Fwd: Big Pharma Wants to Control Your Health (Planetnews)

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This article is in our archives, but it is worth reading again.

 

F.

 

 

Mon, 1 Sep 2003 10:52:55 -0400

Big Pharma Wants to Control Your Health

(Planetnews)

 

Big Pharma wants to control your health

 

 

Drug Company Pays Over 1/2 Billion in Fines for Criminal Act

 

 

Abbott Laboratories plans to pay $622 million to settle an investigation

into marketing tactics used to sell liquids to feed people who are

seriously ill.

 

The company reportedly gave tubes and pumps used to administer the liquid

food to patients in exchange for large orders. Some recipients of the free

equipment were suspected of billing Medicaid and Medicare. Abbott earned

close to $600 million in the second quarter of 2002.

 

New York Times June 27, 2003

___

COMMENT:

 

Drug companies will use all sorts of underhanded tactics to market their

products to consumers.

 

In fact, drug companies will spend over $3 billion this year just to

advertise their drugs to consumers.

 

That may seem like a bunch of money, but it is peanuts compared to their

return.

 

Americans will spend over $500 billion on drugs this year.

 

$500 Billion.

 

Does anyone out there really believe that Americans are getting half a

trillion dollars of benefits from these drugs?

 

Drug companies are not stupid. They have been able to change the rules so

they can now market to consumers directly.

 

It is no wonder why two-thirds of doctor visits result in a drug being

prescribed.

 

This is one of the main reasons why spending for prescription drugs is the

fastest-growing category of health care expenditures.

 

It is also one of the major factors contributing to the reason physicians

are the third-leading cause of death in the United States, as they have an

over reliance on using drugs as Band-Aids, rather than seeking the cause

of the problem.

 

Fortunately, you do not have to capitulate. I encourage you to take

control over your own health.

 

NOW…read the article below to see how " Big Pharma " is trying to change

the rules again and stop you from doing this.

 

Paul

 

Supplement Regulation: Who's Behind It, and Why Should You Oppose It?

 

By Brian W. Vaszily

 

Let's make sure that all vitamin and herbal supplements are clinically

proven to do what they claim, and that they're safe, before they reach the

consumer. Let's ensure that their ingredients are closely monitored, and

that their labels and advertisements tell the truth and nothing but, so

that their consumption can be based on informed and confident decisions.

 

What pretty ideals. Pretty enough, in fact, for a host of politicians and

governments, and the pharmaceutical corporations that control them, to

hide a considerably more ugly agenda behind.

 

Right now a war is being fought over the regulation of supplements, with

the various battles at different stages in countries across the globe. The

European Union already passed its Food Supplements Directive in July of

2002, framing it on the principle that supplements should be proven safe

and effective in the same manner as pharmaceuticals. The UK did not

immediately implement this directive, but will do so come the end of this

month. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a host of other nations are

involved in their own battles, and here in the U.S. Senator Dick Durbin's

proposed " Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003, " one of the first shots

in what will undoubtedly become a mounting campaign.

 

In general, the claim behind these bills and directives supporting tighter

(and tighter and tighter) restrictions on supplements is that they will

make the world a safer place for us, the consumers. Yeah, and so would

military occupation of our towns and cities. In reality, it will have a

polar effect on our health and safety. And it will be chilling.

 

Keeping You on the Motherland

On a routine basis, Cubans attempt to escape their homeland on boats bound

for U.S. shores. The ocean waters are certainly not safe, and there are

rarely any guarantees waiting for them here. Nonetheless, the potential,

the possibilities, are a far better option than the dangerously flawed

regime they are trying to leave behind.

 

This is an apt metaphor in this situation. Because if one thing is certain

it is this: the conventional healthcare system, our Cuba, is seriously

diseased. It is dominated by industries who are motivated by profit and

who therefore foster whatever will most increase their profits, your

health be damned. For example, processed food is far cheaper to produce,

deliver and store than much healthier whole foods, and so it's processed

foods that are dumped en masse into our supermarkets, restaurants and

brains. And prescription drugs that merely treat symptoms versus prevent

or cure the underlying causes are a whole lot more profitable because,

well, when they keep you coming back for more and more treatment, they've

made a customer for life.

 

Most people, meanwhile, have been brainwashed by this conventional

healthcare regime. They don't even realize their daily habits like eating

are the primary part of their healthcare, and so it's quite easy for their

habits and assumptions to be manipulated by the regime. Only when they get

sick or overweight does their perception of healthcare, fostered by the

pharmaceutical companies and others on that side of the regime, kick in:

they will go to the doctor to get a prescription to " save " them. And these

days, in almost 70% of all patient visits, physicians do indeed give them

the drugs they crave. But if that doesn't work, if things get serious or

seriously inconvenient, they move on to surgery. Of course, most

prescription drugs and surgeries, reflecting conventional healthcare as a

whole, have nothing to do with prevention and addressing the causes of

illness -- they're all about merely treating symptoms so people can move

on with their unhealthy lifestyles and get more symptoms that need

treating. It's great for repeat business.

 

Some people, however, are aware of the deadly downward spiral of the

conventional healthcare system. They are refugees from an oppressive

system, to be blunt about it, seeking better alternatives to prevent and

cure illness, and live longer. And here is the key point of the matter

that's caused this recent surge in opposition to supplements: their

numbers are increasing dramatically, and they are finding those better

alternatives.

