New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says over the past 10 years the number of Americans using prescription drugs has increased.

Over those ten years, the number of people taking at least one prescription drug increased ten-percent.

"We've noticed an increase in the number of prescriptions we fill," said William Bucy, a pharmacist at Medicine Arts in Bowling Green.

Pharmacists have noticed it and so have doctors.

"People will ask for more things," said Kevin Kelly, M.D., a pediatrician in Bowling Green. "They're doing more internet searches. They want to be covered for things. There's fear of Staph infections, strep infections, and sort of the immediate need to feel better is probably your biggest driver."

They say there could be several reasons behind it.

"Patients nowadays will see different doctors for their different health conditions, and sometimes they may have two different doctors prescribing them a medication to treat the same condition," said Bucy.

Which is why Bucy says it's important for the patients to have one main pharmacist who can keep an eye on everything they are prescribed, and doctors say, more people are asking for medicine that they sometimes do not need.

"You think you want it," said Kelly. "What if you have an allergic reaction to it? So there's plusses and minuses to doing it. We need to make the judgement and be strong enough to tell you you don't need it."

One other part of the study focused on those who take five or more prescription drugs.

That number of Americans increased 70-percent, but Bucy says that's not really shocking.

"It may be skewed a little bit," said Bucy. "In our population people are living longer now, and as people tend to get over 70, 75 years old, they're taking multiple medications for multiple different conditions. I think a lot of them if you take a blood pressure medicine, a cholesterol pill, if they have diabetes, it can add up to over five pretty quickly."

Within the study, it was found that women more than men take prescription medications.