Mainstream Drugs are Neither Safe nor Effective

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For generations we have been told by mainstream medicine that their

drugs are safer and more effective than natural alternatives such as

those man has used for healing for thousands of years. Similarly, we

have been told that herbs and other natural alternatives are unproven,

usually of little or no value and often may be dangerous. History tells

us an entirely different story.Proponents of mainstream drugs

and critics of natural healing usually cite the lack of scientific

studies proving the effectiveness or safety of herbs and natural

alternatives. Likewise, mainstream drug advocates point to the wealth

of studies which prove the effectiveness and safety of patented

mainstream drugs. However, relatively few comprehensive studies have

been conducted on herbs other than to find a compound that can be

synthesized or uniquely isolated so it can be patented and profited

from by the drug companies. Drug companies are by far the largest

source of funding for medical studies and the cost of such studies is a

huge barrier for natural alternatives. The FDA trial process costs

hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one can afford to get a natural

item approved that they cannot control. Whole herbs and extracts of

herbs that contain multiple compounds found in nature cannot be

patented.Despite the complicated, expensive and time consuming

process of getting FDA approval, many point to all the harmful drugs

that have been approved as an indication that the system is deeply

flawed and rigged in favor of those who have the money. It has been

shown that studies tend to return positive results for the funders up

to eight times more often than independent studies on the same item.The

FDA approval process did not prevent us from having rigged studies on

Vioxx. Nor did it prevent rigged studies for decades on the safety -

and even claimed health benefits - of smoking cigarettes. Those are

just two examples in a very long list of drugs and other items

mainstream science told us were safe but weren`t. For example:

thalidomide, heroin, opium, cocaine, Avandia, Fosamax, Prozac, Paxil,

Aleve, Bextra, Aspartame . . the list goes on and on.Another

problem with mainstream medical studies is the apparent lack of quality

standards employed by pharmaceutical companies in selecting doctors who

oversee drug testing. A New York Times investigation in 2007 found that

in Minnesota alone at least 103 doctors who had been disciplined or

criticized by the state medical board received a total of $1.7 million

from drug makers between 1997 to 2005. The median payment over that

period was $1,250; the largest was $479,000.One such doctor was

Dr. Faruk Abuzzahab, whom the Minnesota Medical board accused of a

" reckless, if not willful, disregard " for the welfare of 46 patients, 5

of whom died in his care or shortly afterward. The board suspended his

license for seven months and restricted it for two years after that.

One of Dr. Abuzzahab`s patients was David Olson, whom the psychiatrist

tried repeatedly to recruit for clinical trials. Drug makers paid Dr.

Abuzzahab thousands of dollars for every patient he recruited. In July

1997, when Mr. Olson again refused to be a test subject, Dr. Abuzzahab

discharged him from the hospital even though he was suicidal, records

show. Mr. Olson committed suicide two weeks later.Mainstream medicine assures us that their drugs are more effective than

nature and that they have been scientifically proven to be both

effective and safe. What mainstream medicine does not tell us is how

they have rigged studies, withheld evidence of harm and paid doctors to

prescribe their drugs.The drug industry has been riddled with

scandal again and again - including faked studies, rigged studies,

hidden evidence of dangers, ghostwritten articles, fake medical

journals, sex scandals, and much more. Merck, Vioxx. Pfizer, Avantis,

GlaxoKilineSmith, Baxter Labs, the list goes on and on and on and

leaves virtually no major pharmaceutical company untouched:http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/f...http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extr...

All

one has to do to get an idea of how riddled with scandal the drug

industry has been is to do a simple internet search for " drug company

scandals " . Absolutely shameful!The latest example:http://www.healthiertalk.com/pfizer...Another

problem with mainstream drugs is the influence peddling of the

pharmaceutical companies to get doctors to prescribe their medicines.

Many doctors receive incentives for prescribing drugs - such as

honorariums, free lunches and other gifts, and even free massages and

cruise trips, to name a few. There have been a number of scandals

concerning drug companies essentially bribing doctors to prescribe

their drugs, and there have been many cries for reform to insure that

drugs are prescribed according to the patient's best interests and not

the financial interests of doctors and drug companies.Besides

all the incentives, some doctors make profits directly from the drugs

they prescribe, often with unhealthy consequences for their patients.

In an article that appeared in the New York Times in May 2007 it was

revealed that two of the world's largest drug companies are paying

hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for

giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be

unsafe at commonly used doses.The same article noted that: " Federal

laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that

are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies. But

companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs,

which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment. Doctors

receive the rebates after they buy the drugs from the companies. But

they also receive reimbursement from Medicare or private insurers for

the drugs, often at a markup over the doctors purchase price. " See: http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/...

No

wonder a Harris Poll found that only 13% of Americans believe that

pharmaceutical companies are " generally honest and trustworthy " .Sources included:http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/...

http://www.naturalnews.com/027962_P...The JOURNAL of the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000

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