 

Between 1997 and 2001, there was a 15% increase in sales of

vitamin/mineral supplements. In 2002, the overall market for the

alternatives to prescription drugs, processed and fast food, and surgery

-- that is, natural/organic foods, dietary supplements and other natural

products -- was $37 billion.

 

Those numbers, that attempt to escape from conventional healthcare's

stranglehold, is what is behind the recent worldwide war being waged on

the leader among alternatives at over $17 billion annually, supplements.

And it's those dictators at the top of conventional medicine, such as the

pharmaceutical companies and the governments they own, driving this war.

You see, all these alternates like supplements are actually getting people

to believe they can prevent illness and avoid trips to doctors' offices,

and it's starting to make a dent in their mega-profits, and threatens to

make a much bigger dent.

 

They want to blockade your passage to potentially better shores and force

you to stay in their Cuba. They'll put it in pretty terms of course, try

to package it as something else like " safety, " but that's what they're

trying to do, and already in Europe, apparently succeeding in doing.

 

Let the Deadly Dictators Do the Dictating?

Thomas Moore, a senior fellow in health policy at the George Washington

University Medical Center, estimates that prescription drugs -- those

reviewed and approved by the FDA -- contribute to 100,000 U.S. deaths each

year. One prominent reason for this that I'll visit in an upcoming article

is that the entire research and approval process for new drugs is a hoax

-- in short, drug makers now pay private for-profit companies to do the

clinical studies establishing safety, and the drug companies have a major

say in what is and is not reported. Meanwhile, who knows how many deaths

they indirectly contribute to by veering people toward an over-dependency

on their quick " fixes " and away from a preventative and curative approach

to health?

 

On another front, the overweight/obesity epidemic, fed by other giants

profiting heartily on their thrones in the healthcare motherland, is now

directly linked to 300,000 deaths per year.

 

Sure, everybody's " gotta' go sometime, " but the numbers above -- only a

very partial list, mind you -- are far too many going far too soon because

they are trapped in the conventional health paradigm. Meanwhile, even

Senator Dick Durbin, in his 03/26/03 press release promoting his Dietary

Supplement Safety Act, states that " scientific reports have linked ephedra

and similar dietary supplements to 117 deaths and more than 17,000 other

health related problems. "

 

You do the math. In fact, go ahead and play devil's advocate by assuming

that the number of deaths resulting from conventional health are overblown

-- perhaps it's only a couple hundred thousand yearly total -- while those

from supplements are too conservative -- perhaps it's actually several

hundred yearly total. And then do the math.

 

Where does the real problem that needs addressing reside?

 

It is precisely those at the heart of this problem that want to " regulate "

supplements.

 

Pardon me for stepping out of the party line, but why would I possibly

trust them to make the supplement industry " safe and effective " when I see

the monster they've created with conventional healthcare? Why would you?

 

So What Should You Be Swallowing?

None of this is to say, " So trust everything the supplement makers tell

you and consume, consume, consume! "

 

There are a lot of exaggerated claims, inconsistent ingredients between

supposedly like products, and other confusion surrounding supplements. I'm

sure you wish you could walk into any old store, or log onto any Web site,

and know for certain that when an herbal claimed it could help prevent

disease, restore youth, and repel rude people, those claims would be

backed by solid clinical evidence. But you can't.

 

For that matter, I'm sure you wish you could trust the big businesses and

governments to fairly and honestly test vitamins and herbals so we could

make more informed and confident decisions in this respect. But then you

learn things like this: a major study undertaken to discredit the herbal

St. John's wart in 2001 received " unrestricted funding " from the

pharmaceutical company Pfizer. St. John's wort, an anti-depressant, has

sales of over $400 million per year, cutting a niche into the profit of

Pfizer's prescription anti-depressant Zoloft, and Pfizer doesn't like to

lose profit. It's not the first or last time a supplement was discredited

in an " independent " study that received major pharmaceutical company

dollars. Of course, such knowledge (and there's a lot more of it to be

had) entirely shoots down any trust in the conventional healthcare

establishment.

 

And so all that's left is reality. And reality is, you must trust your

judgment more than any other person or institution when it comes to your

health. That means doing whatever you feel is necessary to trust a

supplement enough to try it -- researching its claims and source, or

fnding a source you trust to recommend the proper supplements to you.

 

When doing your own " due diligence " to research a supplement, it's

obviously worthwhile to obtain third-party information about the product,

such as the research and evidence offered, versus just being inspired by

the claims on the product package or advertisement. A host of other

supplements may be necessary for those with certain conditions, and it's

worth searching this site by inputting the name of whatever condition you

are interested in to find more information.

 

To conclude, there are two choices today: the main choice, the

conventional healthcare paradigm, and the alternatives, which include

supplements. The main choice, being rather deadly, is really no choice at

all. Meanwhile, some of these alternatives are indeed pure nonsense,

others are questionable, and some have already been proven as sound and

worthwhile. But the point is, we all have the capacity, and at least some

of us still have the legal ability, to choose from among these alternatives.

 

The bills and directives across the world to " regulate " supplements are

being pushed by the same powers-that-be that turned conventional

healthcare into a sick joke for their own greedy ends. With " regulation, "

they would be the ones controlling the alternatives... and so go the

alternatives.

 

Or to put it back into the Cuban metaphor, it's as if Fidel Castro himself

announced to all those trying to escape his oppressive regime that he will

now be running a refugee ferryboat service to the shores of Florida. All

aboard?

 

Me, I'll take my chances swimming.