more than double what it was in 1999.
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