Words$$$

[Guest guest]

WORDS...

 

By Mary Starrett

July 2, 2004

NewsWithViews.com

 

" Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind " --

Rudyard Kipling

 

Listen closely. Read between the lines. You are being convinced, slowly

and deliberately that vitamin supplements are dangerous and that

pharmaceutical drugs are always your best bet.

 

Perhaps you've become aware of this upside-down logic. If not, I offer

you a few examples of how the masses are being systematically

brain-washed. Keep these examples in mind , it won't be long before

you're noticing some yourself.

 

Recently ABC News ran a rather lengthy piece about how " dangerous "

certain common herbal supplements are. The case in point was a woman

who'd had a kidney transplant. She took an herbal supplement containing

the age-old Black Cohosh root and whammo! She became deathly ill. What

ABC didn't discuss was that people who've had an organ transplant have

compromised systems that even too much water or table salt plays havoc

with. Never mind that. The not -so-subtle point the network was making

was this: Be afraid, be very afraid of anything the pharmaceutical

companies don't make a profit from!

 

This past week The Wall Street Journal screamed out headlines: " Watch

Out For Serious Interactions When Taking Drugs, Herbs " .

 

The story reported " a wave of recent studies is sparking concern about

the dangers of taking herbal supplements… " The article went on to list

the dangers of combining common herbal supplements with prescription

drugs. Instead of pointing out that pharmaceuticals cause the deaths

each year of over 100,000 people, media attention focuses on the

" dangers " of herbs people have been taking to help heal their bodies for

centuries.

 

What is perhaps most telling about why these types of stories are

hitting print and broadcast with greater frequency is simply this:

Vitamins and herbal supplements bring in well over $20 billion dollars a

year. The drug companies want a piece of the action. Therefore, expect

to see more and more attention focused on the " danger " ' of vitamins. The

next logical step will be the prescribing of these natural substances to

better " protect " the consumer. Once this happens, as it has in several

other countries, what were once easily-available non-prescription,

age-old healing substances like Ginko Biloba or St. John's Wort or even

Vitamin C will then become available only if a doctor prescribes them.

Since the vast majority of medical doctors in the United States hold

little store by the less-invasive natural remedies this does not bode

well for those of us who to the belief that the body can and

will heal itself if given the right nutritional support.

 

The Wall Street Journal story said " the growing interest in herb-drug

interactions comes as more Americans are popping herbal medications. "

" Popping. "

 

That's an interesting choice of words. In an era where we are encouraged

to take a pill ( " pop " one, if you will) for everything from heartburn

( " esophageal reflux disease " ) to shyness ( " social anxiety disorder " ) to

normal childhood energy levels ( " attention deficit hyperactivity

disorder " ) it seems odd that taking SUPPLEMENTS should be referred to as

" popping. " Why is it that term is never used to describe the taking of

prescription drugs?

 

Bayer (the pharmaceutical company now in the midst of trying to settle

unprecedented numbers of wildly expensive lawsuits over deaths related

to its cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol) now labels its (potentially

toxic) antibiotic Cipro with cautions against pairing the drug with

calcium-fortified orange juice! It would seem the public would be better

served all around with honest assessments of the dangers inherent in

these drugs themselves- with or without the juice chaser!

 

While anything paired with anything (grapefruit juice and certain heart

medications) can be dangerous, the big picture is that all of a sudden

" studies " showing the danger of things like Vitamin C (recently

debunked) and Ginseng are substantively disingenuous.

 

What is at the core of these misleading " studies " and the media frenzies

that inevitably follow is a commission established 40 years ago by the

World Health Organization to set " upper limits " of supplements. In other

words a world-wide goon squad is now working on determining just how

much Vitamin C you should be allowed to take. The Codex Alimentarius

gang isn't working on getting the word out about how damaging (FDA

approved!) food additives like Aspartame and MSG are…no! Neither are

they alerting consumers to the horrific side effects of

mercury-containing vaccines, or the very real possibility of having a

stroke while taking Hormone Replacement Therapy. Codex is working on

making sure you won't have access to too much Vitamin C…without a

prescription.

 

The Dear Abby advice column (now written by Jeanne Philips, daughter of

the late columnist Abigail Van Buren) today printed a letter from a

reader (uh huh) that went like this:

 

" Dear Abby, Our marriage was wonderful until my wife cut back on her

Premarin…now her libido is shot…. I'm really suffering…is there an

alternative to splitting up? "

 

It was signed: " Desperate in Arizona " Dear Abby, like Peter Jennings,

like countless other media sock puppets are nothing more than

mouthpieces for a highly-propagandizing pharmaceutical industry. This

wasn't even a disguised attempt at spin- damage control for a drug

(manufactured from PRE(gnant) MA(re) u RIN(e). That's right , the drug

Premarin ( a hormone replacement drug in a class of drugs shown to cause

serious risk of stroke in menopausal women) is in fact made from horse

urine.

 

The reason this little " letter " made it into an advice column with wide

readership? It's elementary. Recently the drug companies suffered a

major setback when news of the life-threatening side effects associated

with HRT came out.

 

You may also have seen similar damage control stories on the network

news which purported to " debunk " studies showing dangers of suicide and

suicide ideation among those who take antidepressants.

 

It's all about protecting the billions the drug giants make by lying to

consumers. It starts to make even more sense when you read about

President George Bush's initiative to " screen " Americans for mental

illness. Called New Frontiers, the object of the game here is to give

the pharmaceutical companies more market share. In a most unholy

political-pharmaceutical alliance, the drug companies have been

highly-connected to the Bush family for 3 generations. The elder Bush

served on the board of Eli Lily and President Bush appointed an Eli Lily

CEO (Sidney Taurel) to the Department of Homeland Security. How the

initiative works is simply to convince more people they need to be on

psychiatric medication. The well- documented dangers inherent with these

types of drugs, for obvious reasons, aren't being discussed in The Wall

Street Journal or on ABC News.

 

It shouldn't surprise you to note that the television networks and

newspapers running stories about ' killer' herbs and vitamins are

chock-full of ads for prescription drugs.

 

Rudyard Kipling was right… Words are, indeed the most powerful drug used

by mankind… Add newspeak to the mix and what was healthful has now

become " dangerous " … what is inherently toxic has now become good for

you.

 

And it's all about the $20 billion.

 

© 2004 Mary Starrett -